The Politics of Desire

SPOILERS: THIS IS AN ANALYSIS NOT A REVIEW! 

I have been flying a lot for work this year and at every bookstore, in every woman’s hands, on every flight I’ve seen A Court of Thorns and Roses. A Court of Thorns and Roses is the first book in Sarah J Maas faerie romantasy book known for it’s unabashedly pornographic material. I’ll be honest— that’s why I bought a copy before my 5 hour flight to New York. Growing up I throughly enjoyed fantasy and science fiction—- and more importantly I’ve always been a fan of romance novels for the girls— from Pride and Prejudice to Twilight to fan fiction, my teen years were spent obsessively consuming romance wherever I could find it. If you’ve opened this essay expecting me to poo-poo Maas’ paragraphs dedicated to tongue in mouths, rippling back muscles, or sexy growls— you won’t find it here. Sorry, it’s fun! Fuck off! I devoured A Court of Thorns and Roses, taunting those around me as I carried a book where faeries fuck so good they give the land magic life junk, but when I reached for the second book I discovered why the series truly resonated with it’s readers. 

When a romance novel becomes a cultural moment, there’s more at play than creating a dreamboat— it’s answering a want from the audience they didn’t know to demand. The Twilight series may be poorly written, racist, and dangerous, but it was the first time I had read a book where our female lead— our young woman protagonist— was allowed to want, to lust, to desire. In many books the girl characters who lust are considered evil and giving into lust itself as a type of weakness. JK Rowling personally highlighted the importance of Molly Weasley killing Bellatrix Estrange in Harry Potter to show how motherly love triumphs over lustful love (were those two ever in competition?? You wanna do a paragraph where bagels triumph over pasta? Stfu I choose to live in a world with BOTH) Comparatively, the heroine of Twilight is full of lustful love and it is never treated as a sin. In short Twilight follows Bella Swan, a teen virgin, who meets Edward Cullen, a handsome mysterious (virgin) boy who she really wants to fuck. Like so bad. Every obstacle in the series is an obstacle towards fucking Edward Cullen. First he’s like I’m a vampire, I can’t fuck you and she’s like yes you can. Then he’s like I REALLY can’t because your blood is like heroin to me— and she’s like so? Have sex with me. Then he’s like well being around me is going to put you in danger because other vampires will want to eat you and she’s like I don’t care I want to have sex with you. Then he’s like what about your immortal soul because you will sin if you have sex before marriage and she’s like okay marry me then have sex with me. Then he’s like my vampire strength is too much when I fuck you, you got a bunch of bruises and a killer half vampire baby in you and she’s like lol then turn me into a vampire and then have sex with me forever. And Bella wins. She becomes a vampire and has sex with Edward forever. She loves him, yes, but she also lusts for him. She looks at him in khakis and is filled with desire. Unlike many narratives aimed at young women where desire is treated as a weakness and love as a strength (as if they are mutually exclusive), Twilight allows Bella to experience desire without belittling it for vilifying her and love without hiding her lust. Twilight became a cultural phenomenon because Meyer gave us eyes to see through that were allowed to want, desire and lust— and in turn allowed the reader to stop vilifying and belittling their own desire. 

While there is an admirability in creating Bella Swan, a girl who is allowed to fight for her own wants and desires— critiques leveled at Twilight are more than valid… they’re scary. Like many romance novels, a large part of Twilight is the love triangle. Bella is torn between Edward and Jacob. Edward is her first love, a brooding and controlling vampire. He loves Bella and because of that fears for her safety. The actions taken out of fear in the book are heavily romanticized even though they are disturbingly abusive. Edward sits outside her window (without her permission) and watches her a bunch before they’re even together because he’s obsessed with her. At one point Edward breaks Bella’s car so that she can not leave her home. Then there’s Jacob Black— a handsome werewolf with a big crush on Bella. He is the second guy in the novel and everyone reading a romance novel knows the girl never chooses the second guy. He’s there so she can think about it and then choose the first guy she fell in love with (I do think Uglies does this well ). It protects the young girl who falls in love— making the first love pure and powerful and while the second option offers newness and growth, their rejection of the second love interest maintains the purity of our heroine. There’s always a reason the second guy isn’t the one she ends up with—- he dies, or turns evil or, in the case of Twilight, imprints on your baby. In the Twilight world werewolves imprint: they look at someone and know that’s the love of their life, their mate, and that together they will be a perfect couple. There’s no choice, only nature and it is impossible to reject it. So after Bella and Edward have a baby Jacob looks at the baby and is in love with it. Bella is creeped out, but everyone is like that’s not creepy it’s beautiful. The lack of choice in the matter as well as the fact that Jacob falls in love with a BABY are deeply alarming. There are other messed up parts of Twilight like making a confederate soldier a good guy, weird pro-life stuff, and deeply racist Anti-Native sentiments but when we’re talking about romance— Edward’s controlling and abusive nature as well as Jacob’s creepy predation are both serious concerns that arise when teens read Twilight and allow it to help paint their understanding of love, relationships, and consent. 

