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Plus the fads come and go so fast now, by summer we'll probably be in the "backlash" against 1st person...!

Probably, but most of the bestsellers that get talked about or the ones I flip through in the bookstore seem to be first person present tense. And my problem is only with first person present tense. Past tense is fine.

Oh, I agree entirely. I also have no real preference other than that I like close. And I really do not care what anyone else prefers. I’m certainly not going to judge anyone for their preferences.

Tangent: as a reader I enjoy it when the perspective changes in different chapters.

I can't write 1st person lol But also literacy has gone through phases like this before, right? Like when Arthur C Doyle & Agatha Christie were writing, it was common for the narrator to be someone who was recalling a story to you. 1st person & 3rd person just trade places every now & again

I think second is best when you're trying to characterize something or someone uncanny or falling into delusion--I did that with one character and it was very very eerie. (Diana Andrews-Landreth, in Netwalking Space, coming under possession by her dead father-in-law)

I really liked how N.K. Jemisin used 2nd in the Broken Earth trilogy and her novelette Emergency Skin.

As far as whether it's 'lazy' or whatever goes, I've always thought anything easy-seeming about first person was deceptive. Easy to quickly get in the head of a character perhaps but super difficult to craft a compelling and unique voice. Almost like every style has its unique challenges!

Ha, I was just complaining because sections of the book I just started are in 2nd and I do not care for it. There's also some prose poetry sections & I hate that this book is otherwise really engaging, especially compared to the last one I finished, because I usually don't care for style tics at all

I like how there's these periodic fashions in literature that come and go and there's always someone available to claim it is some earthshifting new thing that will reshape literature forever

First person hit big during the urban fantasy boom when everyone was aling the classic hardboiled style.

Yeah, there was a thing about gender and POV and I had to actually go check the books I was thinking of. I was correct about 50% which is literally just coin toss.

I remember the first time I heard a craft talk on romance (back in 2015) the going philosophy was that first person didn't work well because readers didn't want to be inserted directly into the sex scenes! How things change lol.

I can’t speak to ACOTAR, but Fourth Wing is 1st person

The POV wars are exhausting. Learn the rules so you know why you're breaking them. That's the difference between lazy writing and intentional craft. Both POVs can work if you understand the mechanics.

My story for last year's "Born to Run" challenge on @literotica.com was inspired by Bruce Springsteen's "Night". I decided to use 2P like the song, and it dictated the tone of the story. I think made it much better than it would have been in 1P, and a 4.74⭐ rating seems to bear that out.

One of my abandoned projects had some scenes from the pov of a hive mind, so yeah, a lot of "we"

my first fanfics in 1999 were 2nd person POV. lol

Really good for uncanny novels/characters. I did a character in 2nd for one book--but she was under the influence of a malign entity and falling into delusions. it was very very eerie.

My current WiP varies POV: The A story is 1st person, w/2 protagonists. Standard queer/trans romance format. The B story is the fictional trans-affirming magical girl anime that brings the characters together. It's in 3rd person. Then the pilots interweave & progress in tandem. I'm having fun!😁

(I have read and enjoyed 1st books too, it just presents a little bump for me to get over in the beginning, which is why I was shocked when I first heard someone say 1st was "more intimate")