So i really enjoy the fun you two are adding to the book commentary with your conversation at the beginning (i think throughout the whole video). It makes me happy because the daughter of the blood trilogy is very dark, and this made it a more fun way to discuss the themes. I read the whole trilogy twice, and i still struggle sometimes. But to my understanding, Witch was a myth. she's the combination of what everyone is hoping for in a savior. She's the literal embodiment of the hopes and dreams of the Blood. I will say that from my perspective, book 1 is the darkest in some way, and the second 2 are easier to read (to me) because we already know the characters. Also, the relationship between daemon and jaenelle, the set up, omg heartbreaking. And daemons emotions over jaenelle being a child is very hard to read because of the dichotomy of knowing whats right and wrong and how everyone views their possible relations but *big spoiler* at the end of book 1, shes basically dead and comatose and he has to go into her mind and see not the human style Witch but Witch, the embodime t of the wishes of all the Blood- not just the human style ones but the animals too- shes a concept as old as time basically and hes kissing her to convince her that there is something to live for and not let herself die, because she wants to die from the trauma. And if she dies, a lot of things die with her, and there will be no second chance. And then, honestly, after that scene, where he saves her? They dont come across each other again for like a decade. Im not sure im explaining this well enough, and someone will do it better. And this is a really heavy book with heavy themes, but i will say it was a really good book and i loved the end of the trilogy, although im glad it continued in the world due to the open things that i was wishing we had gotten. Hope you aren't offended by my comments, but i do enjoy your book club podcast! So i can't wait for the next episode!
The further you get into the books, the more you notice that was "borrowed" for ACOTAR. It's hard to discuss whether or not they're similar when you DNF book one.
I started reading the series after I saw a Tik Tok about the similarities. There are so many! Not just with the ACOTAR series but with TOG too. But they are definitely not the same books. I felt the same when I first started reading them, like I did not understand the people and the realms, but there is a Wiki. The series gets better and better and easier to read with each book. I just love all the characters-which I didn't think would happen at first :)
@@mihadontu3347 that’s really good to hear!! Maybe Ellie and I will keep reading knowing that. Do you feel like the “heaviness” of the book is consistent throughout or does it get better as you go?
The Blood are witches in my oppinion. The people who have the ability to do magic, as apposed to the landens, who are non magical people (muggles, if you will). They have a variety of races, but some are long lived and some live normal human life spans. This applies to both Blood and landens. They also have different castes within the Blood, which I interpret as levels of power, different abilities ex Healers, and they use jeweles for rank. So this cathegorisation gave me a headache in the beggining, especially since I didn't find a clear explanation in one place. You also have the deamon dead, who are Blood that are in a sort of suspended state, after they die but befire they fade into the darkness. What was confusing for me were the three realms, because Saetan just moves between all the time. But you have Tereille and Khaleer where you get all of there peoples mingling, and then you have Hell, which have deamon dead and demons basically. Or so I understood. This jumping from one to another was hard to follow.
I have been waiting for this one! I have not read Black Jewels yet, but the earlier episode you guys did mentioning the similarities with ACOTAR was quite shocking. Again, haven't read Black Jewels, but Ellie's breakdown of it really sounds so different. I can totally see where she drew inspiration, but it seems like based on names more than anything, and much less on big concepts. I actually had intended to read Black Jewels at some point, but after hearing the trigger warnings and how Ellie was impacted by the darker thematic elements, maybe not... Anyways, another fantastic episode!
@@aquarianfog you nailed it! It definitely feels like she was inspired by names more than anything. So glad you liked the episode and that the trigger warning was beneficial!!
The people of the blood can read minds and have to be 'let in' past barriers. That's another big one I noticed. also bat wings (she describes them the same way, not saying two different series featuring people with bat wings is a terrible thing, but she uses the same wordage)
Truth is given you a fan of ACOTAR and you clearly didn't want to believe that SJM "borrowed" anything from anyone ... you brain would have subconsciously not wanted to find anything similar given your dislike of the very idea
@@jessecollins4391 this is actually so far from the truth. If you listened to our previous episode where we talked about plagiarism, we addressed the similarities in these series prior to reading Black Jewels. While we are fans of SJM and didn’t want to believe there could have been any similarities between the books, on paper, the similarities are glaringly obvious. We admit this in the plagiarism episode. However, when you actually read Black Jewels, it becomes more evident that the only “inspiration” came from names in the Black Jewels series. The actual plots/storylines are vastly different.