When I read the first of Maas’ series A Court of Thorns and Roses, it really reminded me of Twilight. A Court of Thorns and Roses takes place in a world where faeries and people are separated by a wall. After a war for human liberation, a treaty puts up a magical wall keeping faeries and humans separate. Our main character is Feyre, the youngest daughter and caretaker of her family. Her dad is mopey and weak, her sisters are entitled and difficult, and it’s up to Feyre to hunt for them so they can have food and money. Like many romance heroines, Feyre considers herself very unspecial and plain. Her life changes when she kills a wolf who is actually a faerie and his friend, Tamlin, shows up on he doorstep to get even. Instead of killing her, he says she can repay the debt by giving up her life in the human lands and living with him forever in the faerie lands. Feyre accepts his terms, but plans on finding a way to break the bargain and return home to take care of her ungrateful family. Tamlin is super beautiful faerie high lord, but he has a curse on him that has forced a masquerade mask to be attached to his face for the past 50 years. In the Faerie world there are 7 High Lords with their own respective territories and powers— Tamlin’s territory is spring and his powers are shapeshifting. I guess he can be a lot of things but he normally turns into a big furry monster. (this is supposed to on a level be a play on beauty and the beast with her being trapped at his house and him having a curse and being a literal beast guy sometimes). The Fairies are their own species distinct from humans an thus do not have men and women but males and females (something I found GRATING to read because of the way terfs and incels have co-opted the terms, but understood it’s use as a distinction from human’s “men” and “women”.) Different types of faeries have different magic, they are all sort of immortal because don’t straight up die, but they can be killed. Another important romance trope is that faeries… have mates. They get married and stuff, but nothing is as powerful as the mating bond which just clicks when to faeries see each other and know that they are meant to be, not unsimilar to imprinting in Twilight. As Feyre lives on his lands she discovers there’s no way out of the bargain, there’s something terrible plaguing these lands, and she’s falling in love with Tamlin. To assuage her fears for her family, Tamlin sends them money and protection, and to help Feyre heal from her trauma he provides the means to paint. He tries to help her in other ways— offering to teach her to read seeing it as a “short-coming that isn’t her fault”, and giving her protection from a world he refuses to fully explain to her. He does not explain to her that here is a evil faerie lady destroying the lands, but he also doesn’t explain smaller things to her like the holiday where the spirit of magic overtakes him and he has to fuck a faerie lady real good to replenish the magic of the land and forces her to hide away so he doesn’t fuck her to make the land magic. He doesn’t explain to her that the entire estate has magic on it so that she can’t see all the fae walking around because he’s worried it would freak her out, so many times when she thinks she’s alone a bunch of fae she can’t see are watching her. As “kind” as Tamlin is to Feyre, much of what happens in the Spring Court happens without her consent. It’s all “for her own good.” When Tamlin decides that it’s too dangerous for Feyre to stay on faerie lands, he sends her home. Back in the human lands, she discovers that Tamlin kept his word and her family is well taken care of and protected. Feyre misses Tamlin, but when she realizes he’s in trouble from the big magical bad Amarantha (an evil faerie general lady from the first war), Feyre chooses to go save Tamlin— the first choice she’s made in the whole book. On her journey, she learns the truth about Tamlin. He made a bargain with Amarantha that if he could fall in love with a human who hates faeries and that human with him, then Amarantha would give all the faeries back their magic and free the land. He was not allowed to tell Feyre any of this as a part of the terms. Feyre goes to Amarantha’s Court under the Mountain (a religious site desecrated by Amarantha) to save Tamlin. Feyre is really quickly captured, but Amarantha offers to free Tamlin and everyone if Feyre completes three tasks. Feyre agrees—- and in this part of the book we get to know our second love interest a little bit better: Rhysand.

