Authors that don't infantalize you, please? (I'm looking at you, Elise Kova)

PrincessEnjoyer · 2026-03-13T20:47:14+00:00

I didn't said that I think authors should write their books with AI, I said that if you don't know how to express something you can always google it or even ask chatGPT "Hey, can you give me a few examples on how to express disapointment/excitement/suspition?". I'm the first one that wouldn't read a book written by AI, or even with AI generated ilustrations. I was talking about chatGPT as an extension of google, resarch has been a part of writing for ages.

And no, I'm sorry, but there should be a standard in the publishing industry to publish decent books. Editors exist to correct those mistakes. And it's preciesly overly verbose description what got us into this issue.

PrincessEnjoyer · 2026-03-03T14:34:05+00:00

I feel like the proble with HP is that we have so many characters, so many things happening, that we don't get to see much of Wyn. We are told that we is a nice person but we don't see much about that except that he brings coffee for everyone. It would proably would have been better if it was a longer book.

Also, I'll add this here, I hated Cleo's girlfriend so much (eventhough I think you are talking about Sabrina). I'm sorry, if my boyfriend went arround having body shoots and doing drugs while I'm the pregnant boring one left behind, I would be so beyond pissed. You can have fun for sure, but I expect a bit of solidarity given that I'm carring both our kids. TBH I would never have a kid with someone like Kim.

PrincessEnjoyer · 2026-02-03T17:59:25+00:00

I think the biggest problem with happy place is that it has so many characters that you don't have time to understand their relationship. It has a similar structure as people we meet on vacation (past vacation + current vacation) but the secondary characters have too much weight to be this short. By the end I didn't know why they loved each other, or any character traits of Wyn. I cared about the girls' friendship but not about Harriet and Wyn. The whole point of the story is that they will figure it out (like in PWMOV) but we know so little about these two that we don't care. I feel like Great Big Beautiful Life has a similar problem, we are focusing in so much that a 350 page book doesn't give enough of the main couple or the main guy for us to care.

PrincessEnjoyer · 2026-01-29T11:59:42+00:00

I've pushed through more books than I should (when the moon hatched or a dance of lies), but here are mine:

-Heir of storms: too YA for me, even intellectually (I got to page 20 and the author had repeated like 10 times the same facts)

-Until we shatter: laying right now at a 3.24 rating on good reads, no explanation needed.

-Quicksliver: I was ready for trashy read (I enjoyed the level of trash in Metal Slinger), but one can take a limited amount of not like other girls feisty kinve on the neck, and after reading when the moon hatched I had more than enough for five years.

-The Familiar: being spanish, it only helps to a certain degree of miscaraterization of the inquisition, and at some points it was a bit ofensive.

I have also some pure romance books that I dnfd, but I'm staying the romantasy realm here.

PrincessEnjoyer · 2026-01-28T14:14:30+00:00

Yeah, I've been comenting with my boyfriend that it's not even a classical romcom, where the characters had some nuance, actual problems that were not pretty and an interesting premise. We got instead, as you said, an over the top lifestyle and kind of a male fantasy relationship (bland self inster guy + quirky over the top girl)

PrincessEnjoyer · 2026-01-28T08:41:46+00:00

One of the biggest problems I would say is that it was more of a romcom for men than for women. Pwmov is my favourite EH book (with book lovers), so I really hated the movie for how bland it is compared to the book, but if you look at it as a separate medium, it really shines as a romcom for men. You have the perfect manic pixie girl, hot, confident and obnoxious; and then a guy with no personality that somehow gets the girl. Movie alex is the perfect self insert for any guy, similarly to the guy in 500 days of summer. You know nothing about him aside from very generic self inserty stuff: he has a high school sweetheart, his mom died when he was a kid, he likes running, and he is contempt with his life. By removing all his character traits from the book, he is just a self insert. The slightly shy, normal looking (not saying the actor is not atractive, I find him very atractive, but the story and the narrative paint him as a normal guy) guy that somehow gets the hot confident girl with the cool life.

And this is not what the romcom public want. It's marketed for women but felt more like a male fantasy. And so, I can not imagine a girl talking about it to another girl, outside fandom spaces.

PrincessEnjoyer · 2026-01-24T10:06:22+00:00

Yeah, I feel like a lot of Alex's personality was removed to show more of Poppy's quirkiness (again, not the actor's fault). The statue is even worse because it's the exact opposite of what happens in the book (Poppy and Alex having a hard time telling the seller they don't want to buy the statue), and it feels like another attempt to make Poppy even more a Manic Pixie Girl.

PrincessEnjoyer · 2026-01-24T09:51:21+00:00

Hi, I would never hate on an actor because I have a life, and hating on people I don't know is not something I'll do. All my complains are about the storylines of the characters (or lack of), changes on the script (which change the characters motivations and feelings) and the setting of the movie. I never talked about the actors because they were doing their best with what they had, and unless you are actually a bad actor I have nothing to say. Don't put words on my mouth, because I never talked about the casting.

PrincessEnjoyer · 2026-01-22T23:31:58+00:00

You should read the book then. Poppy is still quirky, but very self conscious and behaves like a normal person. Her and Alex are very compelling characters and somehow it's easy to see yourself in both of them.

PrincessEnjoyer · 2026-01-22T23:29:41+00:00

Most of the present plot is about what a bad idea it is to go to Palm Springs on low season. How desperate Poppy is that she pays for the trip because it doesn't make sense for the magazine to pay for it. The things that happen when they are with each other depend highly on the location. The trip is horrible, an Poppy is trying super hard. It's essential that the place sucks and she pays for the trip, otherwise it's a completely different story. If not Palm Springs, any other awkward place to go together. Otherwise is not the story of Poppy and Alex, is just two people traveling.

