WORST TRENDS IN FANTASY ~ reaction 

I once saw someone say that “a bowl of Mac and cheese” fits the ‘a BLANK of BLANK and BLANK’ pattern and now that’s all I can think of when I hear those titles

My least favorite trend is the "I love him even tho he's kinda shady because he's just so hot." Oh, his arms, oh his shoulders....he maybe killed my sister, but, oh, his beautifully distrusting eyes...

We need to separate the Fantasy-Romance subgenre as its own thing. Call that _Romantasy._

The cruel Prince is the only fae book I like because how they are actually fae-like and not just extra horny immortal people with wings.

As a fifty four year old woman who's been reading fantasy since I was 14 I am way effin over having to SLOG through romance novels shelved with fantasy to find *actual* fantasy novels to read. It p!ss3s me ALLLLLLLL the way off

One author who writes Faeries very well is Holly Black. She makes them creepy and dark tricksters who sadistically treat humans as toys and yes eat them. Mermaids/siren stories are really cool too when they are portrayed as monsters.

The thing that bothers me, and has for awhile, is how trope-heavy YA is. The plot, the writing, the worldbuilding, the character-building, everything comes secondary to "enemies to lovers," "grumpy vs. sunshine," "but there was only one bed," "love triangle" etc. YA fantasy gets a bad rap, which is a shame because there's some great stuff out there. I just wish tropes weren't quite as important as they seem to be.

Me: *hoping to write a dark fae story and sweating as I wonder if that’s become overdone* 1:54 : “I don’t wanna see them fall in love, I wanna see them destroy people” Me: *sigh of relief*

I think that some of the “smut in YA” books come from books that aren’t really YA being called YA because they have similar pacing and tropes to YA books. Also SMJ is everywhere.

This speaks to me from like ten years ago. I remember going into a bookstore and reading all the YA fantasy blurbs. It was like a Mad Lib. "SPICY FEMALE TEEN PROTAGONIST" goes to "FANTASY LOCATION" and meets "HOT FANTASY GUY". Will blank be able to blank the blank? I walked out without buying anything. I wasn't writing that kind of stuff and despaired for about ten years. Hearing everybody's tired of it is good to hear.

I’m kind of sick of having an entirely “morally gray” cast. Believe me, books like Six Of Crows and Cruel Prince handle it wonderfully, but I’m so sick of everyone being a horrible person. That’s what I appreciated so much about Realmbreaker. Yeah you had a few morally gray character (Mainly Sorasa). But watching characters like Dom and Andrey was nice because I missed idealistic good people. We’re so obsessed with darkness and angst and I don’t entirely get the hype anymore.

If we're going to have really long titles in fantasy, I'd much rather they follow the Japanese Light Novel format and tell you what the book's actually about instead of being just a string of pretty but meaningless nouns

I feel like Fae are the new vampires. Is Sarah J Maas written as YA or marketed as YA? Sometimes it seems like the author has one view of her audience and the marketing team has another. I'm just curious.

I also believe the problem with smut in ya is down to stores not acknowledging that new adult is now a popular genre and just lumping these books in with young adult.

It's the same thing that happened with Twilight and vampires. Once that became insanely popular, a lot of copycat authors with YA vampires appeared and the industry followed suit-until it didn't anymore and the fad faded away.

I am all for a designated “fantasy romance” genre to emerge. I am one of those girlies that needs more than just a romance, but often I get tired of just fantasy. Depending on my mood, I will verge deeper into fantasy or romance sometimes, but “fantasy romance” is definitely my comfort place/home base/happy place

I actually like fae and I hate SJM books. I feel she ruined fae for a lot of people while wildly misrepresenting them. She thinks they are just sexy elves when they suppose to be cruel and one of my favorite thing about the fae is that they can't lie so they have to be very creative and it just doesn't exist in her books.

You haven't seen truly long titles until you've gone down the isekai light novel rabbit hole. "I'm a Behemoth, an S-Ranked Monster, but Mistaken for a Cat, I Live as an Elf Girl's Pet" - now that's a proper long title.

I'm just tired of fantasy romance being mixed into the regular fantasy/sci-fi section. It's like this at my favorite local bookstore, so it's hard to tell if you're going to get a fantasy book or a romance book with 10% fantasy lol.

I think Sarah J. Maas just turned Fae into a reskinned version of Fanfiction Werewolves.

