Solidarity with anyone frustrated by this series

ETA: I kind of expected this to get downvoted and dismissed right to hell but I just want to say thanks for everyone who engaged! you helped respark the excitement about picking this up again after being so frustrated. really appreciate y'all helping me process some of this to be less annoyed 🤣

First things first - if you love this series this is not meant as an attack. If you are the kind of reader that is just in it for the vibes, I respect the hell out of that and I am super jealous that experience books that way.

But I want to get some things off my chest, so this post if for those folks that are frustrated by the hype around how good this series is. Because while it's good like Chips Ahoy! will scratch an itch for a chocolate chip cookie, it's not the same as those secret family recipe, fresh out of the oven cookies.

I am not done with OS so some of these things might get addressed in the book but I feel like if I dont vent I can't give it a fair shot.

First:

I will die on the hill that if Xaden wasn't hot and didn't know how to to f*ck people would not be so ride or die for him. His obsession and need for Violet is reaching stalker levels of creepy. After Violet ran off with her squad to save Maren's family he tells her that he was so afraid of losing her "he would have drained the very earth to keep [her] safe". This is not romantic! This would have killed the very civillians Violet was so intent on saving. This is psychotic.

Second:

Violet, we get it. Your basement floods everytime Xaden breathes. But for the love of God, holding Xaden accountable for his actions does not mean you dont love him or you don't trust him. I can't get over how toxic this relationship is and how many people idolize it. It genuinely worries me.

Third:

I cannot with the lack of strategic thinking in this book. Yarros does it to move the plot forward but it feels SO lazy. Like who in the hell is the leadership in this book? And why is it petty men who feel like they need to exert their power by one upping twenty-somethings? I feel like I am reading about if the Trump Administration was running a dragon school. Like do these people not get the same intel as the cadets are getting in battle brief? What general is going to send cadets, one who is the BEST weapon against Venin, to the front? Why are you sending a freaking target to your forces?

Fourth: There is WAY too much going on without enough context. Yarros dropped us in book 3 expecting us to remember all the nuance and the magic system. And she keeps dropping new things. I am barely keeping up with the teensy blink and you miss it plot points from last book. Who is Tecarus? What is this bargin? Why is Mira nullifying ruins? How are Barlowe and Xaden still hanging out in Basgaith with the wards up and how are venin getting in? Oh and also a bunch of rebellion kids have 2nd signets? Isn't that supposed to dangerous? I feel like she could maybe switch half the text that involves Violet being obsessed with Xaden blinking to remind us what is happening in this world and why it's important. It's like she forget that we aren't living in it.

Any how. I feel better. Like I said not trying to trash this book, or Yarros or tell people why they are wrong for loving it. Just some things I needed to get out of my head.

Happy reading folks!