Kaitlyn is 66% done with A Court of Wings and Ruin: So there are lines just straight-up copied from movies - "Keep your forked tonuge behind your teeth." - and the issue is, while I don't think its plagiarism (I think they are just fitting in playful references) you probably don't want to remind your readers of better books while they read yours.

Kaitlyn is 70% done with A Court of Thorns and Roses: SHE DOESN'T EVEN BOINK HIM IN WOLF FORM WHAT BULLSHIT IS THIS

"DNF at 150 pages.

Why?

Because I realized that continuing to read this book would just be an act of self-harm, and no matter how lovely the prose or how interesting the setting, I couldn't expose myself to such raw, unmitigated anger.

god, my privilege. Like, full disclosure: I'm white! I'm cis! I'm American! The fact that I can read this book and decide to set it down can easily be interpreted as an act of privilege as I look fully at discrimination and then close my eyes and stop thinking about it. "I can't do that," says the author. "I live this discrimination every day. How can I stop being angry?"

first: not disputing that. At no point should I be interpreted as "stop being angry"
second: i'm a queer disabled poor woman living in america in 2025 with high blood pressure being treated by a doctor i can only afford as long as medicare exists.

I came to this book expecting a well-written, well-researched take on going to oxford in a magical alternate history, some kind of erudite cross between fallen london and harry potter. and, in a sense, I got that. it's well-written and erudite!

but it has two major flaws.

1) this is not a magical alternate history. yeah she put a new building into the campus. yeah there's silver magic. at no point has this changed literally anything about history or culture or anything. this is, effectively, a book about 1828 oxford and some translation students. that's it. "there's more magic later," i'm told. That doesn't matter because the setting has not changed and I do not respect settings that just slap, say, dragons in without interrogating what changes. harry potter failed this comprehensively. secret histories with a secret magical stuff doesn't work, and there's not even a gloss of a masquerade.

at no point did the author think out what would change from the beginning by having magic, and this is extremely frustrating.

yet! I would have stayed because I'm interested in historical fiction and enjoy scholarly settings.

but:

2) every single page of the book contains a reminder that the author is angry. our main character is visibly asian in the whitest place in england and every single page will include him being discriminated against, seeing someone else be discriminated against, a reminder that white people are racist (in the structures they build, in the works they write, in the empire they build), or remembering that someone was discriminated against. I am not kidding. Flip to any page and it's there. The author is furious and here to excavate every crime committed, and she interlaces it in so it's completely inseparable from the tale of morally conflicted student she wants to tell.

There are even footnotes to make sure you don't miss that [random book] contains discrimination.

author. please. please.

I promise I'm angry. I promise I am aware of discrimination.

god, look at me, she's got me writing a highly defensive review because I can't handle it. I'm aware of the amazing whiplash as I give a Louis L'amour western (the most problematic genre possible, I think) a decent review and finish it, but this one a one star review and a DNF.

but maybe... maybe, just maybe, the act of reading a book isn't an actionable method of enacting social change. reading this book won't change the results of the 2024 us election. it won't make me go and donate to charity, or be nice to someone. it's - it's so frustrating to read because it wants me to be ANGRY but it does not tell me what to do with this anger, except BE MAD. and posting isn't praxis.

so! for the sake of real, honest to god positive change in this world, I am going to dnf it and save myself the burden of carrying someone's else's rage for another 400 pages, and improve my health and mood.

"strix do you recommend this book?" give it a shot! It's very well-written and shines a neat light on a piece of history that's interesting. content warning for child abuse in the first fifty pages. read safely and take care of yourself! we have much to survive."