For me, characterization makes or breaks books of any reading level or genre. If I enjoy spending time with the characters, I can handle anything--nonsensical plotting, derivative or shallow world-building, generic prose, an unsatisfying resolution, whatever. In terms of the modern YA I've read, bad/flat characterization is the biggest failing. A few symptoms of that: -Instalove: Nothing says "My characters have zero depth!" like a romance that is founded solely on (and never develops beyond) mere and instantaneous physical attraction -Protagonists who are so dumb that you are ten steps ahead of them the entire time (but how else could the plot unfold if they were actually able to figure things out?) -Passive protagonists that you could remove from the story altogether without really affecting anything -Characters who are only special because of "destiny" or prophecy. If you use this as CONFLICT it can be really interesting (EG a character reckoning with the burden of their duty or struggling with the fact that they don't have any worth/identity outside of this role destiny has handed them), but as a shortcut to get me to care, or as wish fulfillment, it's dull. -Villains with no clear motivation except to get in the protagonist's way -Overcapable (see: "badass") characters who never seem to struggle with anything and can take on hordes of attackers without getting a single scratch -Characters who are thoughtlessly unethical. If they're operating out of a moral gray area or doing things they know are wrong for what they consider the right reasons, they can be fascinating, but it has to be dealt with thematically; otherwise it seems like the author is just unaware or careless or has no moral compass. -Characters we're TOLD are funny but who never actually prove themselves to be funny (or their jokes are so terrible nobody in the real world would actually laugh at them, but dammit if our smitten protagonist doesn't think they're hilarious). -Alternately, a book where everyone is deadly serious all the time and NOBODY has a sense of humor -Mean girls (or boys) who have ZERO dimensionality and only exist to get their comeuppance -"Cool" characters who don't care what anybody thinks and are so self-possessed they never have a single moment of doubt or self-consciousness. There's probably a scene where they confront the bullies and verbally dismantle them with such effortless grace and wit it leaves everybody with their jaws hanging open, stunned into utter speechlessness at the superiority of such an above-it-all creature. -"I'm not like other girls" protagonists...especially when they deride other girls for being vapid and shallow and then immediately fall into Instalove with a two-dimensional hotboy (but he's a vampire instead of a jock so it's not completely superficial somehow) TLDR: I'm overly frustrated with bad characterization in YA and should probably get a life

I'm seriously annoyed how every single book has to be a series these days. A good stand alone is very fulfilling. In many ways that's why I prefer Science Fiction (as opposed to Science Fantasy or actual Fantasy) much of the time. Science Fiction focuses on ideas more than on plot. It explores its idea and makes its point and then ends. Fantasy could really benefit from being more succinct.

Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett, which recently came out, is a different take on the fae that might interest you. Also, in terms of worst trends (which actually might be changing as we speak) is the overwhelming majority of fantasy books that are so very dark and despairing and (often) full of vile characters and violence. I don't mind that these books exist, but I'd like to see more "sunny" or whimsical fantasies as well.

Yes to more animal companions! And I think many times books are put into the YA category when they really should be adult.

I wish more books would have a mass-market paperback edition. A lot of books seem to just have a bulky trade-paperback edition. If I'm hiking and want to sit and read by a lake or campfire I want to bring a book, and leave my electronic devices at home.

As a Welsh person I have such a bone to pick with how fae have been portrayed in YA fantasy/romance recently. They're just wizards with A/B/O tropes 😭 I definitely agree with your take, I'd love to see more fae inspired by actual folklore that are legitimately otherworldly and sinister.

Me, at first: "What's wrong with the Fae? Bizarre, but terrifying magical entities who need to be maneuvered around, like Old Gods, but less guaranteed to wipe the party are great!" Elliot Brooks: "This one author made the Fae these SEXY animal-like beings who like to be dominant and have alpha males and-" Me, now with eyes open: "Oh. OH. Someone turned the Fae Folk into Alpha/Beta Werewolf type romance dynamics?! Yeah ok, I fully understand the hate now! :o " I'm using the Fae as an antagonistic force in the TTRPG world I'm putting together, and I'm honestly jazzed about how spooky and dangerous many of them will be.

Juliet Marillier always does a traditional take on fae and fairies. In the way of Irish and Scottish folk tales. Like these were not beings that humans wanted to interact with as they are tricky and aloof. So the romance in her book is never really with the fae. It’s with other humans. They aren’t these sexy beings 😂 they are terrifying.

