I have two. The Ritual and Drowning.
The Ritual is pure smut. 61 chapters and every one contains a graphic, demeaning sex scene. I’m convinced the author was an adult film screenwriter and decided to try their hand at writing a novel. There isn’t a single likable character in this book.
Drowning isn’t a great work of literature. I felt that the characters were very two-dimensional. I hated how naive the author made the protagonist. It made me have a lack of sympathy for her. The ending was series finale of Dexter bad.
I have to assume Maas’ popularity is not coming from the first book. It’s incredibly mid and I had zero investment in the love story. I was like “eh, whatever, I bought them all, may as well keep going.” The second book is a complete 180. The books don’t improve much writing wise, but you end up with a bunch of likable characters that don’t show up until the second book and the characters make the books a lot more fun to read. Suddenly it’s campy enjoyable sexy bad and not just mediocre bad. The second book is metaphorically (and kinda literally) night and day from the first book. For what it’s worth.