bride made me miserable

[@monster-enthusiast]

Bruh, her saying she "wasn't aware" of the size difference thing in all of her books AND saying she didn't think about their names is wild to me.

[@sao-me1lt]

Her AO3 is still up and has things tagged "size kink" lol.

[@erikdaniels0n]

Not even 20 seconds in and Sophie calling Ali Hazelwood her “anti-pookie” already has me in tears. This is gonna be gold

[@e_nyuszi]

same haha

[@BeeN0987]

The whole size difference thing gives me the ick honestly. Why are the men in her books always huge and massive and giant and the women are always petite and delicate.

[@mikankitsune0440]

It's a kink thing.

[@Keldinosaurs]

Fr. Like once-off and not really mentioned as a huge thing is fine since height differences do exist, but it's the way that it's all of her book and brought up to be some "sexy" thing that's like ew

[@skittlecornnation4323]

Because it’s popular fantasy. Idc how weird it is irl, I like the thought of a bigger guy. It feels like I am being hugged by a blanket.

[@Keldinosaurs]

@@skittlecornnation4323 That's one thing since your opinion is literally just "I like bigger guys and media with them as LIs when they're described as being warm and comforting", but a lot of books are "OMG look at how BIG and MATURE this MALE is, compared to this ~sweet little tiny baby girl with the face of a child and the body of a supermodel~ and his MASSIVE dick won't ever fit inside her!!" which imo is super infantilising yet simultaneously sexualising, which is a super uncomfortable and not-okay combo. A tall guy with a short girl, or vice versa, is fine. It being mentioned in a subtle way through "his body is like a blanket" or whatever is fine. But typically fictional media will also portray the tall one as a hypermasculine (almost toxically masculine) man who is a bit to a lot older who refers to the girl as "baby" and has a huge dick that's always brought up in reference to how it's like the size of her whole body and could "never fit inside her!!" and has slept with 10000000 women, then the short one as a very feminine or quirky or "bratty" young woman (typically a recently legal one, at that) with a round and soft baby face but boobs and a butt the size of the moon yet eyes that glisten and sparkle and she's full of childlike wonder and is a virgin but is great at sex. Which comes across VERY weird and sexualising of typically childish traits - not to say characters and real people can't have these traits, just that they're typically still brought up in sexual scenarios when they really shouldn't be because sex is one of those things where, if you think about it in a childish way, it simply isn't safe and sometimes is either not consensual or is but the other person may not fully understand what's going on (so.. still not consensual). Sorry for ranting :') TL;DR: The idea itself isn't the issue, but the overall context surrounding said idea can make it easily cross the line from a totally innocent and okay relationship to "oh my god get this author away from teenagers".

[@Flareontoast]

You're right about being unfazed by knotting, I'm just like, bro, it's literally still the same Ali Hazelwood flavor romance as usual with a bit more animalistic vibe

[@Kimaek999]

13:19 THAT'S THE WORST ANSWER A WRITER CAN GIVE IM- AAAAAAA YOU SHOULD KNOW WHAT YOU'RE WRITING AS A WRITER... DON'T YOU PLAN BEFOREHAND ON THESE KIND OF BASIC THINGS 😭 I'm so mad rn

[@probablybri]

Imagine being the editor that pitched omegaverse to ali hazelwood 14:10 💀💀💀

[@cuddlewuffle]

did she make the werewolves business guys bc of the Wolf of Wall Street lol

[@Flareontoast]

About lube: silicone lube is, in general, pretty good, because it lasts longer than water-based lubricant and does well with condoms. However, it is not compatible with sex toys because silicone and silicone don't get along. Unless you're specifically like, allergic to it or anything or are using silicone toys, silicone lube is a solid one to have on hand

[@IzzysTravelDiaries]

Knotting is just standard canine beast romance stuff. You even have it in Inuyasha fanfics. Omegaverse is so much more. I don't actually like it, I just gave it a try once. I'm just not a fan of the power dynamics.