Feyre sees Rhysand twice at Tamlin’s court BEFORE all the Amarantha task stuff and he is a beautiful faerie lord with scary mind manipulating powers and secret intentions. Referred to as “Amarantha’s whore” he not only pleasures the evil queen sexually, but runs her errands and shit. He’s got an extra evil vibe because he is the lord of the Night Court, but he surprisingly aids Feyre, making a bargain to help heal her after her first task (killing a big worm monster) and continues to help her throughout her time in Amarantha’s court. The bargain requires that once every month Feyre visits him for a week (sexy right?) And she agrees to it. It’s confusing to Feyre as he both helps her survive and drugs her to piss off Tamlin as she loses track of time and space under the influence of magical faerie wine, unconsciously dancing all over Rhysand’s lap in Amarantha’s throne room. When Feyre completes all three tasks, Amarantha’s curse is broken and she leaps toward Feyre in anger and kills her. The Faerie High Lords, now free of her curse, regain their full power and kill Amarantha. Thankful for Feyre’s sacrifice, the High Lord’s use their power to bring Feyre back to life by making her a faerie. Tamlin’s mask falls off and she sees his beautiful face and they kiss and she’s a faerie and now they can live happily ever after, right?

This first book is pretty standard. Like Bella, Feyre, who ever fit into the human world, is able to become the nonhuman thing she was always destined to be, fixing the power imbalance between her and her immortal lover allowing her to fuck into the sunset. However for ACOTAR (how the Court of Thrones and Roses Series is referred to), that is not the case. These books offer more than just super sexy immortal people who have really good sex and are good at everything— the book offers a truth that romance often refuses to acknowledge: love can not exist under patriarchy. In the second book, A Court of Mist and Fury, Feyre sees Tamlin for who he really is— literally and figuratively his mask is off. He does not know how to be her partner. As she falls into a deep depression haunted by the trauma of Amarantha, Tamlin refuses to acknowledge it. They live in separate bedrooms, only really spending time together to have sex. Instead, her protecter becomes her jailer. Tamlin keeps her under heavy guard at home to keep her safe. Tamlin and Feyre’s lives are separate now that they are together— as she is dressed and primped for their wedding, she asks Tamlin if her place in his court will be High Lady and he’s like what that’s not a thing you’re gonna be my wife and have my kids. Feyre is like I guess that works because she is so depressed she can’t see a future for herself at all, and Tamlin is ignoring it because he’s also traumatized by the whole Amarantha business. Tamlin continues to assert his power over his court and Feyre, forcing arbitrary performances like the “tithe” over his people because “his dad did it that way and his sons are going to do it that way too!” (PATRIARCHY!) Things escalate when Feyre has a panic attack the day of her wedding and Rhysand shows up to whisk her away as part of their bargain. She’s mad, but Rhysand explains the psychic bond they have from their bargain allows him to hear her thoughts and she was screaming in their psychic bond that she wanted ANYONE to take her away from the wedding. Away from Tamlin’s court, Feyre begins to heal. When Rhysand helps her discover that she was accidentally gifted magical powers from the faerie high lords when they made her into fae, she discusses it with Tamlin who thought that might be the case. This is the first clear instance (in book 2) that Tamlin is keeping things from Feyre and as he eavesdrops she hears his fears for her— that another lord might kidnap and breed with her to have super strong heirs (so he’s gotta keep her safe from that)(also those are his heirs!!). Things continue to get worse and better for Feyre as her time with Tamlin becomes suffocating and her time with Rhysand becomes enlightening. He differs from Tamlin in many ways. First, he teaches her to read. Unlike Tamlin who offered to teach Feyre to read because it was a “short-coming” in her (almost regarding her as a product for consumption), Rhysand teaches her to read because it is her right to be able to read— an important distinction that allows Feyre to gain the confidence to read and write. Second, Rhysand believes Feyre should learn to use her magical powers. While Tamlin fears that this will bring attention to her, Rhysand believes that this will allow Feyre to protect herself from those who want to take advantage of her. Rhysand helps her learn how to use the power he gave her of mind-reading so that she might protect her mind from him or whoever she wants to. It raises a question for the reader: does Tamlin want to ability to take advantage of her? Is he afraid of a Feyre with equal power to him? Third, Rhysand values Feyre’s ability to choose above all else. He needs her help to save the world, but he won’t force her to help. Instead he offers her a PAYCHECK for saving the world and is like let me know if and when you wanna help. This contrasts with the first book where it’s all Tamlin tricking her into saving the world and even though magically he isn’t supposed to tell her about the whole deal, he keeps an insane amount of information for her that put her in deep shit. Lack of choice is not romanticized in ACOTAR, and Tamlin choosing how Feyre should be protected for her is a major conflict in the second book. It’s seen as cruel, controlling and dehumanizing. Over and over again we have to read what Tamlin will let Feyre do, and what he won’t, and she comes to hate herself as she begs for permission to exist. This spirals out of control as Tamlin uses magic to lock her in their home and Feyre has a meltdown causing Rhysand to send one of his trusted allies (Morrigan, cool lady fae) to break Feyre out of her magical prison home and bring her to the Night Court (his lands.) 

