🥴🥴🥴

Currently permanently beating myself up bc I feel like my writing is bad. Thanks for the reassurance! :D

I think it speaks more to the pitfalls of trad publishing. Apparently, trad publishers are not immune to hype, tiktok trends, skipping the Hire an Editor phase, and publishing subpar books. It annoys me to no end that trad publishing is put on some kind of pedestal, like all trad published books are superior. 🙄 They're not. And we need to stop playing the trad game. Indie authors can be just as good or bad as traditionally published authors. There's literally no difference any more. It used to be the only difference left was that a trad publisher would market your book for you, but they don't even do that much any more. Hence, taking on Light Lark, an already hyped book with a large fanbase before the book was even written. They took her on because they had literally no work to do except to rake in the cash. And it worked. And the only person that suffered for it was the author. Her publisher used her. They seem not to have even spent money on an editor for her. Her publisher sucks and no one has called them out on their b.s. They won.

Eggggggs

She comes from a rich family tho so she did have connections that helped her get her foot in the door when it came to her agent. The sad part was that her editor quit because of Lightlark. Aster kept shoving this book down her throat to the point that a grown woman had to quit.

hope you had a great time!!!

I had no idea this was her second channel too! Time to check out the main :D

Omg avatar guy hiiii

Was not expecting to see you in the comments but pleasantly surprised 😄

i really wanted to like the fourth wing, hut i couldn't get through it so i had to dnf it.

Me too. I was writing a retelling of Mulan in a African settings. I gave up on it then I read lightlark. I think I have started writing my book😂😂😂

agreed!

I know that's a lie though, cuz one of my friends reads fantasy ALL the time, super big reader, and she LOVED fourth wing and has been recommending it to me so hard. I've only read a few chapters so far, but as a big big fantasy reader myself, I've been enjoying it. So like ?? So far I've been loving the main character, and I find that surprising because honestly it's been a while since I've loved a main character. but I haven't gotten far so maybe my opinion doesn't hold much weight, but like I said, my friend who is a super big reader, super big fantasy reader, absolutely loved it so like *shrug*

yesss!! also the inconsistent world-building and plot holes were offensive to me 🥴

@@sindrealight5182 It's not a "lie" just because you have an anecdote to counter it lmao. I read tons of fantasy and found Fourth Wing cringe at best. It's just a worse version of the Dragon Riders of Pern mixed with ACOTAR romantasy cringe, nothing new.

I read buckets of fantasy and YA and enjoyed it loads. There's always the over-done tropes but that's just what I've come to expect from these books. I enjoyed the world building and romance and felt it was better than other equally hyped books

omg such a good idea hahahha

Same 😂 I take notes, observe and then check 6 to 9 months later at least if it's actually worth my money 😁

I do this too! It’s like book jail, a lot go in, not many make it out 😂

@jac me too! I'm very hesitant to read fourth wing😭

this is so clever

yes all the way to the nostalgia part!!

Yes to this! It was a fun binge read and the nostalgia really worked for me. It felt like a real resurgence of YA from 10-15 years ago, with more diversity and for a slightly older audience. (Not a huge fan of some of these comments implying enjoying it means you aren't ~sophisticated~ enough for "real" fantasy though lol.)

Agree!🎉

This. It was a fun binge, but nothing that would deserve 5 stars reviews. I'd personally give it 3 to 3,5 stars; fun, scratched that fantasy with dragon riders itch. It's like comparing a Big Mac trio to a five course meal from a fancy restaurant. I've still enjoyed it, I'm still going to read the sequels, but I don't expect the Empyrean series to be world-shattering litterature. If I want breath-taking high fantasy, I know I can look elsewhere. But if I want brain candy, this is a good fit.

we do not allow beards in this house!!!

Lol me too! I finished it and decided to do a deep dive and completely missed that he had a beard lol

I read it in record time myself! I also had the story invading my dreams, so I had to finish it, LOL!

I buddy read the book and from the first chapters me and my friend faked amnesia and ignored completely about his beard, still we got to hate him so the beard was just another minus to his character

A sexy beard tho! 😄 look at pics on Google. It isn't that bad. And I didn't realize it either! Lol I pictured a clean shaved goody too shoes vibe.

