Book Review: A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J. Maas

Gwyn whispered, "I am the rock against which the surf crashes.” Nesta straightened at the words, as if they were a prayer and a summons. Gwyn lifted the blade. “Nothing can break me.”

A ​Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J. Maas
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This review contains HEAVY SPOILERS and also addresses mental health and PTSD.

If you are here for smut, you're gonna have an okay time.
If you are here to see an author discuss the intricacies of PTSD that are often left out in novels with heavy themes of war and violence, you're gonna have the worst day ever.

Great Things:
1. Nesta : Nesta is an AMAZING character. She is way more complex and relatable than Feyre. So I was beyond upset that SJM took this amazing character and made her out to be the devil, the evil queen, the one to hate. At the start of this book, I had hope that the author was going to dig into the idea of women's mental health and how it is often not taken seriously. When I say I was so excited that Nesta was getting her own book, I genuinely was excited because it was obvious that homegirl was struggling throughout the last two books and that there was a complex and harrowing tale to be told with her at the center. Anyways-- #NestaDeserved Better

2. Thanks for the smut.

3. I know it's corny, but I love a female friendship aspect in books like this. I actually enjoyed seeing three girls have a spa night in the middle of this book. It was refreshing to see healthy bonds between women. Alexa, play "Girl Power" by the Cheetah Girls

Terrible Things
1. I'm not done with my Nesta rant. It was so painful, disheartening, frustrating to watch literally every character, other than Gwen or Emerie, hound on Nesta and tell her how terrible she was for HAVING STEADILY DETERIORATING MENTAL HEALTH. FOR HAVING PTSD. You're telling me these schlong slanging, pointy-eared fairy a-holes are mad at her for not being immune to the traumatizing nature of war? I'm not even exaggerating when I say that every time Nesta walked into a room, at least one person in the Night Courts little found-family of jerks had to tell her what an utter waste of space she was. They claimed to care about Nesta (except Rhys who was like "nah, i hate Nesta cuz she's an inconvenience to me and calls me out on my bullsh*t) and then they blame her for being depressed and anxious and traumatized.

This is my biggest disappointment of this entire book: that we are, right now as a society and in our various communities, starting to talk about mental health and address its intricacies and yet SJM writes this book. This book about a young woman who has gone through so much trauma and yet the only people who are able to talk to her like she is a human and explain to her (truly push her towards acceptance) are other women who have been broken and scarred as well. Even Ryhsand (who we all know invented feminism)-- you know what. He gets his own section.

2. Rhysand is the actual worst. I hate that SJM tries to pass him off as a strong, cunning, beautiful, passionate man because he is emotionally manipulative and abusive not only to Feyre but to everyone in his life who prevents him from doing what he wants at all times. He threatens to kill Nesta for telling Feyre the truth about her own body. He keeps the "you have the power to literally make godly objects" thing from her. He hates that Nesta makes him look bad more than he hates that she is struggling. I hate him with a passion because I've had Rhysands in my life and I know that no matter what, people will continue to see him as a good guy even though every action he makes is a selfish one. The fact that Nesta had to give up her power to save him because he and her sister have fairy dust for brains enrages me.

3. I hate the "male" "female" thing. It makes my skin crawl.

4. Nesta literally changing her physical anatomy so she can push out Cassian's winged babies one day made me want to vomit.

5.The ending battle with homegirl the crone queen was the most anti-climactic thing. I forgot about her so many times while reading this book. I was like "oh, hey" when she popped up. The battle lasted two minutes. Snore.

Anyway. I'm giving it 3 stars because Sarah J. Maas owns my a** and deep down, I love a good trainwreck. (also, smut)

View all my reviews

Bonus: My thoughts on the fact that Mor's family is homophobic af: