ThatOneReader's Book Club discussion

Hello everyone :)
since someone suggested it, I guess we could discuss the thought of some people that Sarah is problematic. I personally have read only three of her books (and loved them <3) so I do not know if I'm in position to judge. You guys, though?

I mean I'm personally not a big fan and I'm sort of on the more she's problematic side

well, I love her books.. but am I stupid or just blinded?? because I don't understand ho she is problematic? I saw someone say that her books weren't real high fantasy and all that but I'm siting here who reads high fantasy and sci-fi and all genres and..maybe I'm not understanding where this all came from??

Well, there have been theories that she doesn't treat her characters well, she kills off characters who belomg in the minorities and in general puts a lot of misogynistic elements into her world. I do not know if this is all true. We have certainly seen characters have bad amdsexist opinions on women but these characters are bad and wrong ij general, so it's not like shr actaully 'promotes' it. I do not know. Any other thoughts?

oh...so then why aren't people saying other artists are problematic for killing their characters..or for pretty much writing there story? I guess I really don't understand....and I'm trying to. ;^;

I mean my personal feelings on her aren't very favourable I really enjoyed throne of glass but it sort of slid down for me after there her books aren't very diverse first of all and the LGBTQA+ character is literally called the whore of ardalan and since he's bi she literally only shows him being attracted to girls in the storyline but out of here refers to him having liked guys too if he did before he still does why can we not get a character he likes they also have a diversity issue with POC namely that's there barely any and one of the few people who could be classified as POC (not naming her name for spoilers sake ) was killed off and it's currently my opinion that the relationship Aelin is currently in can be seen as abusive (again can't name names cause spoilers) and it really sucks in my opinion seeing a great world and Aelin being dragged down like this sorry if this turned into a rant I just thought I'd get all my opinions out at once

I definitely think she's super overrated. I hated ToG, ACOTAR and ACOMAF. My biggest thing, and this goes for other YA authors, why make a much much older guy fall in love with a teenage girl? It's in Twilight, ACOTAR and many other YA books. I think this can send a bad message to young girls.

Elisa wrote: "I definitely think she's super overrated. I hated ToG, ACOTAR and ACOMAF. My biggest thing, and this goes for other YA authors, why make a much much older guy fall in love with a teenage girl? It's..."
same i feel like it seems unhealthy and it sort of creeps me out that in the first book that they meet in (view spoiler)[she and him describe themselves as brother and sister and their blood bond thing does that as well and suddenly they wanna sleep together just creeps me out (hide spoiler)]

Ahhhh, I see. I understand. I mean I still like the story she is writing. and the same with Cassandra Clare's drama. I like the story she tells and want to know what happens. and like..reading what people find that they don't like about SJM or any author that I personally like makes me feel bad for liking the book because I do enjoy the story. and see when I'm writing my novel..there is a story I want to write and it's constantly in the back of my head these issues that you stated above. Like, do i represent LGQBT (I'm so sorry if I did that wrong!) characters to where people feel represented realistically even if I'm not LGQBT my self? or is there enough diversity for everyone to be represented besides my point of view as being a mixed race? or since I grab inspiration from example culture did I do enough research to were no one would be offended ?
like even now I see a few people hate (or rant??) about JK Rowling and her use of Native American inspirations for her American school, because she didn't do enough research about their culture.
For me, it's very discouraging (or intemidating) to finish my book or to put my own opinion on a book that everyone seems to hate and I actually like. Or to even have my novel printed because (this is my own weakness) there will be a huge backlash, like I have seen for a book that hasn't even been published yet.

I'm sorry I went on a rant! and I went off topic but it's hard to have a good conversation on the general updates dash without people being disrepectful to each other. So again, thank you for having the patience to talk to me about this difficult topic in general. I like to hear both sides of point of views!