10000%

Oh wow I didn’t know she wrote a book before “Lightlark”! My sister just finished reading it so I borrowed but haven’t started yet. I didn’t know there was so much hype (good and bad) behind this book 🙂

Oh wow I didn’t know she wrote a book before “Lightlark”! My sister just finished reading it so I borrowed but haven’t started yet. I didn’t know there was so much hype (good and bad) behind this book 🙂

thank you!!

yeah it was just a fun book so im mad that people are talking about it like its a life changing experience when its just...not hahah did i have a good time? for the most part yea! will i reread this and make it my whole personality? hard no hahhaha

@@fa3ryg1rl1 lol what? when did i say you werent allowed to be positively affected by a book? these are my opinions pls 😭😂

As you said, it was a good time. Sometimes I don't need to be shocked, sometimes I need to be given exactly what I expect. Sometimes it is better to just give the readers what they want, lmao.

good to know! like i said, i havent watched it and i just said dont understand the phenomenon of THIS book inspiring multi hour vids, i saw another 4hr vid, etc. Like, its a forgettable book - why did we collectively make it such a huge deal lol

@@caricanread lol I think he was mad about all the time he wasted rereading it trying to understand it

​@@caricanread it definitely came off as...have you heard of the "sacrificial trash" phenomenon? Where something honestly mediocre, or even bad but not legendarily so by its own merit, gets slung around as emblematic of LITERALLY EVERYTHING WRONG WITH its respective medium - I think that's what happened to Lightlark, and I still don't quite know why. But I do love a good 7-hour readalong/dissection, to me that's where it crosses over from excessive (harassment) into excessive (good fun to leave on in the background of your day)...though anyone who devotes that much time to nitpicking is bound to say an obtuse thing or two in the name of keeping up the character of the hardened cynic, most of the points in it were thoughtful tangents OFF the book itself.

@@caricanread also, his videos are usually long format going incredibly deep into books but usually they are split up into parts. So a 7hr video doesn’t feel excessive to me😭. I’m not sure about other book tubers, but I know Crimson to be incredibly thorough.

@@caricanread That's kind of his format - he doesn't post very often or about a lot of books, but when he does it's long. And it's quite interesting, he goes in depth into the plot, reads parts of the book to give context and offers how some aspects could be done differently. While I agree that some books are criticised in a way that's weird, I just don't think this video would be an example of that. But yeah, some books just feel like scapegoats for the internet's entertainment.

Same!!

Omg I connect with everything you said!!!!!! I haven't felt connected to a book in years! I'm ok with being on the hype train. It's fun being part of a Fandom and waiting for the books to come out and going go see the movie and listening to the soundtracks. I missed that feeling so much! I'm obsessed with Fourth Wing! And the smut scenes were a bonus cuz we got to see what we didn't see in Twilight and Divergent! I low key wanted more of the sexy scenes with Edward and Bella! I wanted more Tris & Four! And Fourth WIng layed it all out for us! 😆 I'm excited we have a few more books to go cuz the anticipation and excited is fun! Plus they are making a show! 🥳 I'm here for it all!!!!

Also how is acotar? I was curious about that but wasn't sure 🤔

exactly lol it should have had zero hype at all :')

I'll also add, his reviews are fantastic for writers to see how certain passages and themes can be interpreted. not for everyone but I love his reviews.

Ya I watched the whole 7 hours (first of his videos i watched too), and I liked how he explained the downfalls and made suggestions on how they could have been fixed. I think it's helpful for writers, so that they dont make the same mistakes (but idk im not a writer).

oh yes, i'm over six hours into the video and i really appreciate how thorough he has been with the content of the book and the context of its publication

Same! As a writer, Krimson's videos are free education. I always learn something or find myself considering something about my own WIP.

Exactly. Fantasy is a little tough to navigate if you dont have a long attention span imo. Many people hate descriptive world building and get bored with flowery prose, so for them fourth wing is a great intro into the genre. It also has romance which is one of the most popular genres.

And that's a good thing!

Eww, how insulting to equate this book to Colleen Hoover's writing. I'd go with Emily Henry instead. Her works have been known to be so many people's gateway to reading.

