The facts
Sarah J. Maas’ A Court of Splintered Harmony, the sixth book in her A Court of Thorns and Roses series, was released on October 27. The night before, fans gathered at midnight release events at chain and independent bookstores across the country. At Politics and Prose in Washington, D.C., dozens of attendees dressed in leather outfits, faerie ears and tiaras while waiting for copies. The event included trivia, friendship-bracelet making, face painting, champagne and a costume contest. Dalia Luque said she attended to share the occasion with fellow readers and friends, despite being able to preorder the book. Face painter Amber Lovold decorated Luque with green foliage representing the series’ Summer Court. The report describes the books as romantasy, combining romance and fantasy, and says the series follows faeries and humans who battle, go on quests and fall in love. The saga had been on hiatus for almost five years: its first book appeared in 2015, and Maas published installments regularly until taking a break in 2021. Attendee Ivana Wong, whose costume won the contest, said she planned to take time off work to read. Another attendee, Chastity Mayhaus, said she hoped to meet local fans and find book clubs.
Our take
You have to be a special kind of pathetic to dress up in leather and a tiara to buy a book you could have had delivered to your door. But here we are, watching the brain-rotted legions of Sarah J. Maas shuffle into bookstores at the witching hour, desperate for another hit of faerie dick and quest-based foreplay. This isn't a fandom; it's a support group for people who think 'romantasy' is a real genre and not just a marketing department's portmanteau for 'we can't decide if this is porn or a D&D campaign.' They're painting fucking leaves on each other's faces. They're making friendship bracelets. They're drinking champagne, presumably to numb the shame of being a grown woman named Chastity waiting in line for 'A Court of Splintered Harmony.' The sheer, unadulterated cringe could power a small city. The series has been on hiatus for five years, which in publishing terms means the author finally remembered she had a mortgage to pay. But these clowns treat the return like the second coming, taking days off work - actual, adult jobs - to mainline 800 pages of elf-fucking. One cunt won a costume contest. Let that sink in. There's a winner. Someone looked at a room full of people wearing plastic ears and thought, 'Yes, you, Ivana Wong, you are the pinnacle of this bullshit.' They're not readers; they're LARPers who forgot to go outside. It's a midnight release for people whose entire personality is a bookmark. Absolutely fucking tragic. Cheers to them, I guess. May their faerie princes never call back.
