z

Young Writers Society


Book Rants



User avatar
278 Reviews



Gender: Male
Points: 18564
Reviews: 278
Thu Jun 25, 2020 9:19 am
View Likes
LittleLee says...



I made this thread for anyone who just wants to rant about a book which disappointed them or did something silly. There's one for endings specifically, but I think there's a lot more to rant about certain books than just their endings, so here you go. You can also, of course, debate with someone if you like and they want to, but please keep it civil! Everyone is entitled to their own opinion.
And enspoiler what you say; if a user wants to read something on one book, don't spoil others for them.

Okay, I'm going to vent a little now.
I was really disappointed by the Throne of Glass series as a whole. The first time I read it, I loved the first few books, found the others putting off, but kept looking at it in a positive light. Then boom, I read some critical reviews and realised I hadn't been willing to accept that it was a bad series. Here are some reasons why.
Spoiler! :
Every character, and I mean every character, just had to be in a relationship by the end of the series. Dorian was the one guy who didn't have a particularly good one, but he could have. It just irritated me. Oh, and all the relationships are as straight as a ruler. There are obvious signs that same-sex relationships are not looked down on, but not a single major character is in one.

The magic system is absolutely terrible. Things are thrown in for the heck of it, twisted and distorted, then forgotten. Does anyone even remember the "Moonfire" Aelin uses? That literally came up ONCE. And it was just so she could blow up some ships. Oh, and the "raw magic" Dorian has makes him a god. He can do anything at all; turn into liquid fire, shapeshift, use elemental magic, make kinky invisible hands, constrict people, and I forget what else.
Oh, and shapeshifting in general is poorly done. There seems to be no barriers involved. If I want to become a flea, I can. if I want to turn into a raging sea dragon the next, I can, assuming I see a picture of it first. Yaaay.
The court of Terrasen is messed up. Everyone's COMPLETELY loyal to Aelin, or one of her friends; there is no chance of betrayal whatsoever. It's such a perfect little court that it becomes unrealistic.

After one point, all the wretched sex became unbearable. It reads like fanfic smut, and the descriptions are... I can't even.
That reminds me; there's all the nonsense that Fae childbirth is very dangerous, but it's implied that Rowan and Aelin have five kids. Wow. Just wow.
99% of the male characters are the same; aggressive to each other, dedicated to their lover, loyal to Aelin.
There is zero racial diversity. You'll see mentions of that a lot in discussions; all the characters are white and perfect in every way. The one coloured character, the one character I loved, died in the very first book.
Wyrdmarks can do anything. Why don't the characters use them for whatever purpose they have? Because plot development.

And there are a ton of loopholes in the plot, of which I don't remember everything.

I was furious with how the battles have zero strategy. It's just "chaaaaarge" and get killed or miraculously win.
In the last few books, everybody wants to help Aelin. From a random group of wolf-riding Fae, mentioned once or twice in the whole series, to a sect of witches that have been hunted to near extinction, and the other sect who decide to forget everything they stood for because of a shoddy speech, a prince who sails to another continent because he vaguely knows his distant cousin, and a bunch of pirates who show up right when they're needed, the whole world wants to be her ally.
Wait, let's not forget faeries and a stag. Because.

Oh, I just have to mention the end. It was awful.
I mean, after so many novels, the big baddie is beaten by a character introduced in the second last book? It was poorly done, and it felt as though Maas had no idea how to get rid of the villain and came up with something extremely feeble at the last moment. And not a single POV character died, which made me wonder what the point of all the epic fighting was.
That's it for now.
If anyone wants to have a discussion on the series, let's talk! :D
"I believe a man does what he can until his destiny is revealed to him."
  





User avatar
174 Reviews



Gender: None specified
Points: 3050
Reviews: 174
Fri Jun 26, 2020 6:35 pm
View Likes
JesseWrites says...



Oh my. I will most likely rant too much, but here I go.

-First of all, @LittleLee
Spoiler! :
Yes, just yes.
I totally agree about everything you said because the book is kind of weird. Some of the characters are overpowered like Dorian's powers, which I mean, stop.making.people.too.strong.because it makes the reading experience less than ideal. Maas is a good author, but the plot makes everything run on and it gets boring.


-The Book Thief, as much as I loved this book, it's not perfect.

Spoiler! :
Ugh, where do I begin?
It's poignant, but I hate how Death keeps reminding us that people will die at this date, or that time next Tuesday. It is repetitive and I don't like when a book always reminds of a future character or death to come because it ruins the surprise aspect of reading. I guess that the approach was to make a sadness factor.

Also, I didn't see any minor character development of Liesel, which I believe is important. Maybe the author was too busy passing out spoilers throughout and he forgot to make the main actually improve.


It was just a few nitpicks I thought of. Not much, but venting feels so good. :)
“My thoughts are stars I cannot fathom into constellations.”
― John Green, The Fault in Our Stars
  





User avatar
91 Reviews



Gender: Female
Points: 2160
Reviews: 91
Fri Jun 26, 2020 8:40 pm
View Likes
AlyTheBookworm says...



Spoiler! :

So.. I saw the title 'book rants' and the Throne of Glass series immediately popped into my head. I came here so fast just to see that you'd already beaten me to it lol.

I completely agree. I bought the entire series on a recommendation and now it's sitting on my shelf gathering dust and I have so much regret. I made it maybe three or four books into the series before I had to give it up. Celaena/Aelin is one of the most unlikable protagonists I've ever read about and a total Mary Sue.

I know a lot of people like this series so I typically refrain from bashing it, but to be honest, I can't stand the main character. As I kept reading more and more, I started to realize that the world revolved around Celaena and everyone loves her. It seemed to me that all the characters were bland, attractive people with forgettable personalities and few motives aside from helping Celaena.
  





