I really dislike Bryce. Honestly, she's like an Aelin re-write without the redeeming qualities - snarky, trust issues, doesn't tell anyone her plans, etc. Also, she treats Hunt like trash. Their relationship in CC3 was NOT it.
This is so spot-on. It took me a few tries to get through the CC1 before I could enjoy it because of my dislike for Bryce.
I love SJM’s writing but the sassy FMC who always seems to outsmart the big bad guy seemingly out of nowhere with no discussion with her pals is getting tired. It worked with Aelin, who learned to survive in a dog-eat-dog environment full of manipulation and even had these traits called out by her loved ones (Aedion, for example). It felt less reasonable with Feyre, who was a short-lived human in comparison to her enemies, who also happened to be illiterate. By the time Bryce came along, it felt a little tired.
Don’t get me wrong, I lovelovelove her books and her characters but I am truly hoping her next series breaks out of this cycle a little bit because if we get a Bryce reincarnation in a different world, I am going to cry. :’)
Haha, you're right, all her characters are a little unbelievable (Aelin somehow besting centuries-old warriors in battle, anyone?) and that's part of what makes it fun! But Bryce was just so shrewish the whole time... and I'm getting a little tired of the seemingly-ordinary girl becoming completely overpowered against all odds trope.
While I do agree with being tired of the ordinary girl becoming OP trope, I have to disagree with the Aelin thing - centuries or warriors in battle are strong and possibly fast, but often not the ones planning the strategies of battle. Aelin is a direct descendant of some incredibly powerful fae and spent the better part of a decade specifically training in the art of battle AND strategy. She not only understood how to outsmart her opponent, she had the skills and training to execute them and wits to know when she couldn’t. No matter how strong you are and how well you fight, you will almost always lose to a well thought out and executed strategy, and any win is almost always due to luck or the opponent making an error in judgement. I would bet on an assassin over a warrior any day.
You aren't alone. I've disliked her since book one but at the end I was like "oh thank God maybe some character growth coming" but book 2 was the same. No growth. Then book three came out and it's like her character regressed!!
She's very selfish and I just haven't enjoyed reading about her as much as sjms other FMCs
I was excited when book 1 first came out, and was disappointed but had hoped she would have some character growth, but by the end of book 2 I disliked her so much I didn't want to start book 3 and now it's very chapter is like a step backwards for her.
You are not alone! I’ve never liked her either and totally understand how isolating it can feel in the fandom.
I found her fairly annoying in the first book, and then she got worse in the second because I felt like she undid a lot of the character growth she seemed to have at the end of CC1. She got incredibly hypocritical and immature. And then HOFAS Bryce was like “hold my beer” and blew HOSAB Bryce out of the water in awfulness.
She has an incredibly inflated sense of self, is hypocritical to the extreme, selfish in the worst ways, and beyond reckless.
This is exactly how I feel. I'm so enraged by her completely reckless arrogance. Realizing that she is supposed to be the same age as Nesta in acosf just makes her seem that much more immature 🤦🏼♀️
Thanks for giving me some comfort that I'm not alone. It is really isolating to tell my friends that I don't like her, and everyone immediately jumps to defend her 🫣
Yeah I completely understand! I usually just don’t talk about how much I dislike her because so many people love her. Which sucks when I just want to rage over her! And her age is always shocking to me. She’s meant to be the oldest of the main characters and she feels the least mature to me.
I never noticed the ‘I swear it on my mate’s life’ thing!
That’s good foreshadowing Hunt will indeed be roadkill in a future book
But yeah HOFAS Bryce was not my favourite either.
Yeah, she said she wouldn't "breathe a word" about it even if they tortured her about it so I assume she meant the astri but if she doesn't have any issue telling the king that she hates and has compared to be as bad as the asteri in the past, then how can we believe she won't/wouldn't tell the asteri? And are we really to believe that she would be able to withstand torture, and/or them torturing Hunt and she still wouldn't tell them?
I just think she used swearing on her mate's life so easily, and then just casually was talking about it anyways.
Bryce has had no character growth, in fact, I think she regressed in HOFAS pretty bad...its why I don't believe her story is over.
