OVER 500 PAGES into A Court of Mist and Fury, the second book in Sarah J. Maas's wildly successful "A Court of Thorns and Roses" series, the protagonist, Feyre, finally hooks up with Rhysand, an ancient Fae lord with batlike wings and a deep well of emotional trauma. Rhysand ravages Feyre on a table covered in her art supplies-then scoops her up and carries her to a bathtub, where they wash off the paint they're now covered in. Maas narrates from Feyre's point of view: "Rhys picked up a bar of that pine-tar smelling soap and handed it to me, then passed a washrag. 'Someone, it seems, got my wings dirty.' My face heated, but my gut tightened. Illyrian males and their wings-so sensitive." As she starts washing Rhys, she glances over his shoulder into the bathtub. "At least the rumors about wingspan correlating with the size of other parts were right," she tells him.
This scene, like most sex scenes taken out of context, reads as baffling or laughable or both. The bathtub. The innuendo. The wings! Within the full arc of "ACOTAR," though, it represents the culmination of an epic fairy-tale transformation. Feyre begins the series absolutely in love with a different man, a golden faerie named Tamlin, and it's only after intense trauma and a grueling effort to rebuild herself that she realizes protective, possessive Tamlin's all wrong for her. It takes her nearly a full book to accept that she belongs with Rhysandthe kind of faerie who has tattoos on both knees to remind him he kneels to no one. Until, of course, he gets on his knees for Feyre.
Esta historia es de la edición January 29 - February 11, 2024 de New York magazine.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor ? Conectar
Esta historia es de la edición January 29 - February 11, 2024 de New York magazine.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor? Conectar
THE BEST ART SHOWS OF THE YEAR
IN NOVEMBER, Sotheby's made history when it sold for a million bucks a painting made by artificial intelligence. Ai-Da, \"the first humanoid robot artist to have an artwork auctioned by a major auction house,\" created a portrait of Alan Turing that resembles nothing more than a bad Francis Bacon rip-off. Still, the auction house described the sale as \"a new frontier in the global art market.\"
THE BIGGEST PODCAST MOMENTS OF THE YEAR
A STRANGE THING happened with podcasts in 2024: The industry was repeatedly thrust into the spotlight owing to a preponderance of head-turning events and a presidential-election cycle that radically foregrounded the medium's consequential nature. To reflect this, we've carved out a list of ten big moments from the year as refracted through podcasting.
THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR
THE YEAR IN CULTURE - BEST BOOKS
THE BEST THEATER OF THE YEAR
IT'S BEEN a year of successful straight plays, even measured by a metric at which they usually do poorly: ticket sales. Partially that's owed to Hollywood stars: Jeremy Strong, Jim Parsons, Rachel Zegler, Rachel McAdams (to my mind, the most compelling).
THE BEST ALBUMS OF THE YEAR
2024 WAS one big stress test that presented artists with a choice: Face uncomfortable realities or serve distractions to the audience. Pop music turned inward while hip-hop weathered court cases and incalculable losses. Country struggled to reconcile conservative interests with a much wider base of artists. But the year's best music offered a reprieve.
THE BEST TELEVISION OF THE YEAR
IT WAS SURPRISING how much 2024 felt like an uneventful wake for the Peak TV era. There was still great television, but there was much more mid or meh television and far fewer moments when a critical mass of viewers seemed equally excited about the same series.
THE BEST COMEDY SPECIALS OF THE YEAR
THE YEAR IN CULTURE - COMEDY SPECIALS
THE BEST MOVIES OF THE YEAR
PEOPLE LOVED Megalopolis, hated it, puzzled over it, clipped it into memes, and tried to astroturf it into a camp classic, but, most important, they cared about it even though it featured none of the qualities you'd expect of a breakthrough work in these noisy times.
A Truly Great Time
This was the year our city's new restaurants loosened up.
The Art of the Well-Stuffed Stocking
THE CHRISTMAS ENTHUSIASTS on the Strategist team gathered to discuss the oversize socks they drape on their couches and what they put inside them.