[@sydmoong]

whoever told the straights about omegaverse needs to go to jail

[@QueenSiv]

Girl ‘omegaverse’ has existed in fanfic since I was a child and it was all straight stuff I saw back then, it was all… I can’t even say 💀 but it was obsessed with pregnancy and I could NOT read that man even the gay omegaverse stuff I saw years later SOMEHOW had that in there ain’t no way I couldn’t believe it

[@sydmoong]

@@QueenSiv yeah i’ve been seeing it in fics since i was younger too and i don’t have any issues with it, but i guess in my experience omegaverse has always been mostly a safe space for queer stories/expression.. so it’s just odd to me to see it co-opted in a traditionally published heterosexual romance and not really done well? like sophie said, she didn’t commit, and it feels like it misses the point. but that’s just my opinion!!!

[@lawliet6910]

@@sydmoongI agree, an important part of omegaverse by queer authors in queer spaces (at least the part I’ve found most interesting) is the exploration of gender. With secondary genders in omegaverse, authors can include some really intriguing commentaries on societal structures. Not to sound too 🤓🤓🤓 but yeah

[@BanjoJill]

Yeah, I grew up on queer omegaverse fanfic, so seeing the straights get their hands on this is really weird. They muddied the genre imo.

[@Artbyhurricanyounot]

LMFAO

[@khushimehta3719]

I think the size difference kink is just for people to live out their age gap-forbidden love-dark romance desires without committing to the bit

[@khushimehta3719]

Also making the werewolves stronger and faster owr wtv just means that the female MC - even though she is a Vampire - will never be stronger than the guy -UGHHHHHHHH

[@homedepoturinalz8974]

You're so right, paired with the fact that the women are almost always: - Blindly obedient and dependent on the man for protection - Naive to the way the world/things work (especially about sex) - Virgins It's so gross...

[@skittlecornnation4323]

The size difference is appealing for the sake of extremities. Why have a guy rail you when you can be destroyed by a giant? Why fuck a chick when she is so tight the grip makes you explode? Age has no factor in this, otherwise that’s what the age gap is for.

[@Ivy11110]

I love watching straight authors try to make the omegaverse appealing to the masses as someone who has been on ao3 for years lol

[@Ly_Lord]

Scrap the straight and authors parts. It is the editors, publishers, authors and all other people involved in making them. Sexual orientation is not of relevance, an ignorant mind is

[@ettaetta439]

​​@@Ly_LordGiven that the omega verse is rooted in queer fiction online, and all the recent omega verses that have been greenlit by publishers are straight, I think it's interesting to mention how sexualities may be relevant lol. After all, there is a distinct lack of straightness in the omega verse. This influx of straight omega verse content could be straight authors looking for more straight relationships in their favourite setting of choice, not finding it, and then deciding to create it and sell it. Demand creates supply.

[@skittlecornnation4323]

I’ve seen more queer omegaverse enforce stereotypical gender roles, ie the feminine guy is the “woman”. But no one cares cause omegaverse was originally made to allow men to be pregnant.

[@spaceorc1397]

13:10 As a writer, with wtiter friends, I can tell you we ABSOLUTELY do know when we are writing the same things into our books. Whether its a small thing like always mentioning a character smirk or a certain phrase we use. And we actively deviate our characters so they're not copy-pastes of other characters we write.

[@operation_turtle]

not into omegaverse stuff but it always feels best when done in a male centric verse since, at its core, it is an anti-toxic masculinity allegory on what if men were treated the same. ive never understood why add in women unless its to subvert the alpha trope.

[@skittlecornnation4323]

Most omega stories actually reinforce gender roles. Feminine men being omegas and masculine men as alphas is just as harmful as saying feminine women and masculine men are the statues quo.

[@operation_turtle]

@@skittlecornnation4323 one can argue that is part of the fetish and we cant really hold a fetish and sexual content with design to please to the same standard with gender roles as others. Theres just little appeal if done with women since that's just a standard breeding kink.

[@wooogie672]

since like 2016/2017, i thought “knotting” was a term made up in omegaverse fic and only learned the other day that it is, in fact, a real thing 😭

[@Kimaek999]

21:45 at least, she could've been a bit original if she invented an omega/alpha thingy for Vampires

[@carissacaressacarossa]

Not really. Vampire hierarchies and forced bonds have been a part of the literature from the beginning.