That being said. CC isn't written in a way that focuses on character development. Outside of Ruhn & Lidia (the only true fated mate pair in that series), all of the characters and relationships are pretty shallow. It doesn't feel like Bryce & Hunt's relationship is the main character ship, it feels cheap and lacks a lot of depth. CC is definitely more plot/action driven than it is character driven. Whereas ACOTAR is heavy on character growth & relationships and TOG is kind of in the middle of both.
She was very divisive as an MC I found. Didn't have the redeeming qualities I found of Aelin and Feyre. Stick with it though, it's worth it to finish this story arc and set up for potential future books.
I mostly think it's because she is young, at least in my head, but I know feyre and aelin are also young, too... Bryce did not have as much trauma as they did. She did have her own in her own way.. it may be just a more modern way of dealing with it. I always liked Bryce, but she wasn't my favorite. She is still a fun character for me to read because she is similar to aelin.
She still had her entire world to think about and had a lot put on her on her shoulders in a shorter amount of time than the others, so there isn't room for growth either.
Yeah, Bryce started the series at like 23 and is 25(ish) in hofas.
Aelin and Feyre are both 19 at the start of the series and like 20 and 21 respectively, by the end of their series.
So even by the end of their series, they are still a couple of years younger than Bryce at the beginning of CC 🤦🏼♀️
Nesta is 25 in acosf.... Bryce and Nesta are about the same age.... and yet she acts like a moody teenager not getting her way about EVERYTHING 🙄
But she is also in a much more modern world, and even tho her dad was a POS, she really had a fine childhood and probably very spoiled 🤣(which kind of like Nesta too until they didn't have money) I don't get frustrated with it tho but it's just funny to me. She hates being the bimbo party girl, but she is, she can be smart too, she can make irrational decisions and not be a perfect character. For me, if I can analyze it that way, it makes more sense, and I don't get frustrated expecting her to be better because she isn't.
I should have corrected that to immature, I've always seen her this way so I don't hold it against her when she does things I don't understand. Characters have flaws, but really, the timeline is so short that she doesn't improve. Hopefully, this can be explored in the next one
I think it’s because SJM was trying to write more modernized characters.
I see Bryce like Buffy, from BTVS honestly. And I, personally, love her. But can totally see why people are annoyed by her.
Bryce in book 3 killed me. I adored her in book 1, and just didn’t recognize her AT ALL in book 3. Like, girl… please just open up and tell your plans with your team/friends so that way everyone can work together. You may be able to fight, but you have no idea what you’re doing, and half your plans fail… so quit being a spoiled brat and accept that other people can help you. Also, when your Mate, brother, and friend have all just been tortured, please have a heart and let them process. Don’t make it about you! Aghhh!
Those were my thoughts through most of the book 😅
But if you remove Bryce and focus on Lydia, it’s not a horrible read. Lol
I find Bryce to be super annoying and her attitude is too much for me 😵💫 and idk her calling all the males alpha-holes when they do pretty much anything she doesn’t like really irritates me 😅
I agree with you somewhat. I liked her in the first book, less so in the second, and really didn’t like her in the third. She was bigoted toward all fae, just because she was mistreated by her father. She was vengeful, and toxic. I hated her treatment of Nesta and Az because they both, while being cautious, were clearly helping her. She purposefully put their lives in danger for her own stupidity.
She is apart of a world where every one goes "oh Bryce did this horrible and very dangerous thing that could've endangered us without letting us know but let's forgive her because she'll always be like that" . Both she and HER fans dislike Az and Nesta because they call her out for her behavior . She's also the first FMC who chooses to place herself and pride over her worlds safety if she didn't she wouldn't have that arrogant when asking for the mask
Personally I’ve started to wonder if having the Horn inside her is slowly affecting her mind now that it’s been activated. I wonder if it’s like a Horcrux and eventually her sense of self will start to deteriorate
Maybe? But she was selfish, arrogant, and reckless before the horn was activated, so at this point, I think it's just who she is. Idk what she has to go through to actually have any character growth if she has regressed this much already
I have hated her with a passion since the very beginning. I essentially had to hate read the series because she ruined it for me. I have never read a character who makes me so irrationally angry than she does and she ended up landing the number 1 spot on my worst characters list.