I think the issue with the fae trope being overdone is not the sexy fae romance story itself as much as it is the flood of bad writing that has accompanied it. Amazon's program for self-publishing opened the gates for many amazing and talented authors, but thrice as many terrible ones (and I would not be surprised to learn that the success of self-publishing has led to certain shifts in the professional publishing world as well). The majority of post-ACOTAR fae titles tend to read like fanfiction and we as readers are exhausted and confused because these are published books we've picked up and yet they are so BAD. And we feel like it's a problem with the trope because we see it the most and it feels so poorly done, but I don't think anyone would truly mind a sexy fae story if it was actually a well-written story with well-developed characters and an engaging plot. Our problem is that we don't have any of these things, and we're tired of it. Cover art does not tell a good story, and that's essentially all we're getting these days. Because ultimately it's not fae that are the problem. If you swap fae out with elves or vampires or wizards or CEO billionaires or lumberjacks, the books would still be cringy and awful and boring because the problem is the story itself is bad and the characters are flat, shallow caricatures of the characters they were inspired by. Wishing away the sexy fae trope will not actually save you, because the people writing those annoying sexy fae stories will eventually move on to the next trend and ruin that for you, too. Granted, the group of people who don't like the shift of classical faeries to SJM-styled fae and prefer to go back to the original have a different argument, and I totally understand that. Personally, I enjoy both versions when done well, but one definitely gets more attention than the other as of right now. But at least the more classically aligned faerie literature out there right now tends to be better written. At least that's been my experience. I'd like to add that the way books are being advertised and shared on social media has done a lot to help market indie authors, but it's also doing a lot to damage the entire author-reader relationship. Books are now being officially marketed as blog posts and twitter hashtags. Enemies-to-lovers used to be just a trope within a story, but now it's become a whole subgenre, as though that's all there is to the entire book. This used to be how people would weed through fanfiction, and now its being used a part of the cover blurb. While it helps some people access exactly what they are looking for (or think they are, since sometimes those labels are a stretch), this also severely limits our focus as readers and we wind up consuming way more drivel just because it's labeled in a way that appeals to us, and we miss out on some actually well-written fiction just because it isn't branded with the right hashtags. As an interesting aside, I heard that SJM was heavily inspired by the Tairen Soul series by CL Wilson, which is also about Fey. I recently read it and, let me tell you, a lot of what SJM did in both TOG and ACOTAR is shockingly similar to the Tairen Soul series in terms of tropes and characters (btw 3/5 of the books in the Tairen Soul series have a "Blank of Blank and Blank" title). Though it's easy to pin her name to the elements we dislike about current trends (either in blame or in comparison), we can't really fault SJM just because she got lucky with her success. She definitely is not the one who did it first, just the one who made it popular. Anyway, sorry for rambling. :) Thanks for the interesting video! I can definitely relate to some of the exhaustion...

Yes, I 100% agree that we need more animal companions! Better yet, just give me an entire series told from all of the animal companions POVs. 😂

I always considered dark academia a genre or subgenre in its own right, not so much a trend. It's something you can easily avoid by just picking up a different genre. But some of the other things you mentioned, like fae or duologies, are things that are taking over certain genres like fantasy and may be harder to avoid.

The most annoying thing for me is the epic! huge! fight scenes in the last book. I like reading action scenes, I do, but it's exceedingly boring to read a continuous epic battle scene that becomes another epic battle scene in a 600+ pages book.

Fae, for the exact reasons you mentioned, is basically an anti-buzzword for me. I’ve been burned so often that I genuinely will not risk it anymore: a mention of fae is an instant “will not read” for me, even though that might not be fair.

My favorite books involving Fae remain Robin McKinley's "Spindle's End" and Terry Pratchett's "Lords and Ladies" and the underrated work of Juliet Marillier. Let's see some female animal companions! With regard to "A Court of Thorns and Roses": I was considering giving it a read, until I started hearing stories about the protagonist's, er, character "development" in subsequent books. This is one of my own personal pet-peeve tropes: CHICKIFICATION -- taking a once-badass heroine and turning her into a weak noodle who either needs a lot of rescuing or is content to be a passive observer rather than an active participant.

