Starry Night Thoughts

So I read "A Court of Thorns and Roses"...

...and I didn't like it.

*braces self for oncoming death*

I'll just start out with a warning so y'all know what you're about to get into. This is not my type of book, under basically any circumstances. The genre and retelling aspect= A++ in terms of things I like to read (ignoring the execution) but this book hit literally every check mark of what angers me with fantasy retellings/books in general. I almost threw it across the room multiple times. The only thing that stopped me was the book is in my phone and I need my phone for phone stuff.

I'm basically destroying it as I go with this, so if you actually like this book and don't want to witness someone tearing it to shreds, this is your heads up.

This thing follows Feyre. She's poor and pretty much your run of the mill YA protagonist. Her mother is dead, Nesta, her sister is kinda a jerk, Elain, her other sister is far too positive, and her dad's just about useless. He lost his fortune years before and since then they've been barely getting by, thanks to Feyre hunting.

The first thing I questioned, literally before anything else started up, was why I was already being concerned-- or the author was trying to concern me-- with sex. Like, before we get to know her good, Feyre is talking about going and having sex with Issac Hale in an old barn. From what I remember, she mentions this while she's mentioning how starving her family is. In my personal opinion, this shouldn't be a concern of hers. It should honestly be one of the last things in her mind, if they're as bad off as it seems. Yes, they each helped each other with parts of their life, but when do I need to be concerned about her love life immediately after getting introduced to her? This isn't / shouldn't be a defining character traits at this point, but it is. And gosh darn it if it isn't a theme through the rest of this.

Get on track, Noa.

Feyre is hunting and shoots a wolf.  While she shoots this wolf, she thinks there's a possibility it is a faerie. She doesn't like faeries. She has very choice words for them. Eventually, she decides that no, it is not a faerie and she doesn't care if it is. Feyre kills it and skins it for its fur.

Later after we're introduced her family, her house is barged into by guess what, a faerie. This guy is NOT happy about Feyre killing the wolf, who was his friend and in fact, a faerie. He then tells her about a Treaty that's effectively life for life, and that she has to die. Since she has the guts (no pun intended) to ask he do it outside, he gives her a loophole-- come with him to Prythian, which is where the faeries live and live out the rest of her days there. She decides to take the route with less death, and goes with him.

I call Prythian "Fairytown." It'll probably stay that way.

While she's in Fairytown, she's told that she can leave the castle the wolf guy brought her to, but it really won't be a good idea. Feyre does NOT like the faeries and wants nothing to do with them. She actively insults them.
Hatred is a very good word for this.

You come to find out that the wolf guy's name is Tamlin. It sounds like a brand name of something else to me, but I digress. There's also another dude there who seems to hate her as much as she hates them. His name is Lucien. He's probably the best character in this entire book and gets far too little page time.

I just-- ok. So, while she's at the castle and hating these people, she describes Tamlin constantly. Most of the time with every form of the word "muscle" (more on that later).

But what I want to know kinda follows from the whole sex question. Like, if she hates these people do much, why is she constantly eyeballing Tamlin and talking about how good looking he is? It's a ridiculous amount and makes no sense regarding the character. She is almost always checking out the muscles in his back and arms.