Have y ever felt like you and your favorite author don’t match anymore? I’ve been a big fan of Cassandra Clare, author of the Shadowhunter chronicles since 2013, her books were really important to me during my teenage years; but now I’m reading Sword Catcher, her “adult fantasy” debut and also her first individual book published outside the Shadowhunter world, and I’m just not feeling it.
Despite being marketed as adult, Sword Catcher doesn’t feel more mature than her previous books, aside from some occasional sexual comments. I’ve been noticing some things that bother me about her writing that just got more pronounced with this book, or maybe I’m just not interested enough in the story to just give them a pass. Also (and this is just a pet peeve of mine) it feels kinda weird that the main female character is a “petite green eyed redhead” that’s the exact description of arguably her most famous female mc!
I don’t know, it’s just kinda sad that your go to author is not delivering as they used to. I read “Chain of thorns” also by her earlier this year and despite its flaws I just kept trying to convince myself that it was okay, but I can’t seem to connect with Sword Catcher which was one of my most anticipated reads this years.
As a side note, I’m only halfway through the book, so there’s still hope for it to turn around, but this is my impression as of now. Now tell me, has this ever happened to you?
Yeah, I think this is pretty natural and can happen for all sorts of reasons. From just having your tastes change, to a change in the works of the author, or your perception of the author changing, etc.
10 years ago I would have said my favourite authors were J.K. Rowling and Mitch Albom. Neither would even make the cut for a top 10 list now.
In the case of J.K. Rowling, I still love the Harry Potter series but have never had any interest in reading anything else she’s written. And then she started weaponizing her fame against trans people which I find despicable and counter to much of the message I love from the Potter books. So, she’s very far from being my favourite author now. I think she’s the scum of the earth.
In a much less dramatic swing, I just find Mitch Albom less interesting to me lately. I do think his newer books are nowhere near the quality of some of his earlier ones. But I also think my tastes as a reader have evolved. His books tend to have these strong moral messages and there was a time in my life when I found that really soothing. Now I kind of want the plot to be stronger than the message, if that makes any sense.