@@Luxmundee yes, lol. that’s what i meant. colleen hoover is a paint by the numbers romance when there’s a lot of other superior romances out there (case in point, emily henry). fourth wing is a paint by the numbers fantasy novel when there are a lot of better fantasies out there.

yes! i got back into reading because of colleen hoover, but i now know that there are much better authors out there:)

i just wonder what was it about this book that is making non fantasy readers pick it up? I feel like its marketed the same so what made this one get all those readers across the bridge so to speak hahah

@@caricanread for me it was a tik tok where the girl said it wasn't the best prose or anything, but it was just a lot of fun and the romance was there but didn't completely overtake the plot - and when i read it, it was all the satisfying "winning" moments, it made it somewhat low stakes which is great for my anxiety 😂

​@@malintriesomg! Exactly that. Low stakes. Perfect for my anxiety. I feel seen! 🤍

​@@malintries oh that's interesting, i do read high fantasy but i also didn't start that long ago and when i think of myself from when i first started to read fantasy, i know i would've hated this book because of the logic mistakes and lack commentary on things that so easily could be added (unfairness and violence in military academies? Hello?) and just the lack of emotions over deaths of STUDENTS in this school, it's just so unfair why would they kill them before training them-😭 I also kinda care about prose. Anyway- I'm really glad you loved it, but I just wanted to add it might come down to other things than experience too, like what we pay attention to or personal tastes (which is obvious, i just wanted to join in😅)

@@caricanread I learned that Rebecca Yarros is actually a romance author and has an established fanbase in that genre. So her romance readers could be following her debut into high fantasy. That could be a factor in the hype we are seeing.

good to know, thank you!! i was just more overwhelmed that a book this mediocre could be talked about for that long but i get it haha i didnt know about crimsonrouge's channel until this comment section exploded but i get it now!

Most of his videos are LONG! he is hilarious

@@lllivivien56 i love his empress theresa videos. he was FED UP 💀

​​@@caricanread it doesn't feel like seven + hours because KR is so entertaining. His joke about Isla pulling on the pendant and Grim coming is worth the seven hours alone 😂

⁠@@caricanreadyeah, I completely understand how that would stand out to you without the context that he usually does long (LONG) form content lol. I wasn’t shocked because I had that context, but am kind of surprised to hear that there’s another four hour long one out there lol

same thoughts!!!

Me too! I realized I just needed to find a good book to hook me up with, and Fourth Wing did until the very last sentence. Heck I was even reading the acknowledgments HAHA

It’s a lot different from what I usually read so it was a nice change of pace for me.

Same! I hadnt touched a book in months then i found fourth wing in a book store and got it immediately lol

I also really hate it when the readers have to be told how smart the character is rather than shown it. And Violet is so naive, it's aggravating. She is at a war college preparing for battle and doesn't want to unalive people and gets offended over the dumbest stuff.

this! i couldn’t even finish the first chapter because of the dialogs😅 like it may be an easy, introductry read but still

I just finished the book and completely agree. This book definitely was not worth the hype. I just got Blood of Ash hopefully this one is.

My guess is the explicit scenes being in a YA book is pretty rare.thats my guess. Also, dragons.... people love dragons.

Right? There's no way a seasoned reader can love that book.

definitely :/

So true unfortunately

my issue isnt with the content itself but more with the whole concept of a book like lightlark getting 7 hrs worth of content (i've seen multiple 4+ hour videos about lightlark) so im just asking why are we as a community giving such a silly book so much air time?

he stoppd the wind :O, and his theresa is split in parts. Also pretty much allwoth that said, no its not a plant,

i love his empress theresa series and i often put it on to chill to 😂

Agreed! I have POTS and at certain points, her symptoms align with my own. I also have hypermobility, chronic pain, a lot of things really, and her entire struggle really hit deeply for me. For example, at one point she mentions she kept getting dizzy from standing up and makes a one-off comment about how she "forgot to drink her water." While to some it may seem like its dehydration, I clocked it as POTS. She was fatigued, overheated, her pulse was racing, and she was dizzy right after standing up, just like POTS symptoms, and water usually helped (which is a real thing!). Another example is her constant issues with her joints. Like how after she banged her knee she had to wrap it for several days. I highly relate to this as someone with hypermobility and knee problems. Funnily enough, I am in a knee brace right now because I accidentally hyper-extended one day and now my knee is swollen and in a lot of pain. Or with her shoulder and how easily it slips out of place, just like my mom (who is also hypermobile and is the reason I didn't accidentally do it to myself when I was little). The representation of disability and chronic pain in this book I think is one of the only ones I have ever seen in fantasy. Couple that with the fact that, as you mentioned, she didn't magically get "cured" and still struggles despite having worked for months on end to strengthen the muscles around her joints, I really enjoyed this book.

yes i LOVED that she got stronger but her condition didn't fully go away!!