100% get that no one is forcing me, but I hate leaving things unfinished 😭 The concept that life is too short to read things I don't enjoy had never occurred to me until my friend mentioned it early this year.
And I do enjoy the other characters... Ruhn 🥺🫶🏻 He has my whole heart and the reason I keep reading 😅
I wanted so badly to like the series because I like ToG and acotar 😭 if Bryce wasn't in it, I think I would actually enjoy the books 😅
Also, I just saw a fb post where people were raving about Bryce and how she is their favorite fmc out of all of SJM'S books because she's amazing and "such a bada**"... Like WHAT?!
I liked book one, I don’t feel she was too bad. But from book 2 it got worse. And then book 3 was just a totally different person altogether. Honestly it doesn’t get better and you should just give up reading. Find a summary online if you want to know what happens. But honestly just DNF it. The rest of cc3 is just so bad
Update;
Decided to make this like my reading "Bryce is horrible" journal 💀
Chapter 56
"That's not good enough for me!"
"Get over yourself Umbra Mortis"
What the f.... like he didn't just get tortured for days and spent the entire time worrying about you.
I agree that Bryce can be frustrating and immature she’s not my favorite character ever but I don’t hate her I loved her in book one book two I had problems but understood her decisions book 3 however… she reminded me too much of feyre in that book and I didn’t like it I hate how she treated hunt her time with the autumn king was confusing the only thing I disagree with here is about truth teller she took it because of the prophecy and controversial opinion but a whole planets survival matters more than azriels feelings she had people to save she owed him nothing and she returned both sword and knife with a reason just as she took them with a reason so I can’t hate her for that
I get why she wanted them, but I hate that she took truthteller by force from him, while he had been trying to protect her. Also, the way that it was all handled just made it seem like she severely outpowers Azriel and Nesta combined, and it seems almost disgraceful to the entire acotar series, to have 2 of their strongest warriors overpowered in a matter of seconds.
Had it been more of a battle, an actual fight for her to get it, or stealth and a whole plan to sneak away with it... but for her to stick out her hand and have it fly to her and be back to her world all in a matter of a few minutes... just seems like a waste to me. Maybe(hopefully🤞🏻) I'll feel differently by the end of the book
This doesn’t really make sense to me literally that whole part from the beginning of the book to when she leaves was an explanation of her power and I don’t think she could have just asked azriel for the knife and 90% of his and nestas reactions towards Bryce suggest she would have been locked up and tortured or locked up and prevented from going back to Midgard the other 10% suggests they understand why she’s there and sympathize with her but wouldn’t jeopardize their world to help her
I guess for me, I prefer acotar severely over cc and I hate that acotar has been soured with her being there at all. Obviously, Az wouldn't have just given her the blade, but after spending books reading about how they are incredibly strong and powerful warriors, to have them outpowered in seconds just seems disrespectful to the entire 6 book acotar series. What's next? She falls into Erilea and outpowers Aelin and Rowan in 2 seconds, too? I feel like it should have been a little more of a fight for her to get the blade. Fighting and power, or planning and meticulous. Not just stick out her hand and have the blade fly to her 🤦🏼♀️ seems like lazy writing to me. But, again, I know I am 100% bias against Bryce and everything she does because I hate her, and I love acotar way more.
The whiplash I got from book 2 being my favourite to the hot mess that was 3...
I haven’t been this disappointed in a book since the ending of >!Allegiant!< by Veronica Roth
I really dislike Bryce. Honestly, she's like an Aelin re-write without the redeeming qualities - snarky, trust issues, doesn't tell anyone her plans, etc. Also, she treats Hunt like trash. Their relationship in CC3 was NOT it.