User avatar
278 Reviews



Gender: Male
Points: 18564
Reviews: 278
Sat Jun 27, 2020 3:57 am
View Likes
LittleLee says...



@JesseWrites it feels good to let off steam, doesn't it?
@AlyTheBookworm I know! It gets extremely annoying after a point.
I'm glad both of you agreed with me :)
"I believe a man does what he can until his destiny is revealed to him."
  





User avatar
278 Reviews



Gender: Male
Points: 18564
Reviews: 278
Wed Jul 29, 2020 7:04 am
View Likes
LittleLee says...



Uffff okay I'm here to rant about the Inheritance Cycle.
It has quite a lot of fans, so I may or may not offend someone here. Well, I'm sorry if I do. It's a story that I like because as a child it was great to read, and still has a place in my heart and on my shelf, but, well... It's badly written. I'm not going into depth really, but I'll enspoiler stuff below.
Spoiler! :
Plagiarism. That's all I can say. Paolini has plagiarized stuff from lesser known stories and books, and also from Tolkien himself. I can't bring up the Star Wars point, because to be honest a LOT of books follow that arc nowadays. It's practically becoming a trope. But I will say Paolini took more of Star Wars than a lot of other books did.
Let's talk about elves. Yes, people use them, a lot, but Paolini did practically NOTHING new with them; they're immortal, elite, magical, physically amazing and freakin perfect people. Dump the elves of Arda here and you wouldn't spot a difference.
And please. The singing to trees thing is overused, so, so much. It's such a bore to read nowadays.
It is possible to write Tolkien-style stories without leaning so heavily on his stories. This, however, doesn't even seem to try, to the point it's almost embarrassing. Paolini could have pulled it off even then, if his style wasn't so amateurish. For example, if he wants his characters to speak with a dialect, he removes a few random vowels and syllables to the point where the only person capable of speaking like that would be someone with half their teeth missing, or a mouth full of jelly.
The result is that the series reads some cheap fanfic from a fantasy-obsessed teenager who wrote for his satisfaction and not for an audience with good taste.

Ancient language that controls magic and whatnot; stolen from Tales of Earthsea. He didn't even try to make a unique system of his own. In fact, this system is just BAD. Practically anything is possible if you don't consider the "fact" that magicians will die. And seriously, whoever has the name of the ancient language (Jesus, he could have named it something creative) is a god. There's no debate here. They're a GOD.
Oh, and if Murtagh knew the name, why on earth didn't he break free of Galbatorix, considering that the name can warp anything?
The last two books were TERRIBLE. They were boring, with "worldbuilding" that was painful to see.


Honestly I could go on for AGES about this. But at the end of the day, i think if he hadn't had rich parents who published it and let him tour, it would NOT be such a big deal.
Drop a note here if you want a full-blown essay on this, lol.

Oh, and here's a little something: it isn't a serious review, but it made me snort more than once. http://impishidea.com/criticism/everyth ... ith-eragon
"I believe a man does what he can until his destiny is revealed to him."
  





User avatar
91 Reviews



Gender: Female
Points: 2160
Reviews: 91
Mon Aug 31, 2020 9:29 pm
View Likes
AlyTheBookworm says...



So- I know that the last post is about a month old, but I never saw the notification sorry. I'd still like to reply though lol

The Inheritance Cycle has a special place in my heart. I first began reading it when I was about six/seven, so it was one of my first fantasy series and also likely the first series I read (aside from The Underland Chronicles, The Edge Chronicles, and The Chronicles of Ancient Darkness, which I was also obsessed with as a kid) that dealt with more serious topics like death, war, torture, etc. with a darker tone and didn't have a fairytale happy ending.

I have a lot of good memories and feelings of nostalgia associated with this series, and learning that the author was only fifteen when it was published was a big part of what made me start writing myself, with the thought that, "Hey... He was just a kid like me, but he wrote a book. That means I could write a book too!"

However, after re-reading the series last year, I saw that it's far from perfect. It's full of cliches, borrowed/stolen ideas, and has a rather formulaic fantasy adventure plot with tropey character archetypes. Looking back on it, the writing style isn't the best, comes off as a bit pompous, and seems to take itself a little too seriously. It's impressive for a fifteen-year-old, but if the book had been judged by its own merit with no information about who had written it, I don't think it would've been nearly as popular and well-known as it is.

Still, this series was a good gateway to the fantasy genre for me, I'm glad I was able to read it as a kid, and, despite the cliches, I think it had heart. I really enjoyed these books and they helped me develop my love of reading, so I'm thankful to Paolini for that. :)
  





Random avatar


Gender: None specified
Points: 0
Reviews: 112
Mon Nov 02, 2020 7:33 pm
View Likes
SpunkyMonkey says...



Hi! I really want to rant rn so here it goes...

This book called Caddie Woodlawn is a book around the same time as Laura Ingalls, but it sucks! I feel like a third grader wrote that book! So many things are cliche, and so many things feel to unrealistic. It really dumbs down the hardships the pioneers had to face.

Caddie is a tomboy, who is pretty much allowed to do anything she wants, and always gets into trouble. Smh. That just didn’t happen back then. I’m not against tomboys, I’m one myself, but I like books that are historically correct.

The author also writes in such a simple language, its a pain to read. I get it, you want people to understand what you’re writing...but what she did was too far. And the storyline of a bully getting whipped by a small women. Don’t get me started. It wouldn’t ever happen in real life.

Lastly, there is this girl in the book. One of those beautiful, fainting, cries-at-a-drop-of-a-feather. She really ticks me off. And what’s worse, is Caddie’s brother is in love with her. Ugh. Really disappointed in that book, it could have been really good, but it was a complete failure
<3 i lub you wonderful hooman <3
  








If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.
— Henry David Thoreau, "Walden"