Re-reading the books, had forgotten how much I hated this about her character. Every time she's in a casual conversation my eyes glaze over and I skip to the end of the page because I can't stand it.

It's not that her remarks aren't clever or funny (they're neither), but that anyone who talks like that is a child. If someone asks you a question and you answer with a complete non-sequitur that's not "clever" it's annoying. She comes across as totally unable to read the room, and then everyone reacts like she's George Carlin slinging zingers. If her outbursts weren't followed by affirmation of her brilliance, I might have been able to write them off as Shallan being a traumatized repressed pseudo-child.

It's not that I find everything Sando writes unfunny. Lift's over-use of the word "awesome" reeks of a Gen X author who wants to affect what "the youth" sound like, but her exchanges with Wyndle get a few laughs. Lopen is genuinely hilariously written, "I have glowing that needs to be done!"

I don't get it. Maybe it's me. But it ruins her whole character for me, which is unfortunate for a POV character because I find myself skipping blocks of text just to get her chapters over with.

EDIT: Just now realizing this is the coldest, most boring take in the history of Cosmere discussions. Apologies