[@elmeelee4109]

23:55 that’s so funny lmao is that supposed to be a nod to the Wolf of Wall Street or what

[@Artbyhurricanyounot]

The older (and gayer) I get the more I realized that it isn’t the contemporary genre that was the issue for me… it’s the heteronormativity 🤣 all the popular books are far too straight for me! And the fact that Ali didn’t choose to commit to the bit and call the guy Company is a wasted opportunity. Also I fucking HATE that she chose to call her werewolves “weres” how uncreative is this woman????

[@mikankitsune0440]

All of her books are "nerdy girl in stem falls in love." basically. So... very uncreative

[@Artbyhurricanyounot]

@@mikankitsune0440 you’re so right 🥲 they’re all the same in different fonts

[@HazelSageHP]

Oh my god, if she'd have named the guy Company, I would have suffered through for sheer joy of the pun 😂😂

[@mrspreminger]

heterosexual omegaverse should be a crime

[@honestlysophie]

im glad you’re back queen ✊🏻

[@asavagegarden]

i was about to comment EXACTLY the same.

[@madhatt3r93]

This is gonna be so mean of me, but whenever I read/listen to Ali Hazelwood in an interview I just get the impression that she's... Not very smart. Which is weird, because it seems like she's educated and I don't want to take this away from her, but whenever she talks about her writing she just strikes me as... Immature and not putting much mental effort into her writing. I dunno, like no hate to her ofc, I just can't get rid of that impression of her.

[@honestlysophie]

honestly this is exactly it!!! im sure she’s super smart and educated in the field she’s in… writing just isn’t her thing😭

[@CursedCatTruffa]

She's proof that hust because you got a tittle and graduated don't make you smart; she should stick to her career instead of writing because she's just bad at it, maybe kept it a hobby on ao3 but she's just a bad writer

[@Keter9793]

MC's programming in java? No wonder her dad hates her.

[@meowlo-the-mood-reader]

"anti-pookie" off to a great start ok i'm the one who sent that las vegas instagram comment and i'm so glad i'm not alone in that thought lol. also, i'm a millenial and her humor grates on me as well. as someone who read all but two of ali hazelwood's books in one go just to experience them all and get them over with, i do not recommend that. It was a bad two weeks for me lol.

[@LilyEvans1996]

Ooooo perfect timing! I’m making coffee, and going to continue writing while I’m listening to this podcast. Also maybe one day if I’m lucky you’ll hate my book ❤😂

[@Kimaek999]

Ikr I can't wait for my book to be hated on by Sophie. Such an honor

[@namivianna9406]

I respect Hazelwood for trying to branch out but this did not work at all. I'll never look at olives the same way again and I'll die mad about that.

[@mikankitsune0440]

This book is to straight too have omegaverse aspects in it. 😐 Hazelwood needs to stick to her girl boss/nerdy girl falls in love stories. She's this era's Nicholas Sparks.

[@QueenSiv]

Listened to a review of this two days ago that was not nearly as good as a Sophie video and was soooo hype for this video

[@Fela_rof]

It was quite entertaining tbh, until the thing with the knot made its appearance. I was so irritated at first because I've never heard of it and never read anything that's part of the Omegaverse or werewolf related (except twilight like 20 years ago 😂). This really threw me off and i still don't understand why they kept it in there?!

[@justasimmerr]

I loathed this book as both a vampire and omegaverse enjoyer. Like did the vampires not feel like vampires to anyone?? How was her being awake during night not bring up any issues the whole book???

[@franziskaw5105]

I can't wait till you reach 1 Mio followers. Then I'll tell everyone that I've been here since 1k. ❤

[@RikkiPReads]

I have to chuckle that this popped up in my sub box after I was putting up mine lol I... gave it 3 stars. Like... high 2.5. I enjoyed the humor and some of the story. The intimate buildup was good for me. But Misery made me also miserable at times and the two main characters together, I don't get lol wasn't feeling it

[@spaceorc1397]

All of us millennials don't have the same humour as Ali Hazelwood, some of us are funny (-;

[@caradunn-fox3557]

stopp i loved this one!

[@asherscott3151]

Holey moley this sounds awful...

[@tenpenny_jenny]

OMG hi!

[@asherscott3151]

Contemporary just bores me, but sf/f is harder to write, which means more of them suck... 🫠