*Spoilers* Just finished throne of glass and feel like ranting because I don’t have book friends.
I love her series and now I’ve read all 3. It’s so hard being a black Sarah j mass fan though idc. Or even a black romantasy fan in general. I hated books 1-2 and book 7 of throne of glass but loved the middle books.
Besides all my other gripes about the series (especially the dumb way she lost her powers before the final battle that’s been holding me in suspense for 7 books) I couldn’t help myself from being pissed off the whole time about Nehemiah. Sarah sucks at killing off main characters, they always come super close and somehow make it due to some bippity boppity last minute. This is something that irks me already but I’m even more irritated that the one time she actually wants to kill off a main, it’s the black character and it’s done brutally. Initially I was so excited to finally see some cool black rep and thought maybe she would be a main in the circle. But no. This isn’t to say that she hasn’t been trying with her other series but she’s still trapped in that: throw in black rep but they either have to die quickly cuz they don’t matter or they’re just plot devices or make them a perfect nothing burger side character with no depth at all. It’s exhausting seeing every white character get to have complex back stories and emotions and always cheat death. Everytime a character was introduced, Manon, elide, Lyssandra, Fenry, Gavriel, lorcan, yrene (idk if she was black or mixed cuz all the fanart portrays something different but she may have been because again, her character was little to annoying and perfect and had save the world while pregnant) but the opportunities kept presenting themselves. And maybe I’m the problem because authors write from their own experiences, I don’t know how much diversity she grew up with but damn where I’m from black people are not rare at all.
Also I want to add, if Nehemiah had to die why couldn’t a representative from her court come join the fight. Every court/faction was in the fight to save the world. A ellywe/africa/wakanda or wherever the fuck she was trying to portray rep couldn’t be there fighting with the small army or whatever. It just feels very thoughtless and DEI when she tries to add black characters. It’s not hard, just write the character the same way you would the others.
Edit: I found more stuff to gripe about. I was irritated that yrene saved the day and not the main character with all the freaking buildup. Then if you read ACOTAR, the whole yrene saving the day while pregnant feels like such a cop out. One character has to be sidelined, weak and unable to fight during pregnancy while another stands up to the most evil dangerous villain while pregnant?