Acotar 6 & 7 covers, POVs
I want to add:
Sarah confirmed in the podcast that by the time she reached the end of Part 1, it was already 400 pages long. She described following what felt right for the story rather than adhering to a traditional format, which led her to restructure the project into four parts: Part 1 releasing in October, Parts 2 and 3 in January, and Part 4 still unwritten. It’s not a trilogy.
"By the time I got to the end of Part 1, it was 400 pages long. (...) what / was writing felt right, that was what the story that needed to be told. And so I decided I wasn't going to approach this project from a traditional format of a book.(...) I realized it was going to be 4 parts, a book told in four parts. (...) Part 4 is yet to be written (...) Part 1 which is out in October. And then Part 2 and 3, which will be out in January. It's not a trilogy." CHD Podcast
This is crucial context that most people are glossing over. She didn’t start from scratch. She had 400 pages done and made a structural decision from there. And when she said she wanted to do something “completely different,” people immediately assumed she meant a multi-POV book. But Sarah has written multi-POV before across her other series. That’s not new for her. What’s actually new, and what she was referring to, is the publishing format itself: one book released as three separate volumes, not as a trilogy.
The POV situation is also being widely misread. She never said there would be a surprise POV. She said the POV surprised her. Those are completely different statements. The surprise came from what emerged through that perspective, not from whose head we’re in. And when you consider that this is a seer’s POV, the implications are significant. Think about the kind of insights, visions, and layers of meaning a seer brings to a narrative.
Why not confirming the POV then?
Sarah didn’t tell us anything about the books beyond the release dates and the new structure. She couldn’t even tell us the lengths of the books, which is interesting, because the next day Bloomsbury confirmed the lengths anyway. So if Sarah wanted to, or was allowed to, she would have said it. But she didn’t. So I’m not reading too much into the secrecy. Most likely these details will drop together with the titles and blurbs.
And regarding the rejected bond question: Sarah showed us that she was in Elain’s head, which means she has Elain’s POV on paper, definitively.
And if we trust what Sarah has consistently said across interviews leading up to this, that each sister gets her own book and each book centers one couple, then those 400 pages she already had written before restructuring were almost certainly Elain’s story. With her love interest.
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Interview 1: SJM Interview- smartb*tchestrashybooks Podcast Mar 6, 2020
Ms. Maas: Nesta's new book - I guess I'II focus on, like, Nesta first and then talk about the future plans for the series - but, so Nesta, as of right now, l've, l've sent in draft one, like back in early January, and I have my edits on it, but I'm about to go on tour, so edits are taking a break, but Nesta right now is just one book, and **my plan for these ACoTaR, you know, the, the continuing ACoTaR series was to have it shift to romance pair, like one couple, like, per book?** And the first one is Nesta and Cassian, and Nesta, from the start, I mean, when she, when she appeared in the series, in the original trilogy, I mean, I knew that some people were going to hate her, some people were going to love her.
Interview 2: Live Talks Interview ACOSF Promotion
Interviewer: "Do you have another book planned for the 3rd sister?"
SJM: "Yes. (...) There's actually lots of secrets in Silver Flames that's set up for (voice cut) book. (...) Each of these books are standalones that features its own couple."