My least favorite reading take is that literature needs to instill some sort of perspective shift in the reader. When I have free time or just need a little escape from life, “War and Peace” isn’t my book of choice.

I’ve spent a huge chunk of my life with my face in a book. My parents read me “Nancy Drew” before bed when I was 8 years old. I had a multi-year obsession with Jodi Picoult’s contemporary fiction, starting with “The Storyteller.”

In late middle school to early high school, I aced the Honors English units on “The Help” and “To Kill a Mockingbird.” I’ve spent hours on deep dives into non-fiction about my current topics of interest.

And now as a senior in college, I’m constantly busy, exhausted or both, and sometimes I need to shut my brain off and take a break from the issues of the real world. Thus began my infatuation with romantasy.

“Romantasy” is the name coined for romantic fantasy. This genre of books is all the rage with Generation Z at the moment, especially on TikTok.

My best friend Liv spent months gushing over a series she called “ACOTAR,” the abbreviation for “A Court of Thorns and Roses.” Despite her begging me to read it, I felt a mild sense of trepidation about delving into this series.

Maybe it was my need for the books I read to feel realistic, and I was worried that entertaining a world composed of faeries would be a waste of my time. Maybe I was worried I’d become too attached to the series and spend unhealthy amounts of time immersed in the books.

Nevertheless, I finally succumbed to the pressure and began the first book.

Sarah J. Maas writes with an inconsistent pace — some sections of the book are dragged out to the point that I’m skimming to get to the next interesting part, and others move so fast that I have to reread to really internalize what happened.

I especially take issue with the pacing of her battle scenes. It feels like everything happens in slow motion. 

A massive war is raging, but the villain stops to make a speech before inflicting the final blow. This gives the main character ample time to swoop in and save the day yet again.

Maas also has a tendency to overuse certain phrases. For example, I don’t think I’d ever heard of the term “watery bowels” before, and since reading the “ACOTAR” books, I’ve seen it at least 100 times.

She uses this term when a character is nervous or caught off guard. Said surprise makes their bowels go watery. All I could think about was how the “ACOTAR” characters have probably never needed to take MiraLAX.

“ACOTAR” is not only a romance, but what Gen Z is referring to as “smut.” I promised Opinion Editor Ella Freeman that I’d make sure to keep this article PG-13, so you’ll need to do a deeper investigation of that word on your own time.

Many of the “smutty” scenes also include words repeated ad nauseam throughout the books. These often border on animalistic, referring to the characters doing things like “growling.” 

I suppose this makes sense as most of them aren’t fully human, but I spend a lot of my time reading these scenes wondering how the characters didn’t burst out laughing.

There are also a handful of different terms in place to avoid using anatomically correct words for genitalia. I suppose these are romance novels, not biology textbooks, but I still find it pretty funny.

My last main issue with these scenes is the logistics. The characters are described as differing greatly in size, which brings up its own slew of issues. But mostly, I wonder where characters are putting their wings and how they don’t accidentally knock things over more often.

And yet, I’ve purchased and read all five currently released books in the series and I intend to buy the next one as soon as it’s released.

What really draws me into these books is Maas’s character-building abilities. She digs into each character’s intrapersonal development and lets the reader in on their innermost thoughts and feelings.

I often find point-of-view-switching books to be disruptive and confusing, but I felt that the multiple perspectives in the “ACOTAR” books allowed the reader to experience the story on a deeper level.

Although I found the plot itself to be a bit murky and some of the logistical details to be nebulous, the interpersonal relationships are what really made the series for me.

The slow-burn love stories between characters sucked me into the book and kept me invested throughout. Relationships progressed in ways I never could have predicted. 

I’d heard people say the first book started slowly, but I didn’t really understand what they meant until I made it a third of the way through and everything I knew was turned upside down.

Maas shows the reader one perspective and gets them fully invested in the storyline, then reveals new information and the plot takes a full 180.

Heroes turn out to be villains. Villains turn out to be heroes. Side characters are forced into magical bathtubs and get an entire book from their perspective.

Despite the sometimes gaping plot holes, the slow-motion high-stakes scenes and the odd use of language, “ACOTAR” has earned its place on my bookshelf.

I’ve fallen in love with the strengths and flaws of the characters and can’t wait to watch their love stories, as well as their own personal ventures, continue to play out.

Romantasy feels like the genre of choice for fans of “Harry Potter,” “Percy Jackson,” “Divergent” and “The Hunger Games” who grew up and became hopeless romantics.

And because I fit so perfectly into that category, I will continue to spend my free time snuggled up in my Facebook Marketplace papasan chair with a cup of tea and my current romantasy read.

Price can be reached at [email protected].