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

Mar 1

Håfa adai! Welcome to my spoiler-free review of A Court of Silver Flames, a story from A Court of Thorns and Roses series by Sarah J. Maas.

This book review consists of two parts: a spoiler-free plot summary and my thoughts on the story. In the second part, I give my personal rating and break down the setting and worldbuilding, storytelling, cast of characters, and themes. There may be some lightweight spoilers—such as how characters interact with each other and the world around them—but I will not give away any major plot twists or endings. I want to share my opinions of the book and maybe encourage you to purchase a copy of your own.

Click on the tags at the bottom of this post to see all reviews with the same tags in the Fantasy bookshelf.

Spoiler-Free Plot Summary

Prythian has been scarred by decades of war and conflict. Those who survived to rebuild are left not recognizing their own reflections. Nesta, born a human in the Mortal Lands but forcibly turned into High Fae, drowns the sounds and images she cannot escape in substances and promiscuity. Feyre gives her eldest sister a choice: go to the House of Winds to work on recovery, or permanently leave the Night Court and return to the Mortal Lands. Nesta begrudgingly agrees.

Accompanied by Cassian—a general of the Night Court—to the House of Winds, Nesta makes it a point that she will do the absolute bare minimum. But Cassian finds a way to fly through her aggressively defensive nature and creates a method where Nesta would be willing to train and recover. Nesta’s time is then divided between physical training with Cassian at the House of Winds and learning to work in the service of others at the library. While at the library, Nesta learns of the Valkyries: a once powerful clan of all-female warriors that embraced members from all backgrounds and races.

As Nesta begins to lift herself up from years of unaddressed pain, a threat emerges that forces her to use abilities she does not yet control or even fully understand. Now, she must rise to face a challenge to a land she never wanted to be a part of. Nesta chooses to jeopardize her own life to protect the youngest sister she spent years abusing and support the chosen sisters who have been apart of her recovery. But has her choice come too late?

My Thoughts on A Court of Silver Flames: 3.75 stars

A Court of Silver Flames is Sarah J. Maas’ fifth installment in A Court of Thorns and Roses series. Unlike previous entries in this series—which predominantly followed the perspectives of Feyre and Rhysand—this story follows Nesta Archeron, Feyre’s eldest sister. In what is now my favorite ACOTAR story, Sarah J. Maas uses highly detailed imagery and fantastic storytelling to approach topics like trauma, addiction, sobriety, maladaptive coping mechanisms, and the painful journey to meaningful recovery.

Sarah J. Maas’ skill at character complexity and development reaches a new level in A Court of Silver Flames. One of the most interesting feats in character development I have recently seen in a book occurs in this story: there is a magical house (called the House of Winds) that has personality, agency, and growth! I liked this aspect from start to finish. And when it comes to the anthropoid characters, Nesta is a completely different person than her youngest sister Feyre, who was the main protagonist in all previous ACOTAR stories. Thus, she compartmentalizes her experiences differently, internalizes her trauma differently, and addresses it differently. In many ways, Nesta is both the protagonist and antagonist in this story.

The entire series of A Court of Thorns and Roses centers representations of trauma, how it manifests in our actions and relationships with others, and what happens when an individual is forced to live with the weight of unaddressed trauma. A Court of Silver Flames provides the most in-depth and visceral look into facing your own trauma while uplifting others to face their trauma as well. Nesta’s journey throughout the ACOTAR series from abusive older sister, to reluctant aide, to indifferent outsider reaches an emotional crescendo as she learns to become a fierce supporter of her friends and family. Yes, the series is filled with sensational imagery across every installment, but that sensationalism is merely decoration or context for the powerful journeys experienced by its characters. Especially Nesta Acheron.

Scenes of sex and intimacy are explicit and graphic throughout the entire ACOTAR series, and A Court of Silver Flames is no exception. But while the previous books ease the reader into the smut, this book throws you right into it. But it is not purely out of sensationalism! A significant part of Nesta’s strategy for coping with (read as “avoiding”) her trauma is to engage in frequent sexual encounters with men she has just met. She is not looking for intimacy, she is looking for escape. And it is not until she addresses her trauma, takes accountability for her own actions, faces who/what she has seen herself to be, and allows herself to get emotionally close with someone else that she begins to experience intimacy for the first time.