Now what I expected for the rest of the book was Feyre spending time with Rhysand in the Night Court, it getting kinda flirty, her learning about herself so that she can convey her needs to Tamlin and the two (Feyre and Tamlin) can finally get married NOW that they are on equal ground. That’s what the second love interest exists for— to give our heroine the illusion of choice and growth while being passed on so she can preserve her purity. This is not at all what happens— Feyre falls out of love with Tamlin, and throughout the book realizes everything he’s done wrong… leading her to end shit with him.

The words became choked. I shook my head as if I could clear the remaining ones away. But I still spoke them “I’m thinking that I was a lonely, hopeless person, and I might have fallen in love with the first thing that showed me a hint of kindness and safety, And I’m thinking maybe he knew that— maybe not actively, but maybe he wanted to be that person for someone. And maybe that worked for who I was before. Maybe it dose’t work for who— what I am now.”

- A Court of Mist and Fury, pg 156

After Feyre arrives in Night Court she makes this confession to Rhysand about Tamlin. It shocked me more than any of the sex ever did. I was waiting for the words to turn, to make some space for Tamlin, some desire that might keep their romance alive, but that was it. Partially because of Tamlin’s actions, Feyre had fallen out of love with him, but also because she had changed as a person. Part of the power of ACOTAR is it allows it’s heroine to grow, change and make choices without invalidating the journey she been on. Tamlin wasn’t a wrong choice— he made sense then, but he doesn’t make sense now and that’s okay. The amount of straight women I know who have unhappily tried to stay in relationships because it used to be good or they felt they felt they owed some kind of debt to their partner is staggering. Women guilty to ask for what they need, guilty to change, guilty to grow. If Twilight offered the reader the freedom to lust, ACOTAR gives it’s readers the freedom to change. Feyre was truly in love with Tamlin— her love for him was so real it was able to save everyone from Amarantha’s evil curse, and that love is not invalidated because it went away. It’s a powerful thing in real life to say a woman can be in love more than once, and in fiction— it’s crazy because the first guy is the right guy. Suddenly I’m reading a book where it’s not about Feyre (and Tamlin) like Twilight is about Bella (and Edward), it’s truly a book about Feyre (just her) and her the choices she makes. Reading it offered me the strangest sense of freedom. I wished I could have sent the book to my younger self.