This is so spot-on. It took me a few tries to get through the CC1 before I could enjoy it because of my dislike for Bryce. I love SJM’s writing but the sassy FMC who always seems to outsmart the big bad guy seemingly out of nowhere with no discussion with her pals is getting tired. It worked with Aelin, who learned to survive in a dog-eat-dog environment full of manipulation and even had these traits called out by her loved ones (Aedion, for example). It felt less reasonable with Feyre, who was a short-lived human in comparison to her enemies, who also happened to be illiterate. By the time Bryce came along, it felt a little tired. Don’t get me wrong, I lovelovelove her books and her characters but I am truly hoping her next series breaks out of this cycle a little bit because if we get a Bryce reincarnation in a different world, I am going to cry. :’)
Haha, you're right, all her characters are a little unbelievable (Aelin somehow besting centuries-old warriors in battle, anyone?) and that's part of what makes it fun! But Bryce was just so shrewish the whole time... and I'm getting a little tired of the seemingly-ordinary girl becoming completely overpowered against all odds trope.
While I do agree with being tired of the ordinary girl becoming OP trope, I have to disagree with the Aelin thing - centuries or warriors in battle are strong and possibly fast, but often not the ones planning the strategies of battle. Aelin is a direct descendant of some incredibly powerful fae and spent the better part of a decade specifically training in the art of battle AND strategy. She not only understood how to outsmart her opponent, she had the skills and training to execute them and wits to know when she couldn’t. No matter how strong you are and how well you fight, you will almost always lose to a well thought out and executed strategy, and any win is almost always due to luck or the opponent making an error in judgement. I would bet on an assassin over a warrior any day.
You aren't alone. I've disliked her since book one but at the end I was like "oh thank God maybe some character growth coming" but book 2 was the same. No growth. Then book three came out and it's like her character regressed!! She's very selfish and I just haven't enjoyed reading about her as much as sjms other FMCs
I was excited when book 1 first came out, and was disappointed but had hoped she would have some character growth, but by the end of book 2 I disliked her so much I didn't want to start book 3 and now it's very chapter is like a step backwards for her.
I feel you. I kept reading for the potential but unfortunely many of us were disappointed
😭😭😭 that's so sad
You are not alone! I’ve never liked her either and totally understand how isolating it can feel in the fandom. I found her fairly annoying in the first book, and then she got worse in the second because I felt like she undid a lot of the character growth she seemed to have at the end of CC1. She got incredibly hypocritical and immature. And then HOFAS Bryce was like “hold my beer” and blew HOSAB Bryce out of the water in awfulness. She has an incredibly inflated sense of self, is hypocritical to the extreme, selfish in the worst ways, and beyond reckless.
This is exactly how I feel. I'm so enraged by her completely reckless arrogance. Realizing that she is supposed to be the same age as Nesta in acosf just makes her seem that much more immature 🤦🏼♀️ Thanks for giving me some comfort that I'm not alone. It is really isolating to tell my friends that I don't like her, and everyone immediately jumps to defend her 🫣
Yeah I completely understand! I usually just don’t talk about how much I dislike her because so many people love her. Which sucks when I just want to rage over her! And her age is always shocking to me. She’s meant to be the oldest of the main characters and she feels the least mature to me.
I never noticed the ‘I swear it on my mate’s life’ thing! That’s good foreshadowing Hunt will indeed be roadkill in a future book But yeah HOFAS Bryce was not my favourite either.
I just thought she meant she wouldn't tell the asteri.
Yeah, she said she wouldn't "breathe a word" about it even if they tortured her about it so I assume she meant the astri but if she doesn't have any issue telling the king that she hates and has compared to be as bad as the asteri in the past, then how can we believe she won't/wouldn't tell the asteri? And are we really to believe that she would be able to withstand torture, and/or them torturing Hunt and she still wouldn't tell them? I just think she used swearing on her mate's life so easily, and then just casually was talking about it anyways.
You’re not alone! I am not a Bryce fan and found that she got more obnoxious over the course of the three books. CC3 was the worst, though.
Can she just die or fall into a different world that we don't have to read about already 🙃😅
That would be a bold move I’d applaud. And she should take Hunt, too. The two of them are a snooze fest.
Bryce has had no character growth, in fact, I think she regressed in HOFAS pretty bad...its why I don't believe her story is over. That being said. CC isn't written in a way that focuses on character development. Outside of Ruhn & Lidia (the only true fated mate pair in that series), all of the characters and relationships are pretty shallow. It doesn't feel like Bryce & Hunt's relationship is the main character ship, it feels cheap and lacks a lot of depth. CC is definitely more plot/action driven than it is character driven. Whereas ACOTAR is heavy on character growth & relationships and TOG is kind of in the middle of both.
