Review by tinysierra - Fated

tinysierra 's review for:

Fated by Alyson Noël

1.0

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

TLDR:

Poorly written.
Full of cultural appropriation.
Transphobic. Heteronormative. Ableist.
Read Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas instead :)

“Besides, everyone knows Demons crave tobacco.”

You’re so right bestie. Points for that. Tobacco does seem like something demons would eat.

I loved this book when I was younger. The world was so intriguing to me. I loved the idea of spirit animals and connection to the elements. I remember liking the characters and romance.

So… it was really surprising to me when I decided to reread this as an adult and saw the t slur 15 pages in. Now, I know a lot of the shows growing up had transphobia in it, but I guess I didn’t realize it was so obvious in the books I read, too. Gross.

This book also reads a lot like cultural appropriation. I believe Alyson Noël is white and doesn’t have any ties to Hispanic or Native American cultures. It’s important for marginalized people to tell their own stories rather than white people co-opting experiences that aren’t theirs.

The writing is not great. On some pages, the dialogue takes up 50-80% of the text. Surely there were other ways to get the message across than having characters speak in long monologues? The pacing is off, too.

The mean girls are stereotypical and unrealistic. Of course. A requirement for 2000s YA.

It’s very much insta-love. Dace is literally Daire’s dream boyfriend. She always tries to brush him off when they see each other in reality, until the end where they have to team up together and then they’re suddenly dating.

(I found it really interesting that the Goodreads girlies were complaining that long haired guys aren’t attractive. Isn’t long hair part of Native American culture? Anyway, everyone has their own interests and it’s fine but something about their annoyance about a male character having long hair being described as attractive combined with the lack of outrage over the t slur being used gives me red flags.)

I remember thinking that Xotichl was an interesting character. She’s visually impaired and uses a cane, but she can sense auras of people near her like synthenstasia. For the most part, she isn’t treated as less than by the main characters around her. She has a boyfriend, but she is her own character separate from him, capable of doing things on her own.

The characters use ableist words “freak” and “psycho” a lot and threaten to institutionalize Daire when she has terrible visions.

I wish that there were less pre-established relationships in the book because we don’t get to see them fall in love and bond. These established relationships show that Daire is an outsider stepping into a place that has been going on without her, but even the main relationship between Daire and Dace has already been laid down.

I mean… it was poorly written but not so bad that I couldn’t finish the book. Maybe it’s the nostalgia. I would give it 3 stars for personal enjoyment.

I appreciate that despite part of the setting taking place in a bar/club, none of the main characters actively drink.

I would not recommend buying this book in the year 2023 and beyond when there are much better ones out there. Please read stories by marginalized authors!

Content Warnings