As Feyre works with Rhysand and the Night Court to stop the latest threat coming for Prythian (that’s what the faerie land is called), she learns more about herself and Rhysand and the roles that people play. She learns about the role Rhysand played to protect one of his major cities, Velaris, from Amarantha’s reach by being her whore and hiding it’s existence from her— that role being destructive to him physically and emotionally. The role he played as villain to help Feyre survive Amarantha’s tasks. Feyre unpacks the role that Tamlin expected her to play in his life as submissive wife that did not fit who she was becoming. The role she created for herself as a killer to protect her family. We all play roles for survival, self preservation and (as the book has fun exploring) pleasure, but ACOTAR is aware roles are not truth, they are choices we make for a myriad of reasons. By exploring these roles Feyre is able to get a truer sense of herself and her power— literally. What some might write off as “Mary-sue shit” is pivotal to understanding the gender politics of ACOTAR. Feyre was made into a faerie by the 12 faerie High Lords and received some of their power. However, that was not extra power, in accidentally giving Feyre some of their power, the High Lords lost some of theirs. There’s fear among Feyre’s allies, assuming that once the High Lords discover they lost power from Feyre, they will kill her to take it back. There is something very literal to this exchange of power that parallels so cleanly to our own world. In order to reach equality between men and women, women must gain some power and men must lose some. Some men see this as women having power OVER them and seek to take it back, but Feyre— once having zero powers, now has a little bit of everyone’s powers making her harder to control, but does not give her power OVER them. Too often are paintings of equality men and women both have the power to have jobs because the reality is men have the power to have jobs, earn money, make choices and marry a woman who will work for them in the capacity of homemaking, and women have the power to have jobs, earn money, and make some choices as long as it doesn’t violate the gendered promises made to men. I don’t feel like looking up the stats and articles but I’m sure you’ve seen the information showing how in this new time of “equality” there is no real equality when it comes to house work. Women can work but are also expected to work for their husbands as homemakers and childcare. Even when looking at a gendered division of household roles women are expected to do tasks like cooking and cleaning that take up a minimum of 2-3 hours every day, as opposed to men whose gendered tasks like mowing the lawn or cleaning the gutters happen once a month for 1-2 hours. The divide of labor in straight relationships is anything but equitable. In order to achieve equality, men must cede some of their power— they must become active participants in their relationships and families carrying and equal amount of the physical and emotional load, and that’s just happy positive side of the conversation. ACOTAR is not a challenging read in it’s text or plots or characters— it’s a challenging read in the way it asks us to look at the men in our lives and ask ourselves how those men actually see us.

Part of Feyre’s journey in A Court of Mist and Fury is understanding how Tamlin sees her. Tamlin who protected her and cared for her, truly saw her as property. Over and over again she is referred to as “his wife” under his control. Not long ago, that is how all women were viewed. It is only within the past 60 years women have gotten power to have credit cards, get no fault divorces, and make choices over our own bodies. In giving women that power, financially, personally, physically— men have lost some power. The refusal to acknowledge that loss of power has led to confused women and angry men. It’s not hard to see how a women being able to have her own credit would free her from being financially tied to a man. It is not hard to see how the power to divorce would keep a husband from being to treat his wife however he wants. It is not hard to see how a woman who can choose to have or not have a child on her own would be able to dictate her own life. With gaining power, there is loss of power— and by not engaging in that truth we rob ourselves of the truth and justness of equality. These changes politically, financially and socially have made men lose some of their power over women. The power that used to be supported by the state has been weakened. I feel that many women don’t want to say that part out loud, as if it’s embarrassing to acknowledge the ways men had/have power over us. I say us because it does feel icky to write it as much as it feels icky for men to hear it—- but it’s the reality. The power was/is inequitable. That is a loss of power— and that loss of power is necessary. Things can’t be built on unequal systems and then become equal but still be the same. If shits equal— shit is gonna look different, work different, be fucking different. To be equal they must change and people will be angry with that change. Feyre deals with the reality of that anger and fear it creates in relationships to the High Lords she gain her powers from and instead of pretend everything is the same like Tamlin wishes to, Rhysand supports Feyre in learning how to use her powers so that she can have agency in her life. Feyre with this new version of herself chooses to officially break up with Tamlin by sending him a letter she wrote. Reading and writing— both things Feyre DESERVES to know how to do. A power she deserves to have. A power that in this moment, frees her from Tamlin. 

