#ltsf

for the record, the only reason i picked up the series (well, the only reason i think i picked up the series) was because i'd just finished my third or possibly fourth readthrough of kotlc and it came to my attention that the author had another series. i was super curious about it because i knew kotlc was shannon's debut series (can you believe that is that not insane) and it obviously wasn't finished. so i did some research and it turns out shannon was simultaneously writing kotlc and the sky fall trilogy during exile to lodestar era. while she was still pumping out one kotlc book a year. can you believe this woman's deadlines don't you just want to strangle simon and schuster. anyway. the sky fall trilogy was also not supposed to happen, not the way kotlc was, it was literally just the product of a four am i-can't-sleep session and was not meant to actually be published, according to shannon. but then it was

all of this is to say that the only reason i read the sky fall trilogy was because i was super curious about it. add in the fact that i never put down a series once i start it, and it was a disastrous combination and i. did not like it

i'll try to give you a rundown on vane based on what i remember, which is almost nothing. if any of this is inaccurate, sorry. it's been a while. keep in mind that ltsf is also a romance and i almost never enjoy romance/heavily romance-centric series . . . but truly i do feel that even on top of it being a romance, ltsf was not a good romance

first of all, i firmly believe shannon either did or still does not know how to write teenage boys because vane as a character felt like a keefe (so like six years old in terms of maturity) with the major difference being that he says crap a lot. it's hilarious how obvious it is that shannon is substituting for curse words, and it becomes worse as you keep going . . . shannon this is a ya series you can say the words, i promise. from the first chapter in, it's very clear to me that shannon has attempted to and succeeded at making vane teenage boy stereotype extraordinaire. it is a miserable experience that only becomes worse as the series goes on. vane is so utterly horny like 110% of the time. obviously vane is physically attracted to audra, but jesus christ, this is so ridiculously way, way, way, way over the top, it's insane . . . i swear every single time vane is in the same room as audra, he's thinking about tearing her clothes off or something to that effect. it is not subtle. it really turns you off from him as a character because he cannot keep it in his pants, despite the fact that him never having kissed anyone at the ripe old age of seventeen years old is a major point in the story, and it is excruciatingly embarrassing (secondhandedly) to read. i truly cannot exaggerate how annoying it is to read about how hot he thinks audra is and all the things he wants to do to her over and over and over and over in every. single. scene. she's. in. with. him. like please can you please think about anything else. anything else. anything at all. begging you . . . begging you

this would be simply annoying, but then in the second book, there's a line (which is clearly shannon attempting to make up for this) where vane thinks something to the effect of "audra's the one . . . even if she wasn't super hot i would know it" or something, so it quickly becomes laughable how untrue and false it rings. because it reads like shannon is aware of the problem but is trying to backtrack. but anyone with half a brain who reads the first book knows that physical attraction is like at least 70% of vane's attraction toward audra

vane's also incredibly weird with his attraction towards audra which surprises me exactly nill, considering keefe has the exact same issue. he has this idea in his head that his ending up with audra is inevitable (which it is, this is a romance, i am aware, but he doesn't have to act like someone outside the story who's aware of this), and, unlike with keefe, it's jacked up to eleven so it's impossible to miss. when she turns him down, he immediately lashes out at her and does not take the rejection with any sort of grace whatsoever. he's seriously not even meeting that basic, basic standard; truly the bar is in hell with him. you can argue that it's because he knew she liked him and knew she was repressing her feelings and whatnot but it does not change the simple fact that she turned him down to his face very clearly and that it was an active choice on her part, and he still tries to force her hand. he's also constantly thinking things that made me incredibly uncomfortable, things like i know she's the one or one day she'll see or i know we have something, i know it's real, i know she feels it, too, she's just pretending not to, even going so far as to say something resembling these sentiments out loud to her, which is just plain embarrassing and also incredibly shitty for hopefully obvious reasons. these should be setting off several red alarms in your head . . . the almost . . . entitlement . . . vane appears to feel toward audra is a running theme throughout the story, one you can never escape, because, like i said, let the sky fall is primarily a romance

vane is also constantly butthurt that audra is choosing the gales over him, showing an incredible lack of sympathy for her situation just because he can't get his way like a toddler. by this point he believes bonding is real, so he doesn't even have the excuse that he believes kissing her will do no harm to her to hide behind. audra explicitly explains to him the risks, that she may be thrown out of the gales and branded with treason for bonding with him, and still vane can think about nothing beyond the fact that he really wants to kiss her. it's hard for me to believe he cares about her in any capacity when he's unable to sympathize with her situation or care about her wishes for even half a second. yes, the gales are corrupt. yes, audra deserves to be able to be with whoever she wants without them looming over her or vane's personal relationships. that doesn't change the fact that, at this point in time, the gales are audra's everything, which vane is aware of. and he's so ready to be mad at her for not wanting to throw away what she considers to be her entire life's purpose. that sort of callousness makes it really difficult for me to believe he truly cares about audra beyond physical teenage attraction. that he doesn't understand or consider that she has something in life she may want outside of a guy she met, really met, like half a week ago. it sits incredibly poorly with me, surprising exactly nobody, considering my feelings on keefe. this is no wholesome romance to me . . . it is just a guy who wants to screw a hot girl and is mad that the government won't let them do it and that the girl is not willing to risk getting trapped in a torturous prison for kissing a guy she really met a less than a week ago. like, sir. please. please. i know you're seventeen but jesus christ at least try to pretend you give half a shit about audra's wishes or safety

ltsf also has a dose of pure, unadulterated shannon-esque humor. you know the one. and it manifests mostly with vane. which does not help his case

the other somewhat annoying thing is that ltsf acts like not having kissed anyone at seventeen is weird. i’m pretty sure this sentiment mostly comes from vane’s friend isaac, but it’s still super weird. so that’s a thing. “i haven’t even kissed anyone at seventeen!!!!1!1!1!!1!1!1” . . . it is super off-putting so. yeah he’s also annoying and whiny

can’t really think of anything else right now but yeah. i do not like ltsf at all. it is miserable . . . partly because i’m not the target audience, but mostly because it’s just poorly written as a romance