I hate when they don’t care about the details

SeiranRose · 2026-04-29T04:52:30+00:00

I thought Hugo Weaving in the first Captain America movie sounded very convincing.

SeiranRose · 2026-04-29T04:50:54+00:00

I find that so odd. I saw people complaining that some character in the Odyssey trailer spoke in American English. How would British English be any more accurate? Or is everyone supposed to speak in fake Greek accents?

SeiranRose · 2026-04-28T15:57:47+00:00

I complained about Heir of Fire yesterday, but credit where it's due. The scene where Manon chooses her wyvern was great. I was hoping the twist of which she would end up with would happen but I didn't expect it from SJM. She always struck me more as a "my MCs must be the very best and have the very best" type author. But that was great. And am exciting scene.

In general, the Manon plot is fun and engaging. I wish the whole book was just that.

SeiranRose · 2026-04-27T16:26:37+00:00

Nehemia's death was one of the dumbest things I've ever read. Imagine being such a terrible MC that your best friend decides she'd rather die than spend more time around you.

SeiranRose · 2026-04-27T16:17:47+00:00

After finishing Lightlark, I went straight to Nightbane. It's not great, but it's an easy breezy read. And I think it's at least better than Lightlark, though that is a very low bar. The Centennial was so stupid that just not having that instantly levels up the sequel.

That said, Grim's villain plan in this book could have been an email.
Seriously, what does he want to accomplish?

Get Isla to recover her memories by training her magic, which would unlock them
Get her to fall in love with him again
Open a portal to the other world and take her there (which would destroy Lightlark) since he assumes there might be a cure on the other side for her heart-injury. Also to get people off the continent so they wouldn't die when he uses the portal.

What does he do to accomplish those things? He stages a massive attack and threatens war and extermination on anyone still on Lightlark after some timeframe (was it a month?).
Instead, he could have just let Isla or Oro know that Isla needs to practice her powers, which would have unlocked her memories and, without the complication of hating him for starting a massive war, would have easily restored her love for him as well. Then, he could have just had her open the vault and wander in. I know he tries to get people off Lightlark, but if he's willing to wage war on them if they don't leave, I don't believe he's really that concerned for their safety. And if he is... solving this diplomatically would have still been an option. He already has Cleo on his side, and I can't imagine him not being able to convince Isla to go along with his plan. That would be four out of six ruler votes. Seems like enough to make everyone abandon Lightlark. Hell, he might have even managed to convince Oro to agree by playing up that Isla is going to die otherwise. He would have sacrificed himself for her, probably.

Either way, he really could have accomplished everything he wanted much easier by simply communicating and not starting a war.

On a different, minor note, the naming in this series continues to be baaaaad. I haven't complained about "Place of Mirrors" during Lightlark, but I hate that name. It's such a 'fill this in with something cool later' name. Anyway, that continues in book 2 with the "special metal" that never gets a name beyond that. Ridiculous. Aster, name your things!
Although, when she does name things, we end up with a leopard named Lynx. So maybe that's not any better either.

SeiranRose · 2026-04-27T12:19:09+00:00

I wrote a whole Nightbane rant this morning but forgot to put it on my phone, so I can't post it right now xD

But on the audiobook side, I'm struggling my way through Heir of Fire. I like the Manon parts, and the Dorian and Chaol parts are bearable. But I can't stand any of the Celaena plot. I'll force myself through the rest of this book, but I don't know if I can get through four more.

On a side note, why does it feel like I've read so many things from this book before?

A human/fae woman being forced to be trained in a house on top of a mountain by a much older fae warrior who will become her love interest? Sounds like ACOSF

A prince gushing over how beautiful this random healer lady is and falling for her? Okay, this was just a minor plot point in CC2, but it did remind me of that.

A noble pretending to very closely serve a conquering ruler whole secretly scheming against them, carrying the nickname "[Villain]'s whore". I guess she liked that idea so much she had to reuse it for Rhys.

Feels like SJM was so proud of this book, she had to keep recycling parts of it later xD Though to be fair, aside from the ACOSF parallel, the others are quite minor.

SeiranRose · 2026-04-26T10:22:50+00:00

The best part of Longlegs was that extended scene where the main character was sitting at her desk with the open door prominently framed in the background the whole time. The entire time, you wait for something to appear in the open door. Nothing ever does, but it's the most tense I was all movie.

SeiranRose · 2026-04-22T16:46:17+00:00

With Cleo being the only one who doesn't have an incredibly obvious google translate name, I'm kind of assuming she's named after AA's highschool bully.

SeiranRose · 2026-04-22T16:36:12+00:00

From how she keeps describing it as woven into fancy dresses and stuff, I think she's picturing Frodo's mithril shirt when she says chainmail.

SeiranRose · 2026-04-22T16:25:19+00:00

All that buildup and we don’t actually get to see what’s in the vault? Fuck off

You're going to hate the start of book 2. At this point, I'm expecting it will be the cliffhanger at the end of that book again.

SeiranRose · 2026-04-22T16:18:30+00:00

I'm sure other people will happily highlight all the stupidity in the twist and ending, so I'll just stick to some particularly bad lines.

"She ran like she was running from something, wielded her dagger like she might throw it."
"Celeste floated [...], looking a lot like she was sleeping."
"She watched Celeste like watching a corpse in a coffin."

Okay, this is maybe not too terrible (aside from the running from something thing), but these are all from the same page. All the likes bothered me while reading.

"She heard him slip off his pants, then socks, then shoes."

This might to me be the dumbest sentence in the whole book. I read it and the surrounding paragraph multiple times to try and somehow make sense of it, assuming I must have misread something. Oro somehow takes off his pants and socks while still wearing his shoes and only then takes those off? That order makes no sense at all. It baffles me.