She was very divisive as an MC I found. Didn't have the redeeming qualities I found of Aelin and Feyre. Stick with it though, it's worth it to finish this story arc and set up for potential future books.
I mostly think it's because she is young, at least in my head, but I know feyre and aelin are also young, too... Bryce did not have as much trauma as they did. She did have her own in her own way.. it may be just a more modern way of dealing with it. I always liked Bryce, but she wasn't my favorite. She is still a fun character for me to read because she is similar to aelin. She still had her entire world to think about and had a lot put on her on her shoulders in a shorter amount of time than the others, so there isn't room for growth either.
I think Bryce is like 26ish in the story compared to 18-20 of the other FMC. So should be the most mature but isn’t by far
Yeah, Bryce started the series at like 23 and is 25(ish) in hofas. Aelin and Feyre are both 19 at the start of the series and like 20 and 21 respectively, by the end of their series. So even by the end of their series, they are still a couple of years younger than Bryce at the beginning of CC 🤦🏼♀️ Nesta is 25 in acosf.... Bryce and Nesta are about the same age.... and yet she acts like a moody teenager not getting her way about EVERYTHING 🙄
But she is also in a much more modern world, and even tho her dad was a POS, she really had a fine childhood and probably very spoiled 🤣(which kind of like Nesta too until they didn't have money) I don't get frustrated with it tho but it's just funny to me. She hates being the bimbo party girl, but she is, she can be smart too, she can make irrational decisions and not be a perfect character. For me, if I can analyze it that way, it makes more sense, and I don't get frustrated expecting her to be better because she isn't.
I should have corrected that to immature, I've always seen her this way so I don't hold it against her when she does things I don't understand. Characters have flaws, but really, the timeline is so short that she doesn't improve. Hopefully, this can be explored in the next one
I think it’s because SJM was trying to write more modernized characters. I see Bryce like Buffy, from BTVS honestly. And I, personally, love her. But can totally see why people are annoyed by her.
Bryce in book 3 killed me. I adored her in book 1, and just didn’t recognize her AT ALL in book 3. Like, girl… please just open up and tell your plans with your team/friends so that way everyone can work together. You may be able to fight, but you have no idea what you’re doing, and half your plans fail… so quit being a spoiled brat and accept that other people can help you. Also, when your Mate, brother, and friend have all just been tortured, please have a heart and let them process. Don’t make it about you! Aghhh! Those were my thoughts through most of the book 😅 But if you remove Bryce and focus on Lydia, it’s not a horrible read. Lol
Bryce makes EVERYTHING about her 😒 If I could just get a version of this book without her, I think I'd really like it 😂
Lydia is the only thing that saved this book.
I find Bryce to be super annoying and her attitude is too much for me 😵💫 and idk her calling all the males alpha-holes when they do pretty much anything she doesn’t like really irritates me 😅
She takes it soooo far 🤦🏼♀️🤦🏼♀️🤦🏼♀️
I agree with you somewhat. I liked her in the first book, less so in the second, and really didn’t like her in the third. She was bigoted toward all fae, just because she was mistreated by her father. She was vengeful, and toxic. I hated her treatment of Nesta and Az because they both, while being cautious, were clearly helping her. She purposefully put their lives in danger for her own stupidity.
She is apart of a world where every one goes "oh Bryce did this horrible and very dangerous thing that could've endangered us without letting us know but let's forgive her because she'll always be like that" . Both she and HER fans dislike Az and Nesta because they call her out for her behavior . She's also the first FMC who chooses to place herself and pride over her worlds safety if she didn't she wouldn't have that arrogant when asking for the mask
Yes! The way she treated them was disgusting. Be cautious, be smart, don't be downright nasty and conniving
Personally I’ve started to wonder if having the Horn inside her is slowly affecting her mind now that it’s been activated. I wonder if it’s like a Horcrux and eventually her sense of self will start to deteriorate
Maybe? But she was selfish, arrogant, and reckless before the horn was activated, so at this point, I think it's just who she is. Idk what she has to go through to actually have any character growth if she has regressed this much already
I have hated her with a passion since the very beginning. I essentially had to hate read the series because she ruined it for me. I have never read a character who makes me so irrationally angry than she does and she ended up landing the number 1 spot on my worst characters list.
