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After countless and annoying recommendation from the fandom I gave in, and read it. I will be objective here, because I've read so many opposing opinions about this book and I would like to help others to whether read it or not.
I chose this book because I wanted to ease my mind from a series of exams and the stress of moving, and just having an exciting reading but I did not expected this. I really try to set my feeling aside and just tell you all that this books is just beautiful. Not in a usual way, to be honest, but I felt this story. I liked how I engaged in this book after struggling to read anything! Mind that I don't have a particular taste in books, I like Russian realism, historical fiction, fantasy, Jane Austen, everything besides horror or thrillers. This book won't save the world but maybe will save you from anxiety in which I suffer a lot lately. It just swallowed me, I really wanted to know how the story unfolds, what are the world's rules, who are the characters etc. It is not overly complicated, which is good if you don't like fantasy worlds with hard to follow lore. I liked how intimate it was at some point, it showed how enjoyable life can be, how strong feelings can be and how some feelings give us strenghts.
This book can be pretty boring if it is not your first fairy fantasy but if you barely read books like this I really recommend to start here. The intimate scenes can be really spicy but not graphic! but an adult mind can handle it, I guess. Try to read this book with open mind and heart and try not to hate it on the first page already. I used to hate ACOTAR because of the fandom as it came across my feed hundred times, booktok is obsessed with it, but I let myself to decide whether is it a good story or not. And yes. This is a good story.
Graphic: Death, Blood, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Murder
Minor: Medical trauma
Moderate: Death, Sexual content, Kidnapping, Medical trauma
Graphic: Animal death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Sexual harassment
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Excrement, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Animal death, Death, Emotional abuse, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
The MC is incredibly bland and at first none of the plot or relationships made any sense. I had a LOT of eye rolling and it wasn't until the end that I realized that MC is bland for a REASON. Having a blank canvas character allows the reader to project themselves into the story more easily...which is probably why people like it so much. Yearning, romance, sex - its all much more fun when you can imagine your self as the recipient.
And for that the book did its job. Its a wonderful YA y/n self insert self indulgent book. The spice level is pretty low - the 1.5 scenes were short, laced with metaphors and not particularly racy. But I come from the land AO3.
The plot was kind of weird, especially the last third with the trials. It seems the second and third books are better BUT i will not be reading them because there are more compelling love stories with muh better sex, slow burn and enemies to lovers.
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Genocide, Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail
Graphic: Confinement, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Murder, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, War, Injury/Injury detail
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Classism
Graphic: Animal death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Moderate: Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, War
Minor: Cursing