Spoilery Book Reviews

A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J Maas

Back of the book

Nesta Acheron has always been quick to anger and slow to forgive. And since the war she has struggled to find her place at the strange and deadly Night Court.

The person who ignites Nesta's temper more than an other is the winged warrior Cassian. But that isn't the only thing he ignites, and when Cassian and Nesta are forced to train in battle together, sparks become flame.

As war looms again, Nesta and Cassian must fight monsters from within and without if they are to survive. But the ultimate risk will be searching for acceptance – and healing – in each other's arms.

My thoughts

Firstly, I enjoyed reading this book. More than I thought I would, considering I have read it before and had been mildly surprised at the slightly different tone and path it followed. I found a comparison in someone else's review that feels very accurate to me: junk food for the brain. It is not literary masterpiece and it is not a book to change the world or your worldview. But I liked it anyway.

If you don't like reading book-sex, then this one is not for you. Nesta and Cassian bang about every two hundred pages, explicitly. Although cock is mentioned plenty, no female anatomy is mentioned directly. Instead we get the vague: core, sex, centre and the infamous 'bundle of nerves'. After reading a book that did jump right in to saying clit (Fourth Wind, Rebecca Yarros), going back to reading Maas style of sex scene was a little frustrating. The sex scenes are sometimes poorly timed, adding to the un-realism of it. It is a very horny book where characters are always only moments away from pulling their pants off.

You can really tell when it is a female author of a man. The men are always hard and very horny. Men don't write men like that. Just like women judge the way men write women, we should take a lens to look at the way women write men. Also the emphasis that "I always want her". Is the only power us women have over men, to make them into lust driven creatures that can't think of anything else? Is that our only trump card, power of lust?

The plot is non-existent, rushed at the end with a cringey dues ex machina; magic saves the day. Feyre's pregnancy arc was cringey and unnecessary, feeling a little bit like a fanfiction, and it added nothing to Nesta's story. Feyre didn't feel like her usual character. Nesta "giving up" her powers to change their bodies was a complete cop-out. Nesta doesn't like her power! She's afraid of it, supresses it as much as possible then she just gets to get rid of it!

SJM focuses a lot on male/female romantic (sexual!) relationships that I wasn't sure she could write platonic friendships. Nesta, Gwyn and Emerie flourishes wonderfully, although they do bond over a love of smutty books. Had to get sex to feature in there somehow, I guess.

I don't want to comment heavily on Nesta's healing journey. It was beautiful in some ways, but with how resistant she was, she seemed to turn one corner then everything fell into place. Nesta's healing was lengthy, a drag, but healing is slow which makes sense but when the whole plot is character driven it can be tiresome seeing her make the same bad decisions just to make the book longer. Especially with scant other plot to pace the story well.

SJM wanted to write sex, and a long healing journey. But any and all other plot points and sub stories were poorly thought out and hence poorly executed.

For fans of the ACOTAR series, this book is likely to be enjoyable. Also for people who like "junk food" type reading, is also great. As a fantasy book, had very few fantasy elements, and very few plot points as the focus is Nesta and Cassian.

TL:DR

Book porn with a faerie/fantasy setting.