If you’ve been in a bookstore lately, you’ve undoubtedly seen it: A Court of Thorns and Roses, better known as ACOTAR, ruling over the paperback bestsellers with all its sequel pals. These books are behemoths. They’re massive. They’ve sold millions upon millions of copies. They’re about faeries. And they’re very, very hot.
Culture writer (and lifelong fantasy reader) Kathryn VanArendonk joins me to talk all things ACOTAR, from “is the writing bad” and “is that actually an interesting question” to “is Feyre secretly a horrible painter” and “wtf is happening with book four.”
The podcast conversation is neatly divided, so you can listen to the first half without spoilers or without any previous knowledge of the books, and the second half (behind the paywall) is more of an ACOTAR book club, where we work through specific questions about plotting, characterization, and Feyre’s aforementioned painting skills.
And if you want even more ACOTAR content, head over to the Culture Study newsletter for everything I’ve been thinking about that didn’t make its way into this episode.
Show Notes:
Done with ACOTAR and need another fantasy fix?
We’re currently looking for your questions for future episodes about:
What’s the deal with JEANS right now (alternate title = Jeans: Help)
Sephora Teens and teen skincare/makeup culture
How we talk about the royals today
Beyond Ballerina Farm [and is there such a thing as too much tradwife discourse? How do we critique but also not celebritize?]
WHAT CELEBRITY IMAGE SHOULD WE UNPACK NEXT?
Online shopping culture, including but not limited to people’s reliance on reviews and/or compulsion to leave reviews
The romance novel boom
Anything you need advice on!
You can submit them (and ideas for future eps) here (and here’s the subscriber-only priority form)
For today’s discussion: I don’t even need to give you a prompt, I know you have thoughts
