I’ve been meaning to share my thoughts on this topic for a while, but never got around to it. Be warned there are SPOILERS BELOW for the third book in the series, A Court of Wings and Ruin. I’ve decided the best way to show the diversity, or lack thereof, would be to go through each book (ACOTAR, ACOMAF, and ACOWAR) and talk about the characters that are diverse. Just as a warning I read these books a while ago so I may miss minor characters, these are just the characters I can remember

Book one: A Court of Thorns and Roses: Alis might be black? Unclear, even if she is not a main character. No LGBTQ+ representation.

Book Two: A Court of Mist and Fury: The Illyrians might not be white? Also unclear. Tarquin and the other people who live in the Summer Court are described as having dark skin. No LGBTQ+ representation that I can think of.

Book Three: A Court of Wings and Ruin: After all the controversy about the lack of diversity, I found it kind of suspicious that this book got suddenly quite diverse. We met all of the high lords, three of which were P.O.C. We also got a few LGBTQ+ characters, which I loved (especially Helion) (love him). My only complaint is the Mor thing. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love Mor being bisexual, but I felt like Sarah J. Maas only included it because people were talking about it. It was never mentioned in the second book, and Mor was said to keep her female lovers secret. I didn’t understand this because the characters in this universe don’t seem homophobic? No one bats an eyelash that Thesan’s partner was male, or that Helion was bisexual (or pansexual)(although he was hyper sexualized which is a pretty common and harmful stereotype so…) , so I don’t understand why there was no mention of any LGBTQ+ characters in the first book. As well, Feyre describes Brannagh and Dagden in a rather acephobic manner describing both of them soulless due not only to their evilness but also to their “lack of physical passion”?

???

Alright that’s all I’ve got. I will say I did enjoy the story and I do enjoy Sarah J. Maas’s books, but I am pretty upset at the terrible LGBT+ and POC representation in her novels.

 

Photo credit to Charlie Bowater: http://charlie-bowater.deviantart.com/art/The-Inner-Circle-641219043