ACOTAR - Full Highlights and Notes

 

Idk what anyone says, he's still the hottest high lord and I'd still let him eat me alive.

There's really no point in putting up an ACOMAF highlight notebook without doing the same for ACOTAR, because you cannot look at both independently of each other and hope to understand why 1). Tamlin is deserving of our sympathy and 2). Apparently SJM has selective memory when it comes to her own writing.

In any case, here are my notes on book 1.  Feel free to send them to any Rhys stan who insists Tamlin was always awful or that Rhys was always good.

ACOMAF Re-Read - Complete Notes, Quotes, and Criticisms

Don’t worry, Tam Tam. I’m on your side. 

Below is the full export of all of my highlights and notes, collected during my recent critical re-read of ACOMAF.  I tried my hardest to focus only on passages that showcased either the blatant revisionary approach SJM took to Tamlin, the blatant hypocrisy exhibited by both Feyre and Rhys, or if you're really lucky, both.

As you can see the infodump is massive, which leads whether or not SJM even tried to be careful about how she was even contradicting her own work.  My gut tells me that, much like Feyre, she's often enamored of her own cleverness, and thinks she was probably being like super-smart about dismantling every single thing Rhys did wrong in book one (to make it be right) and every good thing Tamlin ever did (to make it be wrong).  I can literally see the bullet-point list in my imagination, and her ticking off items one by one, cackling in glee. 

What she, and the less mentally independent readers out there, see as cleverness, I just see as laziness, because for all of her very thorough efforts to showcase Rhys as the good guy all along, she appears to have completely ignored the fact that she's created the two most blatantly oblivious characters in the history of YA/NA Fantasy Romance, neither of which have any awareness of the fact that they are actually not the heroes they think they are, but are instead sanctimonious, condescending Mary-Sues.  I’ve found that taking that perspective makes re-reads much more bearable, because I’m sure Feyre and Rhys will never get their comeuppance, and certainly not in the way Tamlin has. 

Excuses, Excuses (ACOMAF Re-read)

A victim of his creator

 

Chapter 55 is probably the most well-known chapter in the entire series.  I'm not going to go in to why, but while I will say that what I found kinda hot 3 years ago, I can barely stomach listening to/reading now.

So while chapter 55 is infamous, I think Chapter 54 might actually be the most important one in the entire series, certainly the first two books.  Tamlin's retcon had been slowly building since page one of ACOMAF, it's Chapter 54 that really buries him.

It's basically a pages long explanation of why Rhys isn't anything like what we knew of him in book one, setting up the smut to come in the next chapter (because how could our heroine ever fuck a guys that isn't perfect).

Long story short, he knew of Feyre before she ever came to Prythian, he loved her from the first, and every last thing Rhys ever did was done with the express purpose of being near her, or being with her, or whatever.  I forget.  My brain got addled from all the eye-rolling.

It's obviously supposed to be some grand, romantic thing (it's destiny! it's fate!), but it also reveals what a lot of the fandom already suspects about him - that he's a manipulative, self-centered....prick.

SJM methodically tries to tie up every loose end imaginable with regard to Rhys's true character, but I am still left with so many unanswered questions.

My name is Danielle, and I am a Tamlin Apologist (an ACOTAR re-read)

 Admitting you have a problem is the first step in recovery, right?

I will not feel bad for loving you Tamlin, and not just because you're super hot.

Problem is, I don't really hate Tamlin, not like I'm apparently supposed to, and certainly like I felt like I should (and sort of did) after witnessing his total 180 (or retcon, tomato tomahto) in ACOMAF.  I changed my tune pretty quickly though when 1). I saw what a bleating, whiny, overpowered cunt Feyre became as you progressed through the series, and 2). I couldn't help but feel bad the more everyone in the vaunted inner circle started shitting on him, and not only shitting on him, but like actually enjoying shitting on him.

The issue that really rubs me the wrong way is sort of twofold:

1. I did NOT appreciate the deepfake SJM pulled with the love interests.  At that point I had very much already decided that Tamlin was my new book boyfriend, because the whole Beauty and the Beast thing is sort of my catnip.
2. The more I thought about, and the more I payed attention to Tamlin's behavior (from Under the Mountain through ACOMAF), the more I saw that he was hurting just as badly as Feyre, but dealing with it in a wholly different way.

