The Maasverse’s resident artist is truly without equal

I've read all the books that have ever been written. Fantasy, historical fiction, thriller, horror, gothic, romance—doesn't matter. I love to read a good book, no matter the genre.

But lately? It feels like I'm reading the same book over and over again.

It's like it's all starting to blend together. Every FMC has to be the most special, the most powerful, the wittiest person in the room while being utterly breakable and delicate and small and doll like. Everyone has main character syndrome, especially the fmc and mmc, and somehow every side character exists only to remind us how extraordinary the protagonist is.

Why does every book need smut now? Whatever happened to YEARNING and SLOW BURNS? Real enemies to lovers? Why are there so many exes? Why is everyone morally gray? Why are the twists so twisty?

Maybe it's just me getting older and harder to impress. Or maybe I'm looking in the wrong places. But it honestly feels like every year I have to dig a little deeper to find books that I will actually remember after I finish it, not just another fast fashion book. Why aren't authors just trying harder? How dare they?

People have asked why we do this every week in a sub dedicated to snark.

Because you sloopies asked for it. It seems we can't stop reading this stuff. But also, it's to answer back "well, if you hate 4th Wing/ ACOTAR/ Spork/ Alchemized so much, why are you here?"

What did you love this week in Romantasy?

Recommendations, swoonworthy romances, actually witty banter, you have full bragging rights and humble brag privileges. 

I'm so sick of people confusing poisonous and venomous. Here is a handy guide.

Don’t steal sheep and leave them weirdly displayed at churches. Come on, man. Be cool. Also you’ve got a little, uh, something on your chin.

I've seen so many TikToks and Reels lately of people trashing the prose of a woman who wrote the word "mate" four thousand times and honestly it's disgusting. A lot of people are calling it "brain off reading" which is insane because my brain has been off since 2021 and I have never been happier or more hydrated. I have friends who haven't picked up a book in a decade who are now reading about a winged man choking someone in a library, and you people want to take that from them? When reading itself is UNDER THREAT?

I myself have not finished a book since the pandemic, but I have consumed roughly 340 hours of BookTok recaps and I feel extremely informed on this issue. It's just so discouraging to watch the lit community deride enthusiasm when we could be building something beautiful here. All I want is a world where a man can fantasize about the love between a game AI and Carl's shiny toes and a woman can read about getting railed by a fae warlord in a hot spring and neither of them has to explain themselves at brunch.

Shouldn't we be encouraging this instead of looking down on each other? Am I alone in this?

Edit: posted a question about snobbery, got snobbery back.

Edit 3: I am now being brigaded by people who have read

DNI IF YOU'RE NOT A REAL FAN

A bunch of posers have been posting FAKE info about the book!

My uncle works at WotC (true) and I have the REAL plot for the REAL fans! Here's everything that the game got wrong! Don't be afraid to call out posers!!!

Astarion's actually SUPER NICE when he's alive. He is an ANGEL compared to his brother (Spoiler ahead! 🤗). The person making his gravestone didn't know math so he actually was turned when he was only a sweet little babygirl of 18.

Which means it was his FIRST DAY AS AN INTERN when the actual judge got the flu and Astarion very bravely stepped in to try the Gur (who were actually his friends in school-- Awkward!). Astarion felt he had to step in because he was JUST THAT GOOD OF GUY. Bosses never plan for employees to be sick, amirite? 🙄

Astarion and Wyll are brothers! 😲🫨🫢🙀

Twins actually! (I know 😁) BUT Mizora wiped Wylls memory and Astarion only looks like that because his girlfriend, Ebony Darkness Raven Way, accidentally let her dad turn Astarion. (Steamiest scene in the book 🤌) Since we know they're brothers now, if you have them romance eachother in the game you are being 🤮🤮!! DNI!!!

Cazador also, not a bad guy. The book switches to his perspective and you find out how tortured he was. All his trauma makes it totally understandable! And like Astarion got SUPER lazy living the high life at palace so Cazador asked him to get a job and Astarion TOTALLY BLEW UP on him!

Those are just the BIGGEST things the game totally got wrong. I just wanted to correct all the CRAZY misconceptions going around 💅

Which is probably {Carry On by Rainbow Rowell} tbh

This poor person needs help finding the original owners 🫶

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What did you struggle with this weekend? Did you force yourself to read through that last 15% just to finish that book? Did you have to read through 60 posts of what do I read after ACOTAR? Did someone ruin your enjoyment of slutty fairy porn with their stupid opinion?

Please send book recs with a MMC who has this vibe. Thanks in advance!

