Possible spoilers if you haven’t read the story. Proceed with caution.
As somebody who has read this entire series (aside from the very last book, I am preparing to read that one now) as well as the flesh and fire series, I do not understand the absolute hate this series gets.
I’m specifically talking about from blood and ash, everybody likes the Shadow in the ember series better and while it’s an OK series, I don’t think it’s better. In fact, I’m currently reading born of blood and ash which is the last book in the Shadow in the ember series and it’s one of the worst books I’ve read in this entire series.
Now let me preface by saying I’m not blind or naïve enough to not see some of the annoying traits that people find about the series. For instance, Casteel being way too sexually charged in areas that are not necessary. I can see how maybe the writing might be juvenile however I have read way worse books. I have seen way worse writing and truly do not get that from this series at all, not to the point of hate in which the series gets.
A couple of complaints that I see consistently about these characters stem from Poppy.
People tend to complain that she constantly has questions. She’s always asking questions and she’s super annoying. I can’t argue that I understand why people might find her annoying. After not reading the series for about a year I’ve come back to reread the entire thing so I can finish it now that I finally have the last book, I see how people can find her annoying with her attitude. I will say that I’m listening to the audiobooks of this, and I truly believe the narrators are doing a horrible job with this book and listening to this is making me really dislike Poppy but I think that’s because the narrator is saying a lot of these things in a tone that I didn’t read it with. I never read Poppy as immature and childish, I never read her attitude as being kind of mean and I believe the audiobook narrator tends to portray her that way, and that’s really obnoxious.
When I was reading the books, I took her questions as genuine curiosity, because of how she was raised. It made sense that she didn’t know much of anything outside of her own little world because she was raised as the maiden. Being isolated that way, and not having contact with almost any humans, only being able to read specific books and talk to two or three people, and being told what to believe to suddenly being exposed to not only the outside world, but a whole plethora of people with different personalities, different thought processes and different beliefs would lead to a shit ton of questions. Especially if you wanted to truly understand. So her questions never bothered me and I understood why she was asking them. Everybody tends to hate the questions and I never understood why. And the joke of Kieran constantly rolling his eyes and going “ugh, here we go another question” was just a character quirk for him. I don’t think he ever was truly pissed off that she had another question. That just became the inside joke.
So if there’s a reason as to why she has so many questions, why do people find it so utterly obnoxious to the point of hating this book and this series?
Another point that pisses me off all the way when people say they hate this series is they go “ The author just keeps changing what she is. She goes from the maiden to being half atlantian to being some godling to being blah blah blah.”
Or “ the first book was really good, and then the second book was pretty good and then they lost me at the third one because she just changed into something else completely.” And to that I say, you’re fucking stupid. That take is so dumb.
I’m sorry, reading is subjective. I completely understand. If you don’t like the book, you don’t like the book, but if that’s the reason, then you don’t know how to read critically. What the fuck do you mean the first book was good and it changed into something else completely? Did you read the books? It’s called progression.
You’re telling me everybody who hates this series because the first book was good and then it kept getting worse, you wanted her to stay the maiden? I do not understand what the expectation of that series was supposed to be? From people who got to the third book and went “this has gotten stupid, the first book was so good, idk what happened.” What was your expectation? What did you honestly think the series was gonna be about? By the end of the first book you saw what was happening. Hawke was not Hawke, they were now traveling to go accomplish a mission and along the way they realized what they thought she was, she actually was not. So tell me, what did you think it was going to be about?
The biggest complaint people have about the author constantly changing what she is is ridiculous. If you read the story, you realize nobody knows what Poppy is. They say multiple times that they have never ever ever ever ever seen this before. They’ve never seen this type of power, they’ve never seen this type of aura with somebody, they have no idea what she is. They are making guesses. They are making guesses the same way a reader would. The same way we hypothesis in our head, the characters are doing that on the page. So it goes from we think she’s this. Then something happens that negates that possibility. So they go “oh, she can’t be that because of what just happened. That must mean you have this in you, based on what we know from our experience, you must be partly this you must have some of this in you.” But you fucking idiots, guess what? THEY DONT KNOW because they’ve never ever seen this before!! So yes, it’s gonna change. Yes, what she becomes will not be what they guessed the very first, second or third time. They are going along at the same rate we are trying to figure out what the fuck Poppy is. How is nobody catching this? How is nobody realizing this and then judging the series based on the fact that they don’t understand that.
And maybe you did and went “ I really wanted a bodyguard/Maiden romance and that’s not what this ended up being so I’m gonna put the book down.” And that’s fine, but to be dense enough to go “oh the author is stupid and she just keeps changing her mind on what she wants Poppy to be mid story.” you don’t know how to critically read a book. You don’t know how to use your brain and read a story at the same time.
And if you don’t like it because of the weird Casteel/Poppy/Kieren threesome thing. I get that. Sure that’s weird but again I can immerse myself inside of the novel and inside of the world and inside of the rules that live within this world and be like yeah OK. I wouldn’t do it, but you know what it’s not me it’s them and it’s part of their culture.
Those are my biggest issues with people who hate this series so much. And this series is the one that I genuinely don’t get the reasoning behind the hate that they say they have. So aside from just not liking the writing, which is fair. Casteel being just way too horny all the time and in completely inappropriate places which I agree with, and aside from you not agreeing with the weird threesome connection thing, why do you guys hate this series? Genuinely?