Before I move on to what did not sit right with me about A Court of Silver Flames, I cannot write a review of a Sarah J. Maas book without talking about her awesome worldbuilding abilities and what makes this book my favorite in the ACOTAR series. The reader is completely inundated with the world of Prythian by the time they reach this book. Just when you think the entire picture of this fantastical world has been painted, Sarah J. Maas adds more detail. And pulling inspiration from well-known fairy tales did not stop with A Court of Thorns and Roses. Nesta’s healing journey throughout this book demonstrates parallels to that of Mulan (in the 1998 animated Disney film) and is what makes this story so bittersweet and beautiful.

Yet alongside all the wonderful aspects I appreciated about A Court of Silver Flames were four things that I did not care for in this installment: (1) the mating bond, (2) ignoring or making excuses for repeating the past, (3) an unnecessary side quest, and (4) character invincibility. First, I will never appreciate the mating bond! The main cast of characters are High Fae, not penguins or gibbons. Sarah J. Maas does such a wonderful job of composing the romantic relationships between characters. The mating bond only takes away from their agency and makes me wonder if maybe it was written into the series because the author is not confident in her own amazing abilities.

Second, Rhysand makes choices that seem like slight variations of what Tamlin did in A Court of Mist and Fury in his efforts to keep Feyre safe; the same toxic things that drove Feyre away from their relationship. But it is supposed to be acceptable because Feyre and Rhysand are connected through the mating bond? Ignoring (at best) or excusing (at worse) Rhysand’s choices in A Court of Silver Flames feels like saying it is okay to do what Tamlin did as long as the mating bond is in place. And it seems like Nesta was used as a scapegoat for it, even if she could have gone about going against it in a better way. Her moment of realization could have come about without having this element in the story at all.

Third, there is a side plot (not a subplot) involving the finding and acquiring of several artifacts that seems forced into the story. Nesta is already going through so much incredible growth throughout A Court of Silver Flames outside of this plot. It feels as if Sarah J. Maas wedged it in there to have a more fantastical element to the ongoing events. In going through this book and writing this review, I realized that Sarah J. Maas could have removed the unnecessary parts of A Court of Frost and Starlight, removed this particular plot from A Court of Silver Flames, combined the two into a single book, and it may have been shorter than the 750+ pages that A Court of Silver Flames is now.

Lastly, what is even the point of characters becoming mortally wounded if we know they are not going to die? I acknowledge that this is a tremendous nit picky pet peeve of mine, but this particular thing that happens throughout ACOTAR makes certain aspects of Sarah J. Maas’ absolutely predictable. This type of misleading seems like a waste of time. The author is able to get her readers so emotionally invested in her characters only for each time it is unclear whether they will survive or not to have been a waste of worry. So why even have the characters injured to those extents at all?!

All in all, I give A Court of Silver Flames 3.75 out of 5 stars. Of the five books currently within the ACOTAR series, A Court of Silver Flames is the one I like the most. I do not see myself revisiting previous books in A Court of Thorns and Roses—I go back and forth about possibly revisiting A Court of Mist and Fury—and I wanted to see myself revisiting this one. There were aspects of the story that could have been cut from the book without changing the significance of the story. Nesta’s journey from self hate to self acceptance is deeply relatable to me, but certain aspects of the story were too much for me to overlook. Overall, it was the best installment in the ACOTAR series so far. I went from dragging my feet in A Court of Wings and Ruin and A Court of Frost and Starlight to wanting to know what happens in A Court of Silver Flames.

Dångkulo' na' saina ma'åse'! Thank you so much for reading my review of A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J. Maas.

Rating Cheat Sheet

4.75 - 5.00 stars: Everyone should read this book! (If you’re into that sort of thing.)
4.00 - 4.50 stars: I appreciated many aspects of this book. I recommend it!
3.00 - 3.75 stars: I liked some aspects of this book. I won’t revisit it, but someone else might really like it.
2.00 - 2.75 stars: There were some things I appreciated about this book, but I do not recommend it.
0.25 - 1.75 stars: I do not recommend this book. I did not enjoy or appreciate the experience of it.

Post Date: 30 December 2024