About the fae, I do have certain creatures known as the Númenes (a name borrowed from latin Numen), and while these are spirits of woods, burial mounds, rivers and barrows, they have this exquisite aura that can manifest in different colors: blue, cyan, red, golden, and they always cover their faces with masks. They can be friendly and also aggressive. Similar to the Irish Aos Sí.

I write fantasy, and I feel like a lot of people's gripes with overused tropes is that they aren't done in a refreshing manner. Ideas more or less circle around each other, and even in my own work you can still find what has inspired me over the years. However with that in mind I try not to make my stories or characters boring. I also feel like some writers end up forgetting their audience when writing, and while writers should write what they want. They should also keep in mind that people will be reading this, and to write things they might want to read. (It's why I like watching these kinds of videos)

adding on to the fae trope: I have read actual fairy tales from Scotland, Ireland, and Wales that properly reflect what these fae stories try to represent. Fairies in actual folklore can be nasty but some of them are just plain silly goofy. Then are the stories where the fairies actually only mess with people who overstep their boundaries first, or they punish humans who make deals with them but then break them. It's sad that the fairy banging romance literature has distorted people's perception of Gaelic culture 😥 TL;DR: fairies aren't that evil or horny

I liked the fae in the Dresden Files, Mercy Thompson and The Hollows series.

Fairies can be done really well, but it's mostly terrible :C I love Fae based on the actual fairies of myth, where they aren't good or bad but can fuck you up. Frances Hardinge has a great book called Cuckoo Song. I haven't really come across smut in YA, though I've come across way too many books listed as YA that are absolutely not YA. A lot of female authors get shunted into YA despite writing NA or Adult (or just books that technically could be read by YA people).

My favourite representation of fae is from Terry Pratchett: beautiful, cruel otherworldly creatures that are NOT humans. I LOVE "Lords ans Ladies" (and all the Discword saga, honestly). It's one of my favourite books of all time.

The Call by Peadar O'Guillian is a good fae/body horror duology. Also the main character is disabled which was really well done. There is a scene where an "elephant" does something that lives in my mind when I think of horror in general now.

4:51 my biggest issue with duologies is that a lot of times, publishers won’t properly advertise books as being book 1 in duology. Gilded by Marissa Meyer is the example that comes to mind; I got to the end of the book and I literally flipped back a few pages but I could not believe it ended the way it did. I had been looking forward to this book but I was so caught off guard by the fact that it wasn’t a stand alone.

Fae now are like vampires in the Twilight era...

Dark Academia encompasses a wide variety of books, and I don't think there are that many DA fantasy books (especially super well known ones). Many commonly mentioned DA novels aren't fantasy like The Secret History, If We Were Villains, These Violent Delights, Bunny, My Dark Vanessa, many classics. And even DA classics with supernatural elements like Frankenstein or Dorian Gray aren't fantasy in the modern sense. Obviously Ninth House, Babel and The Atlas Six are very popular and probably inspire(d) more DA fantasy stories to be written. Still, there aren't as many of them as there are of, say medieval inspired fantasy or just epic fantasy in general. Even most urban fantasies, which many DA books tend to fall under, have nothing to do with Dark Academia.

Fae in folklore and mythology were usually antagonistic, tricksters or playful. In general I feel most of fantasy is too derivative of other fantasy, and not off the things that early fantasy was inspired by: The actual folklore.

YES! More animal companions!!! 🐺🦁🐰🐨🐻‍❄️🦊

I'm currently writing a book series, and one of the main characters is Faerie, but he's not really dark and angsty. He's good-looking, and he is a prince, but honestly, most of his charm is because he is such an absolute nerd about magic. I am tired of how fae's are always displayed the same way now, granted I still find them hot and a bit of a guilty pleasure✋️😔