A Court of Mist and Fury continues to grapple with the trope-y logic of the first novel as Feyre discovers that Rhysand has been lying to her. Rhysand is her mate— the bond that just happens to you and that connects you to another fae forever (not unsimilar to imprinting from Twilight). The thing the book is clear on is that mates don’t necessarily make you happy in the long run. There is a deep and powerful connection, but Rhysand is aware that while his parents WERE mates, his mother was also deeply unhappy. She came from a warrior class of fae with big bat wings called Illyrians that cut women’s wings so they can’t fly, and marrying Rhysand’s father ensured she wouldn’t be clipped because he’s not Illyrian and had different expectations for females. So being a mate isn’t romanticized and yet, Feyre and Rhysand are mates. She is furious at him for hiding this from her. While he explains how he wasn’t telling her for her own good (she was happy with Tamlin at the time, she just started to feel like she can make choices for herself, his mother was unhappy ETC), the new Feyre can tell him she deserved to know— that she decides what is for her own good. She gets all mad and leaves, and when they talk again Rhysand explains “mates” to her. Feyre can reject the bond. It’s magical or some shit so she has a choice in this— she can reject or accept the bond. She thinks back on the way he has truly treated her like a friend, like an equal, like a person. He tells him of his love for her, and she finally accepts the love she has felt for him the whole book and by extension does this food ritual that physically makes the magic lock in place. THEN they finally have the sex they’ve been fucking taunting us with for PAGES and PAGES! It’s great. Had a lot of fun reading it. No one says punctured that I can remember, so if you’re gonna be mad at a book for writing a sex scene attack the words they actually use like taste or play. Attack play. BACK TO THE BOOK— As the book wraps up, Tamlin has gone like super crazy and is working with the King of Hybern (the new big bad) to help him take over Prynthian so he can enslave all humans again in exchange for him helping Tamlin “save” Feyre. Unwilling to accept her agency, Tamlin has created the narrative that Feyre has been tricked into being with Rhysand— that this was not a choice she made on her own and that Tamlin knows what choices are good for her. As much as Tamlin tries to make this sound romantic, the King of Hybern bad guy lays out the truth clearly and bluntly, referring to Tamlin as Feyre’s master and explaining how he will return Feyre to Tamlin. ANYWAY— that big ass cauldron is already there and both of Feyre’s sisters (Nesta and Elaine) have been kidnapped by Hybern are forced into it and changed into Fae against their will. In order to like temporarily save everyone, Feyre plays the role that Tamlin wants of her— feeble and needing to be saved. She lies and says that Rhysand had been controlling her mind with his sexy mind powers and Tamlin’s love has saved her, ensuring Rhysand and friends to escape safely with her sisters. The big reveal at the end— Feyre is doing this as a trick and that not only is she mated to Rhysand— they have magically/legally made her High Lady of the Night Court.

SIDE NOTE FOR PEOPLE WHO ARE ANNOYING: They’re like she was illiterate and Rhysand can control minds how is he supposed to know this is a real break up??? But when Lucien (Tamlin’s BFF) comes to “save” her she is really clearly not being mind controlled and is like no I’m done. When you think of ACOTAR in terms of agency and subversion it’s clear the meaning it has that the power she did not have (reading and writing) to take control of her life and relationships. When you think about the books through this lens it’s fucking ridiculous you bitches aren’t excited for the Elaine book!!!

