Book Review | A Court of Silver Flames

A Court of Silver Flames 

By Sarah J. Maas

Bloomsbury  |  2021  |  784 pages

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS

Nesta Archeron has always been prickly - proud, swift to anger and slow to forgive. And since the war - since being made High Fae against her will - she's struggled to forget the horrors she endured and find a place for herself within the strange and deadly Night Court. The person who ignites her temper more than any other is Cassian, the battle-scarred, winged warrior who is there at Nesta's every turn. But her temper isn't the only thing Cassian ignites. And when they are forced to train in battle together, sparks become flame.

As the threat of war casts its shadow over them once again, Nesta and Cassian must fight monsters from within and without if they are to stand a chance of halting the enemies of their court. But the ultimate risk will be searching for acceptance - and healing - in each other's arms.

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Wow… I’ve now finished the series. That is so mad. I devoured this series so quickly, I surprised myself. I will do an overall review of the series at the end of this one. Rather than just doing a lone review on the series itself, I thought I’d just tack it on and make this review even longer. I really need to work on writing less for these reviews though. I always think I haven’t written much and then I scroll and it’s like oops… 7 pages. Honestly, I talk so damn much. Sorry about that!

Anyway… A Court of Silver Flames… I was so pleasantly surprised by this one. I had seen a lot of back and forth on Booktok about people who absolutely hate this book and find it boring as anything. Then, there were people who raved about it and was rooting Nesta 100% of the way. I gladly admit to being in the second half of that. I was fighting Nesta’s corner for almost the entirety of the book. I backed her through all her hardships like she’s made her mistakes and she’s got her prickly edges but damn, Nesta deserved this redemption book, if you would call it that. She deserved to have a story and to have her journey told to us. 

I normally go between things I liked and things I disliked… I think I am going to switch things up going forward and just write what comes to mind. I made little notes on my phone as I read the book so I’ll use that as a guide. Maybe it will help me to stay on track a bit more and not write 27734 pages for this review. 

Nesta is such a complex character in an assortment of ways. In the first few chapters, I was not having her attitude in the slightest. I saw her point in being kept up in the House of Wind and I saw people compare it to Tamlin locking Feyre up in the manor and saying that Feyre did the same to Nesta… which I disagree with to be honest. Was it the best way for Feyre to tackle Nesta’s spiralling? Maybe, maybe not. But, it certainly was not the same as what Tamlin did to her. Feyre was not given any reprieve from the house. She was not given choices. She was not given an out. Nesta on the other hand, spent months getting shit-faced and having sex with dude after dude. Feyre allowed that to continue as she understood her sister was clearly going through it but she got to a point of saying enough is enough. I think Feyre is entitled to that considering she was rinsing hers and Rhys’ money left, right and centre. 

Also, after their little intervention with Nesta, she was given the options to work and to contribute to the place she now lived or she could go to the human lands. Tamlin, if I remember rightly, didn’t give Feyre anything like that. 

Nesta wasn’t a prisoner but she also wasn’t free but Feyre was looking at the situation with the eyes of a concerned sister and I can understand the POV. So, although Nesta’s moods were grating, I got it and could understand it.

Now, I did NOT care for the way she treated Cassian early on in front of the war camps. Embarrassing him and humiliating him was not okay for me. I lost some respect for her there, all because she was petty and wouldn’t get her ass off the rock. Some of Nesta’s choices and behaviour I could tolerate and empathise but some stuff… I just found it childish. It is such a rollercoaster with her character.

However, as the story continued, I did find myself loving Nesta more and more. It was interesting to see the Inner Circle from a POV that wasn’t Feyre’s to be honest. Don’t get me wrong, I was as sad as the next ACOTAR girlie that the Feyre POV was gone but it was refreshing to learn about Nesta and her thoughts and feelings regarding all that had happened in the previous books. 

I will touch more on how I felt about Nesta but for a second, can we talk about what a hilarious duo Cassian and Azriel are in this? Every time they were together, I was giggling; especially when Azriel was ‘chaperoning’ and all their little quips back and forth to each other had me cackling. I just really love their banter and their relationship and again, it was good to see Azriel in another light besides Feyre’s POV.

I knew Feyre was pregnant the second there was mention of a shield. I genuinely held the book down and was like she is with child, I can sense it. Though, it took a long time for them to say it and like Feyre or Rhys says… I am so surprised no one else caught it? Honestly, they are awful at discovering things. I do get people’s outrageous memes about the C section on Booktok etc though… y’all can recover from having your wings ripped off and your intestines spilling out but y’all be drawing the line at C sections? Be for real.