My beef with fae consists of the following: 1.- The heteronormativity imposed into the mythical creatures most popular for being always a bit queer, for they exist outside concepts made by humans and can't and will not care for limiting who they are just to be more digestible to the minds of pewny humans. 2.- Sex with them tends to be approached with the most childish demeanor. Always hard, always for hours, always amazing. They don't really delve into the myriad of emotions one can go through when in presence of a beautiful eldtrich creature. And it will probably still only last a few paragraphs, some of them mirror versions from a different POV. 3.- Authors that copy SJM's _approach_ to storytelling don't tend to mind her flaws, which, let's be honest, are many. But the one that exasperates me the most is the use and abuse of "fae magic" innorder to create a soft magic system without actually needing to develop one. There's always this new ultra powerful thing that totally changes everything, there's always an escalation in power, there can always be a way out and there's always a vage, visualy pleasant justification for what should be considered a deus ex machina (for example, Rhysand just telling Amren's soul to not die and it actually working, because Sarah can't ever kill her darlings. She may assasinate them, but never kill them). So you have fairies that aren't fae A romance that doesn't allow itself to feel A roller coaster plot that never goes down And worldbuilding that takes a backseat to all three of them. The way the traditional publishing industry keeps pumping these up without care, just to profit from a popular niche they don't really care about, seems just so cynical. They've managed to create an environment when kisses have just as much importance as the final battle, but don't really see how precious that can be. They can help start a new genre for literature, one where love is not expected to behave as it does in the real world, yet they can't be bothered to pay for enough editing hours. I mean, it's just their job!

I think you're right about the title thing because the series is called Asoiaf but the individual books are all "A Thing of/for thing" with no "and". Acotar style titles really picked up after that series and SJM got popular and the most noticeable area where this happened is YA fantasy. I don't see publishers would see Asoiaf resemblance as a thing to sell YA books, it's more likely to be Acotar, which might no longer be published as YA but it's very popular with YA readers.

I’m currently writing a fantasy animal companion book so I’m glad someone else wants more of that lol

Sanderson is playing around with Stormlight 5's title and he gave us a potential title that was "A Blank of Blank and Blank" and man the cringe was real 😬

This is going to upset fantasy die hards... but coming of age boys journeys... we seen it for the last 30 years... we get it

In regards to duologies, I feel like there is too much pressure to conform to the latest success. Series need to be as long as it takes to properly tell the story, and if they try to conform to something they’re not meant to be, then ultimately the story will fail. Spin the Dawn was phenomenal, but Unravel the Dusk was trying to do far too much in a limited amount of space and failed to properly capture what it needed to. I also think there is pressure for books in a series to be relatively the same length because they look better, so if your first book is 300 pages it’s expected for the second book to be approximately the same, even if the story would benefit from 500, but there isn’t enough of an arc to justify a full middle novel.

Good heavens. My reading tastes must have changed a lot, because all of what you're describing sounds like it's beyond even the fringe of what I now spend my time on. These days I'm reading things like Dune, The Lord of the Rings, and historical epics.

I feel like fae have moved into the place where vampires and werewolves occupied a few years ago, haha. It only just recently occurred to me that with a few notable exceptions, I don't care about fae stories at all. At least in the current trend. Of all things, I actually really like the fae in Cassandra Clare's Shadowhunter world, but they aren't the focus in those books. Also, Strange the Dreamer was originally intended at one book, but they decided to split it because it became too much, and I think I agree in that case. In general, I think I am fine with duologies, but I want to know ahead of time. I hate being surprised by a series after I read a book and move on, haha.

I can’t really say that Song of Ice and Fire started the “blank of blank and blank” trend because the books in the series have their own names. The first one is Game of Thrones (of course), the second one is called Clash of Kings, the third one is called Storm of Swords, etc. The books themselves didn’t become hugely renowned until the show came out, so it’s safe to say that Maas started the “blank of blank and blank” name trend.

I'm also personally all for Fantasy Romance as a genre. I play a lot of d&d and a few of my characters have fallen in love within the world, and its this really cool thing to watch. Especially since love might mean something different based on the culture and lore the character is a part of.

Thanks for publishing this video. I'm going to recommend this to some of my colleagues as an example of do's and don'ts for writing new material.

I LOVE duologies and want more of them! I can’t seem to find them so if anyone has good recs for them please let me know lol

You're so right about the animal companions, I was reading a book recently where the character got a magic wolf that became her best friend basically and I was *about* it. More pets please.

One of the things that annoys me with romances in books (and movies) is the 'last minute hookup' with little to no buildup. Like this guy/gal has been ignoring you or simply tagged along for most of the story, and now that the final confrontation is over they suddenly profess love? That's not love, that's just post traumatic horniness.

Hi Elliot, Regarding duologues, I don't have any problem with a well crafted duology, but dangling threads, thinning plots or characters, etc. are annoying. I have wondered if some of the weaker ones were a result of pressure on the author to continue a story that was originally intended as a standalone. This may be more predominant in traditionally published works as a publisher certainly has more forceful influence on a signed author than can be effected on a self-published author by wide spread individual readers (social media notwithstanding).

