A Court of Thorns and Roses (ACOTAR) is an insanely popular romantasy series that may readers go so far as to call genre-defining. Affectionately referred to as "fairy p*rn" on Booktok, Maas' books have sold over 38 million copies worldwide.
Along with my fantasy editor friend, I'm doing a grimdark rewrite of ACOTAR on my podcast, Writing Club (available on Spotify and Apple). We're doing this partially as a creative exercise, but mostly just for a giggle. But to make these episodes, I first need to read this series.
As someone who's only mildly aware what these books are about, I thought it’d be fun to make some predictions before reading it for the first time. These predictions come from popular fantasy tropes as well as some (likely wrong) things I’ve picked up through internet osmosis / marketing. I turned them into a bingo card.
I plan to update my Instagram stories as I read ACOTAR, giving you my observations and filling out the bingo (assuming I got at least something right). I've also included a blank bingo card for you to add your own predictions.
Source for the sales stat: https://sarahjmaas.com/about/
Here's my ACOTAR bingo card. I have no concrete knowledge of these books except that there’s a redhead protagonist called Feyre & a horny bat guy named Rhysand. I've also been informed that Tam Lin is in this? The guy from a folk poem that impregnates a teenager called Janet? Remains to be seen.
Feel free to right click and save that, or press "open in new tab/window" if you want to print it out and play along. And now, here's a blank version for you to fill out yourself (if you and I have the same lame idea of fun)...