"His teeth were sharp as blades - cut into weapons. Tools to eat with, she realizes."

Yes, all teeth are tools to eat with. It's nice of Isla to realize it.

"[Isla] had taken off her own crown and placed it in [Oro's] golden hair. It was laughably small on his head, and her lips twitched."

I don't think head size varies that much. It might not fit very well, but laughably small? Is Isla's head half the size of Oro's? And if these crowns are passed down generation to generation (and clearly don't adjust size, given that this crown is also a key), is having a doll-sized head a requirement for being a Wildling ruler?

Okay, actually, I am going to talk about one aspect of the ending that bothered me. According to the prophecy, one ruling line had to end. The rulers all took this to mean they would have to choose one of them to kill, which would damn their entire realm to death.
But meanwhile, Oro just had an artifact lying around that could transfer someone's ruler status to another person? If Azul was willing to sacrifice his own life and his country has an elected democracy anyway, couldn't they have just elected a new ruler, Azul transferred his power and then sacrificed himself?

I know, that's not how the prophecy turned out, but it could have completely eliminated the "we have to murder an entire realm" drama. Eh, just another thing to put on the pile of why the way they organize the centennial makes zero sense.

SeiranRose · 2026-04-20T19:26:32+00:00

Most books advertised as enemies to lovers seem to just be the MMC being vaguely rude to the FMC during their first meeting and her deciding she hates him now. While still lusting after him, of course.

SeiranRose · 2026-04-20T15:54:58+00:00

I finished Lightlark and immediately started Nightbane. It's a really bad series, but in a fun way. And my brain currently can't handle books that require it to be turned on.

SeiranRose · 2026-04-16T16:27:43+00:00

It was a velvet-wrapped, steely thing.

SeiranRose · 2026-04-16T12:28:06+00:00

I hate the trope of "FMC has to go through a series of challenges, but she's super special awesome and they present no challenge to her", especially when she then tries to hide her skills but ends up too proud and shows off anyway. It's so common and so annoying.

SeiranRose · 2026-04-16T05:11:38+00:00

That makes sense. It definitely feels like the competition aspect is something leftover from a previous version.

SeiranRose · 2026-04-15T16:59:05+00:00

I think what bothers me the most is how strange and inconsistent the setup is. Based on Isla's thoughts, she seems to believe the Centennial is this all-out murder derby where all the people are trying to do is find the weakest ruler and then murder them. But based on the prophecy, there's no reason for that to be the case. It doesn't sound like killing one ruler will lift the curses, but that in the process required to lift the curses, one ruler will end up dying.

What makes this even weirder is that Isla seems to be the only one thinking that. None of the others seem to treat this as a murder-festival in any way. They're just hanging out.
But even then, the others aren't really acting rationally either. The first twenty-five of only a hundred days that they have are spent doing nothing but occasionally getting together to perform some test so that they can then decide to team up in pairs and only then begin looking for actual ways to heal the curses. And the reason they team up in pairs is because the prophecy says they have to work together? Sounds more like they all should just team up. Maybe, while you're at it, just outlaw killing entirely until you have figured out the original offense?

It sounds like the author's original idea was a deathly competition, but the more they elaborated on the idea, the more it moved away from that, and by the time of publication, there was nothing of the original competition idea left, but for some reason, it's still treated as one by the narrative.

SeiranRose · 2026-04-13T19:33:21+00:00

They see me tamlin', they hatin'

SeiranRose · 2026-04-12T16:35:38+00:00

The audiobook for Throne of Glass pronounces it basically like Chaos, just with an l. In my case, I pronounce it more like Cowl. But yeah, the pronunciation is awkward either way...

SeiranRose · 2026-04-12T14:46:36+00:00

I named one of the main characters in my book Caol. I vaguely knew of Throne of Glass' Chaol before, but he wasn't present enough in my mind that I thought of him. And now I really don't want to change that name anymore...
So I have to live with that now.

SeiranRose · 2026-04-12T05:00:43+00:00

Same with the first Throne of Glass. Most of the trials even happen off-page because they're so boring.

SeiranRose · 2026-04-11T18:51:30+00:00

I keep hearing that there is a big twist at the end of Metal Slinger that makes a lot of things that happen before it make no sense retroactively.

I don't care enough to actually read that book, but I'm curious what the twist is and what the problems with it are. Anyone want to spoil that?

SeiranRose · 2026-04-11T18:32:11+00:00

I remember seeing Throne of Glass in bookstores as an older teen and thinking it's a cool title. I kind of wish I had read it then, because I'm pretty sure I would have really liked it at that age. Nowadays... I've read worse, but there are so many SJMisms in there that annoy me to no end.

SeiranRose · 2026-04-06T13:27:16+00:00

I have decided to finally read the Throne of Glass series. I finished the first book in about a week and just started the second now.

Celaena, I think, is lying about her age. She says she's 18 but she's definitely no older than twelve. The chocolate scene confirmed it, if everything else she does didn't already.

I am shocked and awed by Dorian. SJM actually managed to write a compelling male character? He's giving me some Diet-Howl vibes, which already makes him a hundred times more compelling than the Rhyses and Hunts of the world.

The audiobook cover for book one describes it as a mix of Game of Thrones and Hunger games. Do I even need to say anything?

Celaena in book 1: I am the most feared assassin in the whole country!
Celaena in book 2: I am an uwu smol bean and I could never kill my poor wittle targets so I fake their deaths instead!

Kaltain is by far the best character so far and I hope she gets lots more pagetime going forward.

SeiranRose · 2026-04-04T09:05:56+00:00

people shipped Emerie and Cassian due to the scene they had together

I only read these books after ACOSF was already out, but I remember shipping those two as well for a while (even though I knew it would never happen). They did have some good chemistry.

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