I love the way you organized your shelves- would love to see a tour :)

The Anita Blake Vampire Hunter series by Laurell K Hamilton (from the 90’s) I believe took a turn for the worse by the extreme overuse of smut. So I think that’s definitely happened in the past but obviously that’s not a recent example.

I saw a book on a fellow teachers class shelf. Got a copy for myself and I was so shocked that 2 chapters in teenagers are uh doing stuff in the middle of the school hallway. I mentioned it and the teacher was like oh it's fine. Ma'am you teach 8th grade. It was way too graphic for YA.

Great video! New follower but definitely appreciate you breaking down these trends!

I think the public means sjm faes because OG terrifying creepy fae are fucking awesome

Romantasy needs to be in it's own category to make it easier for me to know what it is that I'm grabbing off of the shelf.

I disagree with folks claiming ASOIAF started the ‘A Blank of Blank and Blank’ trend. Yes, it was the first, but none of the books following this trend have anything in common with that series. It’s all copy-paste SJM-wannabes capitalising on the popularity of the ACOTAR books - it’s honestly insulting to think they took inspiration from GRRM when literally 99% of those clone books are about sexy, smutty fae in generic fantasy worlds.

Totally agree with you 100 percent on your opinions in this amazing video love it 🥰 love you and your amazing channel prayers and thoughts for you and your husband and your beautiful children love your Aussie family friend John ❤❤

Yeah. Jim Butcher's Dresden Files is the only series I've read that has a take on fae that I actually like. He addresses their longevity and the effects of their harsh environment on their personalities (Mab in Battle Ground in particular) in a realistic way.

LOL, the only one that bothers me is the name thing - The BLANK of BLANK and BLANK. Please no more! LOL

Little recommendation for everyone who is looking for a wholsome little fantasy novel with fun characters and quirky animal companions: Nettle and Bone by T. Kingfisher. I'm currently reading and enjoying it (havn't finished it yet, so I don't know how I'll like the ending). It's about a princess on her quest to kill a cruel prince who has been abusing both of her older sisters that have been married of to him to secure political relations between their two kingdoms. Marra is already 30 years old and has spent the last 15 years in a convent, she likes her quite life and embroidery. She isn't particularly beautiful or smart or anything, she is just a simple woman with a little social anxiety. But when she realizes that she might be the only person who actually gives a shit about her sisters wellbeing and the only one who is willing to fight for justice she decides to gather all of her courage and do the impossible. T. Kingfishers writing is witty and playfull and honestly beatiful to read (I also liked her novel The Hollow Places, this is why I also chose this one), the story has a lot of humor and comic relieves but it also deals with more serious issues like power imbalances, abuse, social injustice, sexism, death etc. I like that Marra is not the typical YA fantasy character who is supposed to be shy and clumsy and "not like the other girls" but then is also almost ridiculously perfect, but just some slightly awkward adult woman. Her thoughts and feelings and fears feel real and relatable and as the reader I really root for her. So, yeah... if that sounds good to you just try it :)

Hey Elliott! Haven't been here in a while. Not you, it's me. Great video💗 will go back and watch part 1. 👍 So, yes, please, and thank you for more of these. 😄 Hope you, hubby and Luna are doing well.

Please do more of these I love it!

When it comes to smut in YA, it's just actually written s*x scenes. Ya is a category written for 12-18-year-olds, so all the YA books should be able to be read by 14-year-olds. If it can't, then it's not YA. I think the category NA, or New Adult, needs to come back because it is the perfect transition for YA/Adult books. It is a category written for readers between the ages of 17 and 25-year-olds. There were issues with it, mainly parents of young adults, but it is something that is absolutely needed.

I kinda like the longer titles for books. And I think it's maybe almost necessary these days. All the short/one word titles are already used by now 😂🙈

Glad you came up in my suggested I found myself agreeing out loud with most of your points. Especially with dark academia not being a trend and the title discourse. The smut point is also very true.

