Anonymous #2 16w

hard agree

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Anonymous #2 16w

ABSOLUTELY

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Anonymous #3 16w

It’s an indicator of how poorly written massive blockbuster books are affecting the literary space. Silver Elite is a clone of Fourth Wing.

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Anonymous #1 16w

not really, it seems more like a divergent/red queen (from what I’ve heard about red queen. I think that’s the series I’m thinking about) knockoff. also it’s not any worse written than twilight and actually way better written than 50SOG which were the big “x books are ruining reading” like ten years ago

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Anonymous #3 16w

*SILVER ELITE SPOILERS* all i could think about while reading it was fourth wing and powerless. also half of the plot was driven by the “romance” (the other half was not that bad plot-wise). what really made me angry was the forced enemies to lovers trope where she hated him (because he was part of the power that has been killing her people) and then only seemed to like him because he was hot. they then had sex daily for like a month (which is fine but i was missing ANY emotional chemistry)

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Anonymous OP 16w

no yeah I agree (I have like 150 pages left but I think I know where it’s going so idc about spoilers), like I get the dystopian side doesn’t have depth but the plot isn’t bad, the romance definitely distracts from the plot tho in a way that’s particularly distracting since dystopian is supposed to be about the commentary, unlike fourth wing where romantasy is supposed to be about the romance

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Anonymous #3 16w

it’s either a case of a publishing company wanting to create an immensely marketable book (like fourth wing- I think people forget that red tower shopped authors to write a series they algorithmically created- this wasn’t a Yarros passion project, she was just looking for a paycheck) or an author who wanted to branch out but just didn’t understand the genre enough to write it well

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Anonymous #3 16w

but either way, this isn’t really a new phenomenon. publishers have always graded books toward trends (they just don’t tend to have the staying power that more solid classics have which is why we don’t hear about them). authors have always written shitty books. silver elite and fourth wing didn’t invent that

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Anonymous OP 16w

but yeah I mean I still get divergent more than fourth wing, but I can see the FW comparisons. haven’t read powerless but I know there’s the whole “powerless is a direct copy of red queen” thing which is why I mentioned RQ (haven’t read that either but I’ve seen vids analyzing the similarities between the two)

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Anonymous #3 16w

oh yeah completely agree there’s always been bad books. this is just the newest (and bigger) trend that’s been going on. also i never knew that about Yarros that’s crazy??? i thought for sure it was a passion project but that makes sense.

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Anonymous #3 16w

i need to read red queen and do a comparison because the plagiarizing rumors were crazyyyy

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Anonymous OP 16w

yeah I mean ig I got this from booktubers so I could be wrong, but red tower (the publishing company) ran like an algorithm about what book would sell and then found an author to write it. idk how much Yarros came up with (or “came up with”) herself vs how much red tower gave to her, but I don’t criticize her for the base concept itself

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Anonymous #3 16w

red tower specifically is what’s wrong with the publishing industry imo. they pushed a rapid release schedule on Yarros (I think fourth wing blowing up is the only reason she had the sway to push back the pub date for onyx storm and subsequent books), likely at the expense of proper editing (which we can all tell). afaik they’re the origins of the “special edition sprayed edges upon release” phenomenon that we’re seeing (I have mixed feelings about this) but they didn’t have the proper quality

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Anonymous #3 16w

control measures in place which was very apparent on iron flame’s release so yeah I think there is definitely a lot to criticize in the book world, but I 100% think it’s more on publishers than authors and readers, which is I distinction i don’t see made very often and is why I get so defensive

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Anonymous OP 16w

this is so valid. sorry if it seemed like I was jumping down your throat lol, I couldn’t tell if your original reply was a “silver elite is ruining reading” post

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Anonymous #3 16w

NAHHHH NOT AT ALL i found the book fun to read (just not great). it’s definitely not ruining reading at all, i think the main issue is the repetition of tropes (like the OP in the other post mentioned). i like your point on the publishing companies a lot nobody talks about it. i never try to be harsh on authors because writing is HARD WORK so i respect all of them for what they do.

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Anonymous #3 16w

the sprayed edges have been insane. i love special editions but i think it should be an option rather than the original that’s released. i really wanted a book that was getting released by one of my favorite authors but it was a sprayed paperback and i didn’t like it at all 😭

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Anonymous #3 16w

yeah i need to do more research on publishers. i feel like some of these authors are so talented and really do some great world building but the forced tropes and the abundance of romance sometimes ruin it (like draw away from the plot).

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