@@mxngos7493 Honestly, I think its because the author and her kids have hEDS

@@mxngos7493literally exactly the same with me. it was giving sjm vibes mixed with divergent but i loved seeing a badass fmc who had symptoms so similar to me

So so so much this 💜

I couldn't find any source saying she did, but I knew she had to have known someone in the least because the representation was WAY too accurate. I have not been diagnosed with EDS (I have POTS, fibromyalgia, hypermobility, and PCOS), but I experience Violet's symptoms (except for the silver hair lol, idk where that came from) daily and it is so validating to see a main character with chronic pain. I also know its an accurate representation though because I have friends with EDS-- thought I should clarify lmao.

Her kids hate it! 😊 she’s confirmed that’s what Violets disease is based of on tiktok, but there’s theories saying she was attacked be a (spoiler so not saying the name) creature and that’s why she’s drained of strength etc

Have it **

yeah just a lot of meh :/

Omg that analogy (is it analogy or metaphor?) "It went into space and froze" 🙃 why is it so fascinating to me!

@@kseni_vely I think it's a metaphor, sense it's not two comparing to opposite things, its comparing something that can't physically happen, I meant it in the way when you go to space there is no oxygen and it's to clod that you freeze, so she hyped it up to high it went to space. I'm glad you like it 😊

lol thank you so much!

@@caricanread thank you! I agree with someone else that Fourth Wing is great fantasy for people who don't normally read fantasy. There's an Ursula K Guin quote about it I love. "[C]ritics who set out to talk about a fantasy novel without having read any fantasy since they were eight, and in ignorance of the history and extensive theory of fantasy literature, will make fools of themselves because they don’t know how to read the book. They have no contextual information to tell them what its tradition is, where it’s coming from, what it’s trying to do, what it does. This was liberally proved when the first Harry Potter book came out and a lot of literary reviewers ran around shrieking about the incredible originality of the book. This originality was an artifact of the reviewers’ blank ignorance of its genres (children’s fantasy and the British boarding-school story), plus the fact that they hadn’t read a fantasy since they were eight. It was pitiful. It was like watching some TV gourmet chef eat a piece of buttered toast and squeal, “But this is delicious! Unheard of! Where has it been all my life?"

I’m literally almost done with the book and I just started less than 24 hours ago ! I think I love it for the same reasons as well, it’s definitely not the most intricately written book (which is what I try to find in my books) but it is so fun and enjoyable that I literally can’t stop reading it. Especially as I’ve been in a reading slump for a bit (and the book I read before this was very underwhelming), I honestly just love fourth wing because it almost feels like a well written fanfic that makes it’s readers happy to follow along with what the books gives them! Is it the best thing I’ve ever read, no. But is it some of the best fun I’ve had while reading in a while, yes!

🥲🥲🥲

thank you!!

i was struggling in the middle hence my skimming hahhaa

I DNFd as well! I was shocked. And I completely agree about the flawed logic. I just couldn’t wrap my head around the whole set up. I do really like Yarros’ Renegades series though (contemporary romance).

This was one that I really struggled with its dnfd for me as well. The premise seemed so neat but it really get like it had no substance and there was next to no description of any of the surrounding area.

@@xJillie glad I’m not the only one

Oh yes. How is your country in dire need of soilders, but y'all keep letting dragons kill them and other stuff? It makes no sense.

Im currently making it my personality lol. I love dragons and hot guys

❤❤❤❤❤❤

yes and just to make it clear - i wasnt saying he was being rude or hateful! i just said that 7 hours when this book had nothing in it that i thought was worthy of talking about was a lot of hours lol. glad you got some use out of it!

This is the one thing I was thinking of after I made my own comment. It's the type of video you would actually want if you're a writer yourself. Listening to suggestions and reader feedback from someone like him who does this basically for a living, it's gold. It really would be so helpful for a writer of a novel. Send a draft to him and get a proper review.

thank you!

same :''')

yeah there was a feeling of nostalgia somehow but i couldnt quite place it - did i grow up reading dragon stuff and just not remembering? hahah

You've probably already read them but Anne McCaffrey does really good dragon and romance stuff :)

thank youuuu!

thank you so much!

:'''''''')

great!

Same, felt like deep dive critique, not mindless hate!

