Apparently, by coincidence, my last post was about death spoilers and so is this one (indirectly). This is about one of my favorite urban fantasy series by Seanan McGuire, while the other was an epic NA romantasy type book, I guess. Death of core characters is overall more expected in epic fantasy as a genre, and would probably be weird without it, in retrospect. Like, you could probably argue character death itself is partly what *makes* a story epic, though romantic protagonists are exempt. At least in romantic fantasy/romantasy books.
Seanan McGuire doesn't write romantic urban fantasy... her urban fantasy just has a significant amount of romance. I dunno if this makes a difference. It seems she didn't really get blowback, but at the same time... Sarah J Maas does this sort of thing as a matter of course (get rid of romantic pairings, sometimes through death) and this *is* romantasy, so why not Seanan McGuire?
I dunno why, but it's really surprised me. To be clear, I've avoided reading this book because I read reviews referencing character death. But even without reading it, I know it's almost certainly a good book with no gratuitous death. Wanting a romantic protagonist to be safe is a bit of a juvenile trope that dismisses the potential of this genre, in a way, especially if it becomes necessary. At the same time, she gave this couple a happy ending, of a sort. I don't know how to feel. I mean, they weren't retired and were in fact at war, so 'happy ending' is questionable, but... it was one.
I'm also fully aware that if literally no one of the main cast dies in a war, and they're a normal human, you essentially have some sort of weird joke and not a war. And yet, I say this while being used to the main cast in fact surviving wars, at least in books written with romance by women. If I had to guess, most male writers who include romance subplots kill characters freely.
I dunno if I'm 'sad'; I've never cried over character death in my life. I think part of me feels I wasted my time with this couple. Or questions if I wasted my time. I've never read the prequel to Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas mostly because I feel the man dying makes it sort of a waste for me. I mean technically I know it's a ridiculous attitude, but here we are. I'm pain-avoidant even if I doubt I'd cry or be super depressed, though I'd probably dwell if I really had no warning. I'm dwelling anyway. I do appreciate that a death like this gives a story real stakes. I think Seanan has killed off a lot of this family in the past, though generally this is only once they've procreated. That should've been a clue, though.
Anyway, the fact is that even if the stakes have gone up, my avoidant personality means my chances of reading have gone down.