So in any case, this is my first "re-read" of the series since I originally read them way back in 2019 I think?  Re-read in quotes because I'm listening on audiobook on my daily commute.  I've been listening specifically for hints that SJM may have dropped as to Tamlin's "true nature", and outside of several mentions of his temper, I'm not really seeing anything.  I'm juxtaposing this with Feyre's first meeting with Rhys (mostly because I literally just listened to that this morning so it's fresh in my mind) and I can see now that there was something, an attraction at least, even then.  I don't think, given even this small scene at this point, that SJM just suddenly decided to make Rhys the hero and Tamlin the bad guy in book 2; I think she was planning on Rhys stepping into that role all along, and it's fairly obvious that she was laying that groundwork.  What she did a shitty, lazy job on (at least from a reader's perspective at this point, as technically the series is still unfinished and Tamlin's ultimate fate still malleable) was explaining away Tamlin's behavior in book 2 as "well he's just an asshole" instead of "he's a guy dealing with some serious shit and doing a really bad job of it and goddammit someone please help him).  Feyre is our heroine, so presumably we're supposed to agree with her most of the time and find her motivations believable, and if we're supposed to believe that she really loves Tamlin because he is actually a really decent guy underneath that gruff, beastly exterior (just like the Disney cartoon).

Building off that, if you ask me, thus far all I know of Tamlin (I'm just past Calanmai) is that he had a shitty childhood, absolutely zero familial support, and nobody paid enough attention to him to even tell him that maybe acting like a wild animal most of the time isn't so good?  So basically it's kind of all he knows; this fits in with the whole "beast" aspect of his story.  We've also seen enough at this point (his thoughtfulness with encouraging Feyre's painting, the way he cared for the wingless fairy, etc) to see that there is a much gentler aspect to his personality, underneath the exterior gruffness (much like the eventual redemption of the beast).  

There are definitely shadows of his eventual overprotectiveness, especially with him telling Feyre to lock herself in her room at Calanmai, but still, he's telling her, not forcing her as he does in the next book.  I guess some would say that even something like that is unforgiveable, but I can't fault a guy for being overprotective, especially when she decides to leave anyway and almost gets sexually assaulted by those fairies.  He also knew what the magic of this night did to him, and I'm guessing didn't want to risk hurting her.  Of course, he could have just told her about this.  It's not like there's really any point in protecting her delicate human sensibilities given that she's in Prythian for life at this stage.  I always assumed (I forget at this point if/when it's stated outright) that Tam never explains the whole curse/mask/blight thing in detail because the curse itself doesn't actually allow him to, but there's no reason that he can't talk in detail about stuff like this.  Was he embarrassed?  Did he not want to risk offending Feyre (and thus ruining his courtship of her and his chance to break the curse) or does he just not think to talk to her about stuff like this.  I think ACOMAF Tam leads the reader to believe that he's just a secretive misogynistic asshole that doesn't want to trouble Feyre's delicate female brain with the complexities of Calanmai, but I counter that with the fact that he's revealed plenty of his past and life at this point that someone who was otherwise a secretive asshole probably wouldn't have done.  

Oh, he's just being a manipulative asshole who's trying to woo Feyre for his own benefit (getting that mask off his face), you say?  To that I counter with that at this stage in the story he quite obviously cares for his people - he says it plenty, and demonstrates it with his care in tending his borders and particularly with the way he cared for that blue fairy.  I know all of this can be interpreted as him really laying it on thick so Feyre falls for him, but if he was really concerned about that I don't think he would have slipped the way he did the night of Calanmai.

At this point in the story, other than be gruff and standoffish at times, Tamlin hasn't yet done anything really objectionable.  You CANNOT count the Calanmai bite/fairy hickey because first, he warned her and fey have already been portrayed as animalistic on some level, and second, she admitted to herself that she did enjoy it more than a little bit.

I'm really looking forward to revisiting the Under the Mountain stuff to look for things I might have missed the first time or forgotten.

Lastly, That’s not to say that I think his behavior is acceptable or that it can be explained away like Rhys’s, rather that he’s not some mindlessly cruel beast, and that while he has issues and definitely needs help, A) so does Rhys and B) he meant well in his own way. The wrong thing done for the right reasons is still the wrong thing, you know? 

I am determined to not feel guilty for my Tamlin love and my exceedingly strong desire for a redemption arc and happy ending for him. I mean if Rhys can be a total fucking’ creeper and still find true love surely Tam can too. 

A Court of Hypocrites and Assholes (ACOMAF Re-Read, Chapters 25-31)

 

He looks so angry because he's smelling Feyre's bullshit.  She might think it doesn't stink, but it does.

I was not going to post another re-cap so soon, but the some of the shit said in these past few had me so boiling mad that I needed to unload or I'd wind up destroying my study like big, bad Tamlin.

