A Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones)

The most serious complaint is sexual violence: one reader flatly calls the book “wall-to-wall rape,” depicted at length and “never treated as what it is” by the narrative. Sansa draws heavy fire, tagged “most insipid, annoying, airheaded character” in the cast. Some say the sheer number of viewpoints flattens rather than sharpens, the noble houses blurring together. Deaths function as plot mechanics to remove a problem rather than as consequences, “deaths are a plot convenience” as one puts it. The northern opening is a slow on-ramp, and readers complain arcs get abandoned rather than paid off.