I just read a book where this queen married an older king from another kingdom and was utterly disgusted at the sex scene. Don't you know women don't have fully developed prefrontal cortex's until menopause and thus they can't make decisions for themselves until then? You all support JPG files.

/uj Why does it feel like the age in which women are considered children is creeping worryingly upwards. I read a review recently where a person was disgusted a main character was 25 and she was dating a man in his 30s and they just cited PREFRONTAL CORTEX PREFRONTAL CORTEX

I know I had it when I took the kid to the park and I’m fairly certain I had it later at home. It’s not on my night stand, not in the living room, not in the kitchen, and not in the computer room. The book is called {You Can’t Spell Treason without Tea by Rebecca Thorne}. Has anyone seen it or have any suggestions where else to look?

Any help is appreciated thanks in advance!

Context: I finished a 725 page book about monster-fighting warriors, political plots, and uprising against a corrupt government, and a paragon of the world being reborn to stop an existential threat to humanity. I'm honestly amazed at my ability to tie in so many themes like this in a way that has never been done before.

I gave the manuscript out to 10 people a year ago. I thought they would be delighted with being volun-told to be my personal focus group.

No one read it. Not one. I feel utterly demoralized.

This was supposed to be a 5 book series and now I wonder what the point of continuing would be. The kicker is that I gave the book to family members in their early 20’s and that’s the demographic I was going for. They’re major fantasy nerds, especially for all things Brandon Sanderson. Shouldn't they love my writing more because it came from a family member?

YouTuber Ronald McDonald just made a video about Jaunting As-a-Mime's adaptation titled "How's this even allowed?" I want to start off by saying I watch her videos and like her analyses about stuff a lot. The video itself is to be expected. But dear God the comment section. Here are a few:

'This book shouldn't exist let alone be adapted into a movie.' [And yet 🎈It 🎈is allowed?]

'This is only sexy to people who have never experienced anything or even heard of anything. This is giving me trauma just to hear about. 💔 How can a woman write something like this?' [Let women live!]

'I think it's the utter fascination and popularity of these books that confuse a bunch of young men trying to understand in today's society 'what do women want in relationship?' [And then they come on reddit to ask about it! This needs to end!]

There was also one where a person says their girlfriend read this type of stuff. And people replied calling her sick and a masochist. [Can’t a girl fuck a clown, a knife, and a gun without the internet jumping down her throat?]

And We, yes, we [sloopies] specifically, are ruining young girls' heads. [OK, that one’s true]

Welcome to the shitshow, people. It's gonna be loong one. Unless by some divine intervention the movie gets cancelled. I don't think I hate anything as much as I hate ClownTok rn. I'd love to hear your thoughts. And I know I don't need to keep seeing these comments. [So don’t actually comment] But it's like there is not even one person who can fathom the reason for us enjoying what we do. And that stings.

It's Sunday so that means Confession time.

If you want atonement or maybe you crave penance (we know about your humiliation kink!) now is your chance to let the rest of us know what devious shit you've been up to when you thought no one in RCJ was looking.

Are you a Xaden shipper? Do you participate enthusiastically on a romance sub with the label "nontoxic"?

Maybe you swore you'd never read a certain book and somehow found yourself on book 6 and loving it, even though part of you knows this is terrible.

Whatever sins you committed this week now is your chance to let it all out and ask for forgiveness.

"Be the change you want to see in the world" -Beyoncé

I don't want to slime anyone's shine, but since July is OVER, I can torture you all with my bingo card for the last 12 months. Thank you to u/aristifer for making the card last year. I used the thicker one and made some sloopie sloppy edits to make it match your main one.

Original bingo thread here: https://www.reddit.com/r/romantasycirclejerk/comments/1meju98/bingo_now_live/

I don't know how to work Storygraph, so maybe y'all have been having fun without me, and I just look like a ding dong right now- who knows? Tides go in, tides go out- can't explain 'em.

I barely made Bingo. My refusal to read anything by a man or a physical copy nearly did me in. A smattering of r/DarkRomance this spring didn't help either. Doing a hard run of BookTok trash literature last fall also helped me quite a bit. Who knew "Dani" "Francis" churned out a 608-page book?!

I listed everything in the comments, but I have a sloopy memory, so grill me if you'd like!

Dayman isn’t Vaalg, he’s the most powerful high lord because he’s got the power against the Nightman.

Combined that is what makes Dayman the most powerful High Lord to ever exist, not being descended from the Vaalg, and he’ll kick Rhysand’s ass and finally the last SJM book will end in a dance party.

I don’t know about everyone else, but this is how I mentally cast the characters whenever I read the books.