It reminded me of Iron Widow actually which I also loved and am awaiting the sequel

I devoured it in two days lmao

I’m really late to the party but I thought Lightlark and Nightbane were really good. Both were easy, fun reads with lots of action. In my opinion, much better written than Powerless, which has had so much hype. Not saying they’re literary masterpieces but they were very entertaining and I’ll continue the series.

It definitely felt like every other fantasy book I’ve read which is what I enjoyed

Yes this! I’m 24 now, it’s not eragon or game of thrones, but it took me back to 15 year old me reading divergent! And that’s why I loved it.

^_^

i am always a fan of authors being quiet on social media but i know so many publishing houses pressure them into trying to go viral so they can sell books :/ i dont think the author of lightlark needed to promote as much as she has but i pity other authors who have to self promote cause that sounds awful!

@@caricanread Absolutely agree! I feel so bad for those authors, especially when it seems obvious they don’t want to do it, because trying to go viral also sounds like my own personal hell. Me as an author: Can I just… not talk about it? *Immediately fired*

my question is more what about this book in particular inspired this many hours of content online hahah? not just that vid but i also saw 4 hour vids, a lot of 1hr vids. Just interesting that there isnt this much anger and deep diving into books with harmful themes and controversies but this mediocre meh book gets so much noise made? idk its just a weird situation all around.

@@caricanread Because it was a book tiktok darling and a lot of drama and to look what is up with it?! Ithink the hyp was it with the weird way it got pushed. There seem tobe also how she is a humble selfmade author,which, ticked off a lot becaue, she isnt a plant aut definitly has previledge there. Including her sister. I think its the weird drama and accusations and hype and straight uplies how humble , that she comes from a wealthie background, did not help at all, with that claim. I think they just dug in it and it piled up, and analyzed what doe not work. And what could have done better. I thinkit a reaction too how book tiktok tried to push it ssso hard. It would probably not mattered if it werent pushed so much.

@@caricanread Honestly I think it has to do more with the book not meeting exceptions while people can usually see a toxic book just by reading the summary or by who the author is. The fact that Lightlark has different problems that feed into each other rather than the same problem just repeated throughout the narrative probably added to its length.

omg yeah buckle up for that series :'''''')

thank you so much!

Agreed. I love my fans, lol!

there just literally wasnt enough to dive into haha this book had nothing in it :'''')

This is what I was coming here to say. The video was essentially a deep read and critique of the book. There clearly was enough for seven hours because he did it. The video was extensive, he read portions of the book out, it was actually really insightful. You seem to think it was like seven hours of being hateful toward the book, but it was actually valid criticisms and why there was criticism and a good portion of the book.

@@tyamizuki5304 Yes but why was it 3 or 4 hours longer than all his other videos. But like it said, I didnt watch the video and it was just one example of how much discourse there was about this book that was just...a mediocre book? lol i just dont think its worth anyone's time but thats my ~* opinion *~

@@caricanread i can understand that to you it’s not that big of a deal, but to me who wholeheartedly believed im the author and supported her throughout the writing and publishing process and dealing with all the lies and false advertising only to then see how much is wrong with the book, i can guarantee you that it was more than necessary. What she did was not ok, and the 7hours video is there to prove that there’s in fact enough to talk about in detail in 7 and a half hours. He wasn’t hateful towards her, he was criticising the amount of flaws the book had, inconsistencies and how it lacked coherency overall. Since I was one of the ppl who bought the book and couldn’t even read past the second chapter, I really felt deeply disappointed about this.

@@caricanread @caricanread because he said more words in it than he did with others? He touched on a little bit of the discourse surrounding the book in the beginning and then went into a full break down of pieces of story that could have been improved, world building that seemed shallow, character inconsistencies, and then ways that that could have been improved - like YOU think it's a mediocre book with not a lot to say on it, and that's valid. But clearly he thought it was a mediocre book with plenty of things he could touch on both in an entertaining and constructive way. I watched the entire thing, and I personally found a lot of the things he said and presented solutions for, to be incredibly helpful for my own writing. I'm not saying your opinion is invalid I'm just explaining that the book review in question wasn't some big huge seven hour long hatefest of the book. It was a detailed exploration of the book and the things it did both right and wrong. Also if we're talking about the same guy, it isn't actually longer than his videos. The one on lightlark was simply not split into two parts - he did other reviews of other books that had multiple parts to it that generally range from 2-3 hours long per part. Meaning it was pretty usual, just not cut in two.

hahahaha 👀 👀 👀

im a TALK girl not a TOK girl lmao

the hype is insane!!

Kindle??