I love your videos, you're one of the best booktubers 😊

I’m so tired of seeing Fae depicted the same way in books. I’m writing my own fantasy romance and it has elves, angels, etc. I have fae but they’re seen as evil, the kingdom being run by a corrupt fae King. I didn’t want to add a fae as a romantic interest but had an idea and decided to do it anyway. I then made one of my favourite characters of all time. He deals with Chronic pain caused by the same condition my brother has, Chiari Malformation, a brain condition that can cause a host of pain and problems. My fae prince uses at times a wheelchair to get around when the dizziness and pain is too much (similar to my brother when he has to walk for long periods of time). I love Prince Corvus as a character so much. I can’t wait to finish my story and see a different kind of fae character represented and maybe have people learn about this condition along the way ❤

For me, a guy that recently got back into books, I noticed pretty quickly these tropes by the covers alone lol. I was mesmerized at how many there were lol. I feel like a lot of genre fiction writers are simply playing it safe in a world where it's extremely hard to earn money from writing. It's annoying but imagine where their minds are at, y'know?

Oh my god thank you! I bought SJMass last year and started reading the book recently and seriously I had to put the book down. I thought it was just me, but you just confirmed everything I hate about that story. I still haven’t finished it and I don’t think I will. 👏♥️ you’re my new fave book reviewer ♥️

not me clicking on one of your videos and immediately flipping out over the full FMA manga collection 😭

This might be an unpopular opinion, but I don’t think books with sex should be shelved in YA at all. A fade to black situation, or one that implies something happened, fine. But if you think about it, explicit sexual content in movie form is considered rated R or 18+ years. As a video game it would be rated M and kids would not be allowed to purchase it without the consent of their parent or guardian. Why should books be any different? I’m not saying to ban books, or anything like that. Just shelve them where they belong… in the adult section.

Dark academia is a genre I always think I like but never do! It they are super easy to avoid as they are so heavily pushed as that trope/genre

I enjoyed your video. I just wish you explain some of these acronyms for new people or people who aren't used to these type of acronyms.

Your thumbnail alone made me like sub and comment before I watched a single second.

The best title theme is without a doubt The Dresden Files. Other than the 12th book Changes every book in the Series has a 2 word Title where both words have the same number of letters. Storm Front, Fool Moon, Grave Peril, Summer Knight etc…

I feel like the "sexy dominate fae" was a subversion of the traditional fae tropes. Then Sarah J Maas was so popular that it became a new trope...

Animal companions, yay!!! Plenty in my books. Just sayin'. 😜 - Haven't heard anyone mention they want them in such a long time! So good to hear. And I agree about the fae. Just discovered your channel. Love it!

I hoped to see someone already mentioning a gold-standard of fae stories: Seanan McGuire and her October Daye series. I read a lot of books to have a good time. I read Seanan McGuire (Mira Grant) when I want great writing, characters I really enjoy, and a story that makes me think about it long after I finish it. I'll wait for a couple books to come out (she is so prolific that there's a lot new from her all the time!) before I revisit the series simply because one book won't be enough; once I'm back in that world, I want to stay. I invite EVERYONE to discover why she is one of the greatest writers of our time with any of her several series.

Yes! I want to see more apathetic folklore fae in books!

"Fae" are typically more of a group of creature and some don't even have wings... They have been in stories longer then some people may realize. One of the most iconic fantasy cliche races is usually included within the group of Fae... Tolkien even used this race in his books. c;

The Fae "romance" in the DnD campaign I was in involved the main antagonist of our barbarian going into the Fae Wilds for five years (days in our plane) to make a grand deal where he would get a magically adept Fae wife to protect him, in addition if he dies then all of that barbarian's family on the same plane as him also die, and he had his arm exchanged for a hard hitting wooden prosthetic. That's how you involve Fae in your stories lol

Fae mythology is very dark. At least some European fae are extremely sinister (the ones I read).

YES! More animal companions. I need more Guenhwyvar's out there!

How every third book has the words: 'Thorn', 'Shadow' or 'Bone' in the title.

Under the Earth, Over the Sky is a great book involving Fae (essentially it is about a parent-child relationship). But also has fantasy/mythic elements to it. A good read.

I sort of agree with the comment on the smut in YA books. In have heard that the ACOTAR starts off tame then ends with smut in the last book, I have not read them myself. However, I am concerned the access young teenage girls have in reading smut. For example the Addicted series, which I am seeing a lot of young girls reading those books. I read one of those books in the series , and turned more pages than read. Makes me sad that, I feel, parents are not aware of the porn that is written in those pages. Those books have no real value. I wonder if that is where some of those concerns your stated are really coming from, regardless of genre.

I noticed in January just how long book titles have become! It is making it difficult to make my reading journal look neat 😂