I literally have no idea what to say on the matter. Yes, SJM has protrayed Aedion and a lot of other characters wrong but I know a lot of people who are LGBTQIAP+ , women and POC and still think her books do not actually represent problematically the characters. Besides, aftee ACOMAF was released, people started to say that her portrayal of mental illness (specifically PTSD) and other issues was the best they've read about. At the same time though, there have been tragic mistakes to the portrayal of some characters. I don't really think I can judge since I have not read EVERYTHING she's written but if she truly is problematic, the truth will probably come out. If she isn't, the wave of anti-fans will just stop. We'll see how it goes I guess. There are still books of her to come out and she may actually correct her mistakes in one way or another. I personally liked her TOG series bery much up to where I've read but we'll see how it goes

I love Tog but my biggest problem with her books is that her characters are normally described as really attractive, which I understand because when you write you're able to make characters like that but I still think we need some normal looking characters. I think that there are some characters like this but they're probably just minor characters and not really important, which in my opinion sends a negative impression.

Spoilers for Queen of shadows:


If we think about it everyone in Aelin's court is good looking

I agree with you, Lin. I usually do not like 'perfect' characters and Sarah's characters are all indeed flawless, which bugs me. But that happens in quite a lot of YA books so I guess we shall not only judge her for that. Another probelm is that her books are 'YA' but have so mucgh sex and blood they shall be considered 'NA'

You just have to read my reviews of her books to understand what's wrong and why I don't like her. I'm not even gonna waste my time talking about her. I am so done.

well, since I have not read the rest of her books I cannot truly judge if they indeed take a turn for the worst the more they proceed.
I'll see when I read the rest I guess

I agree with all points mentioned above. and I guess it's really up to the person who reads it how they feel about it. (and I totally agree she should change the genre to NA because like some of it gets a little WOO ) but yeah just gotta give it a shot.

but thank you for letting me bring up this.topic again!

What I think is that we shall be neutral with the books. Some people love them and some others hate them
Those who hate them shall know that they DO have some good points
and those who love them shall be aware that they DO have some problematic points
this way, there will be peace in the bookish community ♥

I agree! I just brought it up and wanted to talk about it because I didn't understand why a lot of people didn't like them. and why they were deleting people from their friend list because of her books. But I get it now!

I agree with Mary because I still love ToG, I think the whole world building and story telling is quite good :) even though it has some problems

I agree with rating her as New Adult than Young Adult, not because there's sex scenes, but because of how they're written. Although I will say I hated the execution of the sex scenes in ACOMAF because the dialogue was terrible (like almost 50 Shades bad) and overall they were too over the top.

Well in that case we all believe they shall also move to the NA genre

Yes I'll agree with both ideas

Sooooo
What do you guys want to read for May?

I know that a lot of new releases are coming out in May

For example:

Always and forever Lara Jean
Lord of Shadows
Trials of Apollo book 2
ACOWAR

(The one I'm planning to read is always and forever Lara Jean)

Well, I'd suggest we read somethimg all of us can catch up with
For example, if someone has not read TDA, they can't read Lord of Shadows
So I'd say we choose something all of us can read

That's a good idea :)

Any books any of you guys have to suggest?

For May..oh man I was gonna read all those new releases lol!! but one we can all read? well I haven't read the Young Elites yet!

Me neither!
Shall we?

Who else likes the idea?

Can I suggest Caraval?

Lin wrote: "Can I suggest Caraval?"

Yeah, you can ♥
I'll make a poll with all the suggestions :D
I will be the last to suggest

I actually just read Caraval recently it's quite good

Ohhh. them what do you suggest?

Caraval was ok I read it last month

Then what do you guys want to read?
Suggest something :)
We'll have Caraval and Young Elites in the poll

I was thinking we could read Loki's Wolves by K L Armstrong it's supposed to be sort like Percy Jackson and it's he first in a series called the Blackwell Pages

I'll add that too then <3
I'll make the poll this week :)

I suggest the Scorpio Races xD
And the poll is here https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/1...

Are we allowed to vote for our own suggestion?

Yes we are :)
since thr suggestions are only four, I mean xD

since very few people voted, I suggest everyone shall read each one of the books they want <3

okay! I was wondering what the poll results were!

Okie :)