To be honest, I'm not sure how the hell this went down so smoothly the first time I read it - maybe I just didn't care, and maybe I was distracted by Rhys and his pseudo-flirtatious creepiness (only acceptable from guys that are hot, fyi).  

I'm rarely extra critical of books on a first pass, especially ones that rely heavily on world building and mythology, mostly because I'm too busy trying to follow the story and the details.  Feyre is really fucking unlikeable though - she's self-absorbed, selfish, arrogant, and completely lacking in any sort of self-awareness.  Rhys, as most of us are aware, is a manipulative asshole.  I actually think Feyre mentions that he's a manipulative prick on multiple occasions, but again, he's hot and rich, and oh-so-powerful, so she'll accept it.  

Feyre should win first place in the Darwin awards - I mean that not in the sense that the Darwin Award books do, but rather that she'll align herself with whoever the most powerful guy in the room is, all because it makes her feel more powerful and more likely to survive.  She obviously gets off on power, and you can practically see her preening every time Rhys (the most powerful high lord in history, don't forget) throws himself at her, or literally kneels before her.  Feyre might like to think she's Ms. Independent, but she already starting to base her own self-worth off of those that are around her; like, this guy is so hot and he's into me, thus I am equally hot.  Not to mention we haven't even really gotten to the parts where Rhys starts kissing her ass with every other breath.  I said it before but I'll say it again.  Feyre 2.0 got an upgraded life, upgraded body, upgraded powers, and suddenly Tamlin (still mired in his own bullshit and depressed and angry as all hell) didn't cut it anymore.

In short, these last few chapters, while really only the beginning of the saga of Rhys and Feyre, have provided scads of evidence that the entire IC is a bunch of hypocritical, selfish assholes whose favorite pastime isn't so much dancing at Rita's as it is projecting their own shortcoming and faults on to others.

Happily Ever After...for now (an ACOTAR re-read)

Some day your prince(ss) will come, Tam.

 

So I finally made it to the end.  There are a couple of big points that I wanted to note (thank the Cauldron for Audible's bookmark feature.  FYI the OCD part of me is probably going to go back and mark everything in my Kindle that I missed first go around, because I'm insane):

Hindsight is 20/20 (an ACOTAR re-read Chapters 27-36)

 This book is doing nothing to convince me that Tamlin really was a shit from the jump, as so many who jumped to Team Rhys would like one to believe.

Don't get me wrong, the breadcrumbs are definitely there if you look/listen for them, but really all I'm learning on this go-around is that it seems like Tam really never had a chance at all.  I learned that quite a bit with the exposition on Tam's past from Alys.  

He was raised by a shitty father who encouraged his violence and shit on his fiddle playing dreams, had shittier brothers who wanted to murder him for having the genetic misfortune to be stronger than them, and still he found it in him to be the best man he could.  He was by all accounts a good, even somewhat progressive high lord.  He put effort in to being as different as he could from him.  

Feyre certainly loved him to do what she did, and Tamlin obviously loved her, because he wouldn't have taken such a turn as he did if she meant nothing to him.  Despite being arrogant (and I think all high fae are to some degree), he's not unwilling to debase himself and literally beg Rhys to not tell Amarantha about Feyre, despite his history with Rhys, which would you lead you to believe that a guy like Tamlin (and certainly a guy like he eventually becomes) would be totally unwilling to do.

Tamlin didn't keep secrets from Feyre at this point except where he required to according to the magic of the curse.

So I'm not really seeing, outside of his temper, all the signs of him always being the controlling misogynist he becomes in the rest of the series.

Rather he seems like a guy that's been trying for a long time and not getting anywhere, has some level of low self esteem (to give up and think that nobody could actually love him enough to break the curse and to still be willing to tell that person, a human, that he loves her), and is just tired and wants to give up.  

I've seen a lot of people point out the fact that Rhys was strong enough to keep going, even after fifty years of abuse, and Tam just gave up.  So yeah, he gave up 🤷🤷🤷.  He shut down, as is evidenced time and time again under the mountain.  So what? Not all of us are strong enough to keep fighting; I don't think that means that he never really loved Feyre or really appreciated her enough to fight for her.  He's a different guy, so he deals with things differently than someone like Rhys.  

He did send her away to keep her safe, even though he had three days left in which Feyre could very well have said the words that would have freed them all. So yeah, he might have essentially sacrificed his court to protect just Feyre, but Rhys does no better later on.  I'd posit that Tamlin just loves differently than Rhys, and eventually not in the way Feyre needs, but certainly not any less in his mind.

Is one really better than the other?