#more! more depth! more wordbuilding! better prose!

[theceaselessidiot]

I started thinking about an old shadowhunters/tmi fanfic idea I had and then I randomly decided to read the dark artifices series instead (for fun and "research") and so far I have the following opinions:

I don't care for Julian, I don't know why, but I don't like him that much

Ty being autistic is established in a very stereotypical way. Its like Clare did a superficial "Autism 101" google search and called it a day. Like kudos to her for even having an autistic character, but she should've done a lot more research about it.

I know Clare wants me to root for Julian and Emma, but my brain immediately started shipping Emma with Cristina the moment they had a scene together. Then, when Mark & Kieran entered the chat by brain went: what if Kieran, Mark, Cristina all dated each other AND EMMA

CC, please stop with the needless exposition! It makes your characters sound weird as fuck! Have a "previously on tsc" chapter and move on! When your characters go on and on about Clace and everything from TMI and I'm going "yes I know I read TMI 10 years ago and even I remember all this", then something has gone wrong.

Also, please stop recycling plot points, I can already tell this is going to be a forbidden romance thing between Julian and Emma and I'm in Chapter 14 of Lady Midnight.

Your side characters are once again more interesting than the MCs. Next time, just write about Mark, Kieran and Cristina.

I genuinely like the world, some characters and the beginning of plot. I do like Ty, Mark, Kieran, Cristina and Diana the most so far, but also the younger Blackthorn siblings. I like the family dynamic, because it really wasn't there in TMI (I only skimmed TDA, so i can't say much about it).

Edit bc I forgot: SHOW DONT TELL! Like it has gotten much better from tmi, but so often its "let me tell you all these things about this character" instead of showing me that this character has a specific trait or emotion.