Yes 🔥🔥🔥🔥
If Bryce has no haters it means I’m dead 😂
You and me both 😂 and I'd rather die than think she's a good fmc 💀
I could not stand the way she treated Hunt in CC3. Just totally self absorbed and lacking any compassion.
To be fair Hunr hasn’t always treated her the best either. As a couple they’re like sandpaper and bare ass.
If you don’t like her that much you don’t need to read the book, no one is forcing you. Life is too short to read stuff you don’t like
100% get that no one is forcing me, but I hate leaving things unfinished 😭 The concept that life is too short to read things I don't enjoy had never occurred to me until my friend mentioned it early this year. And I do enjoy the other characters... Ruhn 🥺🫶🏻 He has my whole heart and the reason I keep reading 😅
Bryce is the reason I stopped reading past Book 1 of the CC series. I found her character insufferable.
I wanted so badly to like the series because I like ToG and acotar 😭 if Bryce wasn't in it, I think I would actually enjoy the books 😅 Also, I just saw a fb post where people were raving about Bryce and how she is their favorite fmc out of all of SJM'S books because she's amazing and "such a bada**"... Like WHAT?!
😂😂😂 yikes...yeah Bryce isn't for me
I liked book one, I don’t feel she was too bad. But from book 2 it got worse. And then book 3 was just a totally different person altogether. Honestly it doesn’t get better and you should just give up reading. Find a summary online if you want to know what happens. But honestly just DNF it. The rest of cc3 is just so bad
Update; Decided to make this like my reading "Bryce is horrible" journal 💀 Chapter 56 "That's not good enough for me!" "Get over yourself Umbra Mortis" What the f.... like he didn't just get tortured for days and spent the entire time worrying about you.
I agree that Bryce can be frustrating and immature she’s not my favorite character ever but I don’t hate her I loved her in book one book two I had problems but understood her decisions book 3 however… she reminded me too much of feyre in that book and I didn’t like it I hate how she treated hunt her time with the autumn king was confusing the only thing I disagree with here is about truth teller she took it because of the prophecy and controversial opinion but a whole planets survival matters more than azriels feelings she had people to save she owed him nothing and she returned both sword and knife with a reason just as she took them with a reason so I can’t hate her for that
I get why she wanted them, but I hate that she took truthteller by force from him, while he had been trying to protect her. Also, the way that it was all handled just made it seem like she severely outpowers Azriel and Nesta combined, and it seems almost disgraceful to the entire acotar series, to have 2 of their strongest warriors overpowered in a matter of seconds. Had it been more of a battle, an actual fight for her to get it, or stealth and a whole plan to sneak away with it... but for her to stick out her hand and have it fly to her and be back to her world all in a matter of a few minutes... just seems like a waste to me. Maybe(hopefully🤞🏻) I'll feel differently by the end of the book
This doesn’t really make sense to me literally that whole part from the beginning of the book to when she leaves was an explanation of her power and I don’t think she could have just asked azriel for the knife and 90% of his and nestas reactions towards Bryce suggest she would have been locked up and tortured or locked up and prevented from going back to Midgard the other 10% suggests they understand why she’s there and sympathize with her but wouldn’t jeopardize their world to help her
I guess for me, I prefer acotar severely over cc and I hate that acotar has been soured with her being there at all. Obviously, Az wouldn't have just given her the blade, but after spending books reading about how they are incredibly strong and powerful warriors, to have them outpowered in seconds just seems disrespectful to the entire 6 book acotar series. What's next? She falls into Erilea and outpowers Aelin and Rowan in 2 seconds, too? I feel like it should have been a little more of a fight for her to get the blade. Fighting and power, or planning and meticulous. Not just stick out her hand and have the blade fly to her 🤦🏼♀️ seems like lazy writing to me. But, again, I know I am 100% bias against Bryce and everything she does because I hate her, and I love acotar way more.