In terms of Feyre and Nesta… I really struggle with her complicated feelings towards Feyre. The anger and bitterness she has towards Feyre is obviously stemming from some guilt but the times where she did get shitty about things… I just… I feel like she frequently forgot how much Feyre did do for them and their whole family? Nesta at one point mentions about the baby having sisters or something and how it was so awful for Feyre and acting like her Archeron family was so bad. And it’s like well no, it wasn’t the best for her, Nesta because unlike you, she was risking her life at 14 to make sure y’all didn’t starve to death whilst you and Elain were trying to look regal and important in town still? 

I never understood what it was that Feyre seemingly did where Nesta couldn’t love her like she loves Elain? It makes no sense to me and for a lot of the books, I had to keep reminding myself who was the youngest child. I like Nesta a lot but call a spade a spade… she was a terrible older sister to Feyre. Her favouritism of Elain is so unbelievably clear and it just doesn’t make sense why she doesn’t feel the need to protect and watch out for Feyre in the same way as Elain. Like the two older sisters had each other continuously and yet Feyre was the one making sure the family survived and yet she was all alone. 

I don’t know… I just seem to feel more for Feyre on that particular aspect. I did however like that Nesta acknowledges it throughout the book. She does seem to at least realize that she hasn’t always been fair to Feyre and slowly she does seem to realize how she had wronged her younger sister and how she should have been there more for her. I do like that and I feel like the two of them did have their growth points in this book. It felt like something was healing in certain chapters and I loved that for the girls.

Now, similar to that… I did not care for Rhys and his opinions on Nesta. I did not care for them at all. A part that really grated on me and I know it grated on other readers was when he and Feyre are talking about his dislike for Nesta and Feyre rightfully points out that he isn’t like that with Elain and his half cooked answer is, “Elain is Elain” like that is any kind of answer?

If anything, that is worse because Elain hasn’t once shown me why she shouldn’t be also held accountable for all the years Feyre was treated like dirt. Maybe Elain didn’t actively participate in being cruel like Nesta did but Elain still did nothing to help her younger sister. Both of them were horrible to Feyre and were happy to spend the money she fought hard for on their own interests. Nesta is not the only sister to blame and I really did not like Rhys’ coldness towards her, as if Elain is innocent when she is far from it. She did nothing to help Feyre in all those years so she is just as bad as Nesta, if not worse because we have barely seen acknowledgement from her about it. Rhys, it was a shit take and I did not like you in that scene. I get why he is mad but y’know, keep the same vibe with Elain then. 

The horror part of me loved the description of the Bog of Oorid. I did not enjoy what happened shortly after Nesta left the tree but the general vibe of the bog and it’s creepiness did wonders for the horror fan in me. I loved it so much and i wish it had been explored a bit more like the prison. 

By the end of the book, I really loved and felt for Nesta. People love to say that she is selfish and only thinks of herself but there was multiple times in this book where I felt she more than redeemed herself by helping others around her when she had no reason to. The fact early on, she actively decided to help Gwyn, I was cheering her on. She had nothing to gain from helping her and yet she did. The fact that her power is death and she is fiercely powerful, she didn’t use it to hurt anyone who didn’t deserve it or anything like that. I think Nesta deserves a break from the hate she gets in fandom. She is flawed but so is everyone else within the Court of Dreams. There are evil characters in this book and series but Nesta is certainly not one of them. 

I feel like she has such a growing journey. She is completely different in the first chapter to the last chapter and I feel that’s the sign of a good book and good character development. The fact I was actively on the verge of tears during several moments in the book as well as rooting for her through the Blood Rite and the bog with the Kelpie… the growth was clear.

 Anyway, I’ll spend the last paragraph on the series as a whole. I am so glad I decided to finally read these books and discover for myself what all the hype was about. It is definitely a series worth reading. There was no book in this series that I disliked. There were books I liked more than others and there were small things in the books that I didn’t like but as a whole, this was a wonderful series. 

It had me on the edge of my seat at times, it had me grinning like an idiot in the early hours of the morning and it had me sniffling and fighting back tears on a regular basis. I struggled to put any of them down and I would gladly reread them. I will likely do so when the ACTOR 6 book gets announced. I think the series plot itself is a bit so-so… I won’t lie. The idea of an evil king and wanting to revert back to narrow minded ways has been done before but I found this take was incredibly fresh and the worldbuilding of each of the courts and the high lords and their friends were all so diverse and different and I loved it all so much.

There were a wide range of characters and grey characters too. There were some that you didn’t know if they were good or bad and yet, they were still intriguing and I really enjoyed the complexity of some of the characters as well. 

Overall, it’s a very solid and well thought out series. There were very few loose ends where I had questions or was left confused. If Sarah J Maas ended it at ACOSF, then I would be happy enough. I felt the book itself was almost like an add-on anyway. I felt like the first four were the main story and then ACOSF was just a tale in the series, y’know?

In terms of the universe of Sarah J Maas… I will likely move onto Throne of Glass next. It won’t be anytime soon as I’d like to try some other series and titles before I delve into the commitment of 8 books. 

Thank you, ACOTAR… you were everything. 💗