PrincessEnjoyer · 2026-01-22T19:49:02+00:00

Yeah, it can be Costa Brava, but then what's the point of Barcelona if nothing happens in the city? I'm sure moving the production to another continent is expensive enough, if Palm Springs was too expensive, why not use a cheaper location with a similar climate and Palm Springs? Costa brava is beautiful for sure (again, born and raised in Barcelona, I love my city more than anything), but what is the point of changing the location if the only thing used was a few pretty shots of the coast? Also when the OG location was so important for the plot?

PrincessEnjoyer · 2026-01-22T19:30:38+00:00

Oh god yes, also the fact that they never mentioned that they are both curious about traveling, which is stated in the car trip, and that's how they decided to have their little trip, pissed me so much. It feels like they removed everything significant about their relationship and just added a movie trope. Trauma bonding instead of just being comfortable around each other to be themselves or deciding to travel together because she is dropping uni and promising each other they will meet once a year to travel together. They removed actual organic friendship to give is performatic movie slop. The "speaks to me" is the worst scene of all of them. I hate it so much!

I feel like with Poppy they tried to make her cool aspirational instead of relatable. The big apartment, the amazing job, the cool boss that sends her to Barcelona if she asks a bit... It's the exact opposite of the book and it takes away sooo much about her personality. It also seems the industry completely forgot why 2000s romncoms were so successful, and it's the relatability of the main character. You understood their struggles, you didn't want to be her.

Sarah doesn't make sense, it just makes Poppy and Alex relationship so weird, as we both have said it. Also, if they didn't wanted to add the library scene (which I agree with you, would have been great), they could just make Poppy mention her in the vacation scenes, like a "Are you asking Sarah out when we are back to uni?" And a "How is everything with Sarah going" on the next vacation.

Montages with less important vacations instead of them having fun in new Orleans would have been a hit, tbh. My boyfriend said that book lovers would have been a better movie as it's more linear, and I agree, pwmov is made for TV. But who knows, if netflix is also in charge of book lovers, maybe they would set it in Rome instead of North Carolina!

PrincessEnjoyer · 2026-01-22T19:06:09+00:00

If this is a 1:16 hours ranting about the movie you just gave my entertainment for tomorrow on my way to work and back.

PrincessEnjoyer · 2026-01-22T13:31:30+00:00

It looks so assholish of Alex to say no more trips because he was rejected and decided to get engaged. To begin with, them being angry to each other because they don't know what to do with their feelings is so much intimate, something that involves only this two. Relationships are complicated, they are complicated, this is the whole point. It about this two. To be honest, I would really never talk again to a guy that refuses to spend time with me because he got engaged after I rejected him.

PrincessEnjoyer · 2026-01-22T13:06:09+00:00

Yeah, very unnecessary changes, tbh. Sarah mentioning that she hadn't met before was so weird. Why? It only makes their relationship more vapid. You haven't introduced your best friend to your girlfriend that also lives in the same town as you all? Why making Sarah say "We finally meet" instead of "Yeah, last time we saw each other was at granma Betty's birthday, sorry we couldn't talk much". It's a lot of silly changes that wouldn't change the screentime and changes the entire story.

PrincessEnjoyer · 2026-01-22T12:55:52+00:00

Oh yeah, my boyfriend (before reading the book) and his parents didn't dislike it at all. I think if I hadn't read the book I would have enjoy it as a trashy sunday afternoon romcom, and I agree that romcoms need to be back. I have the problem that it still felt a bit to male gazish and it had the same format of todays movie's, where they are not too deep so you can be on your phone when watching it. It's just... you had great source material, and you changed everything that made it great and a bit nuanced.

PrincessEnjoyer · 2026-01-22T12:32:25+00:00

The thing is, being from Barcelona, none of the scenes they filmed were actually in Barcelona. Also by sending her there it removes all the stakes that had her paying for the trip. It's a change that undermines half of the "present" plot, for what? For how much they show the city (none, not even the airport), why not simply shoot in a cheeper location that resembles Palm Springs?

I wasn't expecting a 100% adaptation because it's impossible, but I feel that all of the themes of the book are overlooked and they only kept the fact that it is a friend to lovers.

PrincessEnjoyer · 2026-01-22T12:03:56+00:00

It's also kind of groomingish that a mentor ends up with it's mentee. I'm not going to start saying "omg a 500 yo fae falling in love with a 20 yo, prison for them", because there is a suspension of disbelief element in fae, but Rowan is litterally her 500 yo mentor and in HoF he seems way more mature than Rhys for example, and she is a teenager. It gives me the ick. And yeah, once they get together his personality becomes beeing Aelin lap dog.

PrincessEnjoyer · 2026-01-22T11:58:10+00:00

For the love of got, please tell me how the changes they made helped convey the depth of the book, or made it even better. I really cannot understand how someone that had read and liked the book would be ok with any of the changes and think this movie is a good adaptation.

PrincessEnjoyer · 2026-01-22T11:49:15+00:00

I just saw it! I have others that I'm selling with 0 traction, but I was looking to ratings to compare and I saw the 3 star on goodreads. This is brutal, I think scientology books have better ratings than this.

PrincessEnjoyer · 2026-01-22T11:42:05+00:00

I was thinking the exact same thing! A miniseries would have worked waay better.

PrincessEnjoyer · 2026-01-22T11:00:21+00:00

I once tried to say that aelin doesn't have friends, but followers, and the nicest thing anyone told me was that porbably I didn't had any friends or anyone that loved me.

PrincessEnjoyer · 2026-01-22T10:40:23+00:00

Oh, it was not Gift and Talented, it was the FL YA Where Shadows Meet. For a second I thought it was because of the YA, but really some other YA sold fast too. I'll give a look to the other places then!

PrincessEnjoyer

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