This review is part of a series of book reviews where, instead of providing a star rating review for each book, I provide the top three things I like about each book and the top three things I dislike about each book. This means that even if I absolutely adore a book, I’m still going to find three dislikes to list and even when I despise a book, I’ll still find the three things that I enjoyed. Then you get to decide if the book sounds right for you.
Because of the nature of this review, there will occasionally be some spoilers, though I do my best to minimize them so as to not completely ruin the story for those who haven’t read it. Although, if you’re like me, I personally adore spoilers and they usually just convince me to read the book more. But, in the name of due diligence, read at your own risk.
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**Some spoilers included.**
I wasn’t all that excited to read this book, A Court of Silver Flames, as I never liked Nesta, but I wanted to give it a chance to see if SJM could prove me wrong with an amazing character arc and growth. Well . . .
Here are my thoughts:
Top 3 Likes:
1. The house. Where can I get a slightly sassy house that likes to recommend me books and make me food? Although, basically everyone who locked Nesta up in the cool house in the first place definitely crossed some lines. Cut off her funding, sure. Being jerks and imprisoning her? Too far. Kinda reminds me of someone else who locked someone up for her own good and was vilified for it. What was his name? Hmm… Oh, yes. Tamlin. Everyone became Tamlin apparently.
2. The female empowerment plot line. I loved the concept of them working together to accomplish what no female, and very few men, had ever accomplished before. However, I hate how it was buried beneath so much other stuff—namely the cheap love story and even the Dread Trove items. I think I would’ve liked it more if it had focused more on the relationship between the females and their journey up the mountain only, and then saved some of the other stuff for future books. For example, I think the love story and even the Dread Trove items would’ve read better after the healing happened.
Although, I am disappointed that her sisters weren’t a bigger part of the healing and feminine empowerment. It seemed odd to leave family, especially sisters who’d been through so much together, out. I mean, it seems like Feyre is fine just being a perfect little preggo angel bubble and doesn’t care about her rights or being even remotely badass anymore. So, I can’t really blame Nesta for not wanting to hang out with her because she’s even more annoying now than in the first 3.5 books, but still.
3. I really enjoyed watching how hypocritical every single character became. It made for some good laughs. Very entertaining material. So many incredible feminist icons in this book that adore being overprotective, murdery assholes, and telling women what they should be doing. Very inspiring.
Oh, wait! I figured it out! Tamlin possessed Rhys and switched places with him during one of the visits in the previous book. That’s the only thing that makes sense.
Top 3 Dislikes:
1. The writing felt like it was trying too hard to be an adult. I’m not a prude. I mean, I’ve read a lot of raunchy fanfiction in my days and you can’t get much more wild than fanfiction. However, A Court of Silver Flames felt like SJM was trying too hard to be “adult” by throwing in a lot of unnecessary curse words and graphic sex scene after graphic sex scene, and it just made the whole book feel cheap.
I was expecting the books to have a similar feel to the previous books in the series with the addition of *some* more explicit adult content, which, if the adult scenes in the first books were expanded, I think would’ve made the books more fun. However, this book was just too much. Like it was all sex. Sex, reading about sex, thinking about sex, talking about sex, walking in on people having sex, sex.
Apparently, SJM really, really needed to make a point that it wasn’t a YA/NA book series anymore. She’s a big girl author now, you’ll.
And I got it. I promise SJM, I really, really understand that you’re not a sweet, innocent little author anymore. You made your point.
I generally like smut of all shapes and sizes, but I don’t like when smut is the plot. And I feel like that is what happened here: sex leads the book.
Do you get the point now, too? Have I hit you over the head enough to prepare you for SJM’s writing?
2. SLOW. I was about 60 percent into it before I felt like anything was happening. I started skimming through many of the chapters wanting to get to some action or plot instead of just weird sex. Also, could these characters have just one conversation without it being loaded with sexual innuendo and ending in sex? I mean, that’s really not a healthy relationship if you can’t have a normal conversation.
3. I do not buy the Nesta & Cassian relationship. Especially since Cassian makes it very clear that Rhys is his one true love and obsession. So, of course, SJM had to pull the ultra-rare mates card. See, now I can’t question the relationship because it’s clearly the purest form of love between two people who were absolutely made for each other. Any red flags should now be completely ignored.
Overall Thoughts:
This book was not my favorite. I feel like the original ACOTAR trilogy was enjoyable, and everything that has come since has been heading in the wrong direction.
I mean, if you’ve read the rest of the series, I’d suggest reading A Court of Silver Flames. It was entertaining in its special trainwreck of a way. Skim the slow parts and definitely don’t take it too seriously and you’ll have a good enough time.
What are your thoughts? Did you enjoy A Court of Silver Flames?
You can check out the complete ACOTAR series here.
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