Elena Likes Books

What the hell did I just read? I mean, it's pretty much your standard shitty urban fantasy, but what's really puzzling me is that not only has this series become a NYT bestseller with ten books and counting, but out of the fifteen of my GR friends and those I follow who have rated this book, nine of them gave this 4 or 5 stars. Normally I am pretty okay with people liking a book I didn't enjoy myself, but this time I can't help but mentally exclaim, "What the hell are you people smoking?"I think if I'd read this book when I was first getting into urban fantasy, I might have liked it. I mean, if you've never read a "faeries in the city" book before, the concept might be pretty mind-blowing. But I am fairly certain that most of my friends who've enjoyed this have also read, you know, good urban fantasy. So I'm at a loss. Why, people? Why?I'm not sure I can cohesively explain why I dislike this book so much, so here's an extremely disjointed list:1. It took Mac one-hundred pages to finally admit that faeries were real. That's a third of the book. A third of the book was taken up with Mac seeing faeries and then being all, "Oh, no, that wasn't real," "Those are just shadows," "Clearly, you are lying to me, person whom I demanded tell me the truth," "You are definitely still lying, even in the face of proof!" etc. And even after she caves and admits that it's not just shadows and hallucinations or whatever, she keeps thinking, "Maybe it's all just a crazy dream!" SHUT UP AND DEAL, ALREADY.2. Just about every other page, Narrator Mac steps in to tell us how foolish and naive Book Mac is. Narrator Mac, with her Wise Wisdom of Experience, loves dropping ominous hints about the future. "Ah, my ignorant little self. If only I had known what the future held in store..." CONSTANTLY. I want to punch Narrator Mac in the face.3. In the beginning, when Mac is still in denial about the whole fae thing, Barrons, the person who knows what's going on and is willing to explain things to her, warns her at least a half a dozen times that she isn't going to like what she finds out, that she'll probably die, and she should really just go home and live her life in blissful ignorance. Even after he explains everything, he warns her again. Then, about half a dozen times in the later part of the book, Mac whines about how he ruined her life and she won't ever be able to go back to her old life because of him. What. The. Fuck. 4. In the book, we meet two smoking hot men, one of whom is fae, and the other of whom is also fae but who Mac is bizarrely intent on pretending is human. (I imagine there is a big reveal a few books along, and all the readers yawn while Mac falls over in shock and then rails about betrayal blah blah blah cry me a river.) I gather from reviews that as the series unfolds, there becomes a bit of a love triangle. I...do not compute. These men, despite their "movie star"-like appearance, to use Mac's term, are both absolutely horrible. One is controlling, constantly issuing orders without explaining himself and refusing to answer perfectly reasonable questions, and outright admits that he's just using Mac for her supernatural abilities and would hold her prisoner if she didn't cooperate. The other one repeatedly attempts to rape Mac using fae powers. Ladies and gentlemen: Your love interests. I repeat: What. The. Fuck.Mac is also really stupid, and there were plenty of logic and plot holes that I didn't even bother making note of because I just didn't care enough.But people love this shit. I don't get it.(Random aside: As a librarian, I often glance at the CIP [cataloging in publication] data on the copyright page out of curiosity about what the summary says and what subject headings were chosen. The subject headings for this book are: 1. Time travel--Fiction. 2. Immortalism--Fiction. 3. Highlands (Scotland)--Fiction. Which are the most hilariously incorrect subject headings I think I've ever seen. There is no time travel. I guess we meet a few immortal beings, but "these dudes live forever!" is hardly a focal point of the story. The book takes place in Dublin--I don't think the word "Scotland" even appears anywhere in the text. Whoever did the CIP for this book should be fired.)