Feyre becoming High Lady is interesting in contrast with Tamlin telling her there is no such thing at the beginning of A Court of Mist and Fury. It highlights that the world isn’t the way it is— we choose what we want it to be. All it took for Rhysand to make Feyre High Lady was to do it. She is the first High Lady ever, a true equal to Rhysand in terms of power politically and magically, making his lands truly their lands. Meanwhile Tamlin’s hold to tradition is not truly out of respect for the past, but over fear of what he will lose if he changes that world. In the third book, Feyre is working to undermine Tamlin who has allied himself with Hybern by pretending to be in love with Tamlin again. I thought the book was really going to give Tamlin’s side of the story, play the love triangle situation— and instead I was shocked to read Feyre’s assessment of Tamlin now that she’s seen past the mask and is playing the role he wants and expect her to play in his life— as property. It is clear in the way the evil emissaries of Hybern talk about Feyre as they refer to her as the “High Lord’s belonging”. Feyre uses Tamlin’s need to cling to his role as unquestionable patriarch of the lands against him— seeing her as property is a weakness— She turns him against his best friend Lucien and the people of his land against him (Tamlin). When she has gathered enough information on Hybern, Feyre flees with Lucien to the Night Court, where Feyre begins to assert herself publicly as a High Lady. An interesting parallel I noted when reading regarded the post war feelings of other fae towards humans. Feyre doesn’t get why fae under Hybern’s rule would want this war but it’s explained to her “Hybern’s people are hungry for change. Or rather… a change back to the old days, when they had human slaves to do their work, when there were no barriers keeping them for what they now perceive as their right” (A Court of Wings and Ruin, 164). It’s not hard to parallel this to the way Tamlin views Feyre as his property, but the parallel feels clearly connected to our real world which is fighting to escape patriarchy. There are men who look back on the times of absolute patriarchy as better times and have no been asked to imagine anything else. They add while explaining to Feyre about Hybern “Don’t forget that their king has encouraged these limited world views.” It’s not subtle and describes manosphere spaces where isolationism, nationalism, biological essentialism and other anti-science views are encouraged at the denigration of women. Painting pictures of 1950’s nuclear family ads as if they were not only real, but something that could be reinstated. However in the descriptions of Hybern’s people, there is a sense of empathy for their anger. I’d argue that while ACOTAR is anti-patriarchy, it is at no point anti-man. It is a book desperately asking women to look at the men in their lives and men to look at themselves.

Tamlin goes on quite the emotional journey as he is forced to unpack his relationship with Feyre. First she’s pretending they’re in love and he is trying to balance his patriarchal toxic ways he values with sensitivity toward Feyre and what he put her through when he locked her up. It’s clear: there is no balance. There is no equality without change and there is no change without a redistribution of power. His court falls apart and he blames Feyre for turning them against him because it is partially true, but also he is in no way able to acknowledge how is allying with Fascist Fae actually lined up with his way of ruling (heavily enforcing protocol and status and shit). Tamlin goes to a meeting with all the High Lords to make a plan to stop Hybern from taking over, but is furious with Feyre for choosing Rhysand over him. He connects this to Rhysand making her High Lady as he tells Feyre “It was not enough to sit at my side, was it? You once asked if you’d be my High Lady and when I said no… Perhaps I underestimated you. Why serve in my court, when you could rule in his?” He rewrites Feyre’s search for equality as ambition. This struck me, as I assume it struck many women, who demand equality and are painted as greedy and ambitious. However, Tamlin isn’t just a nasty ex in the third book, he is a complicated one. At one point he is working with Hybern in order to weaken them from within, and saves Feyre’s life. He struggles with how to view her and himself, but at the end of the war when Rhysand dies, Tamlin chooses to help bring him back to life for Feyre. Many readers online discuss at length wanting a redemption arc for Tamlin. I believe that they see the men in their life in Tamlin, and feel pain as he is vilified. They see what is good in these Tamlin men, they see the way the world as distorted their perception of women, and they want the men they love redeemed… and really I think they’re gonna get it. At least in the books.

Gonna? Yes, ACOTAR wraps up the story of Feyre in the first three books, but the books continue the story with a new big bad and new all powerful magical items no one talks about, but everyone knows about (a fav fantasy trope of mine). Why more books? Like the first book set up the tropes of a romance novel and the second book subverted those tropes, I believe the second ACOTAR trilogy will subvert the expectations of the first trilogy. Feyre is an all powerful perfect every-girl, and she did not defy all the tropes of fantastical romance. Her mate was right for her! She accepted the bond! She didn’t choose to become Fae but she’s happier that way! She doesn’t want to fight, but she’s really good at it! With the male female romance binary that has been set up, we have not fully escaped a heteronormative world (a product of patriarchy). There’s Morrigan, a fae who is a lesbian, but hiding it from everyone because she knows that society expects her to “breed”. What happens with her sexuality in regards to the mating bond? What is a world and future for her? There’s Nesta and Elaine (Feyre’s sisters if you forgot— I know this essay is long) who lost agency over their bodies the moment they were forced to become fae and unlike Feyre are NOT happy about it. There’s Elaine who is mated to Lucien, but clearly has NO feelings for him. There’s Amren (an ancient being) who chooses to be a female when she creates her fae form because she prefers it aesthetically. There are all sorts of ideas being set up in the final book that are not addressed, but challenge the romantasy tropes the first trilogy has set up. I’m interested and I think Maas is interested— because her audience is growing. For many years I had considered romance books a part of my past, my childhood, and since diving in have been wholly bought on the series, and I know it’s not just me. People are quietly reading it, like the man I saw in the airport who bent it in half to hide what he was reading. 

In the fourth and fifth books, some of the things presented in the third book begin to be addressed. The fourth book is like a novella where Feyre decides she wants to have kids. The fifth book, is from Nesta’s POV and continues on what women have a “right” to. Nesta, struggling with the death of her father in the war and the loss of her mortal body becomes an alcoholic so Feyre threatens to withdraw her financial support if Nesta doesn’t clean up. Cassian trains Nesta in fighting so she can steady her mind. At first she rejects because she does not understand learning to fight without the goal of being a warrior, but then discovers that it is her and every female’s right to know how to defend herself. She extends this right to other females— mostly priestesses who work in the library and have been assaulted, and an Illyrian female who’s wings were clipped. Nesta and her new lady friends find out that there was a whole group of lady fae warriors and are inspired to be like them, but this pisses off the male Illyrian warriors. Nesta and her friends have no need to line up with the men’s expectations of them, but are forced to go through with the male Illyrian’s warrior test (a three day blood bath up a mountain) where Maas touches on the anger of the males who think females should not have the power of violence. Nesta and friends continue to not need to prove anything to the males and instead they prove themselves to one another by protecting each other. In the end Nesta is able to agency over her safety, pain, and self thanks to the discipline that training in fighting has given her. This was not challenging, but inspiring, unlike Feyre’s pregnancy (the other big plotline in the book). Basically Feyre fucked while having wings and now her baby is going to have wings and the birth will probably kill her, but no one is telling Feyre because she really wants this baby because it’s hard to conceive as a fae. When Feyre finds out, she gets all mad at Rhysand for not telling her, but what’s interesting about this is that it’s not just Feyre’s life on the line, but Rhysand’s too. They made a bargain that if one died, the other dies too, so if she dies in childbirth so does Rhysand. I found it funny, thinking of the men who were reading this and how they must have wanted Feyre to nobly try and have the baby until they found out the man’s life was not only at risk— it was Feyre’s choice whether he lived or died. And she’s like I’m still gonna try and have the baby. In the end it works out because Nesta has death magic and changes Feyre’s vagina— which brings me back to change.

People talk so much shit on this series with their false dichotomies of what art is and what makes art important and shit. The A Court of Thorns and Roses series is severely misunderstood— the narrative around it being because it describes sex and oral and back muscles at length being why people are obsessed with it, but I heartily disagree. The series has become a phenomenon because it offers it’s readers the freedom to change not just themselves, but by extension the world around them. We are introduced to women who are allowed to change and grow and learn and fail, and by extension we as readers are allowed to as well. We are introduced to a changing world and a changing status quo. The book romanticizes the men and women (sorry males and females because they’re not human SO THEY CAN’T BE MEN AND WOMEN! THEY’RE FAE! WHATEVER! Maybe this furthers gender as roles and not biology IDK ask me TWO MORE BOOKS FROM NOW) who know that challenging the status quo is our only way to true freedom, true love, and true equality. In the end, ACOTAR is not a difficult read, it’s a challenging one. Love is such a universal experience, it seems foolish not to meditate on love and it’s relationship to sex, self, and the world around is. ACOTAR requires us to ask questions of ourselves and of our lovers. It requires us to see ourselves under the harsh light of patriarchy. It requires us to contend with the world we will accept at the cost of the world we can build. Also I like reading sex scenes— why the fuck is that so bad???