A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J. Maas

 

*This review will contain spoilers for the previous books in the Court of Thorns and Roses series.*

Reading the Court of Thorns and Roses books has been an interesting experience for me. Before I started, I assumed these would be pure guilty pleasure reads, and to an extent, they are that. These books are full of emotional teenagers, dramatic storylines, and the smuttiest sex scenes I have ever read. However, as I got deeper and deeper into the series, they became something more. Over time, the story became more complex and the characters truly came alive. The emotions and relationships became multi-dimensional. The struggles felt genuine. With each book, I was drawn deeper and deeper into this fictional world and found myself caring what happened. Found myself being excited to read in a way I haven't experienced in a long time. I picked up A Court of Silver Flames with unrealistically high expectations. Somehow, this book managed to surpass them. This novel is the best of the series so far, and a new personal favorite for me. 

 The plot of this novel centers around Nesta, Feyre's prickly older sister who was turned into a Fae against her will earlier in the series. She's had a tough time with the transition and has turned to alcohol and other risky behaviors to try and ease her pain. She has isolated herself in a rundown apartment and is viciously mean to anyone that attempts to help her, especially her family. At first, Feyre and the rest of the group give her space to work out her issues on her own, but when it becomes clear that her behavior is on an unchecked downward spiral, they decide to step in. They host an intervention of sorts and give her an ultimatum--she can either move into the House of Wind and begin a training program with Cassian (an Illyrian warrior and close friend of the family), or she can move back to the human world. This isn't really a choice at all, since the human world regards Fae with intense dislike and suspicion, and she wouldn't be able to survive there. Grudgingly, she agrees to the training and is whisked away to the House of Wind.

It goes very poorly at first. She has a complicated past history with Cassian and has no interest in any kind of battle training. It is clear they have feelings for each other, but the shields Nesta puts around herself don't allow her to be vulnerable or form a loving relationship with anyone. Instead, she is contrary and nasty as a form of protection, and continually pushes Cassian away. However, as time goes by, she begins to change. She finds some value in the training, begins to make friends, and grows closer and closer to Cassian. It is slow going though, as she is still traumatized from the events of the earlier books and struggles mightily with feelings of inadequacy and self hatred. 

Mixed in with all of the difficult emotional healing is the fact that the conflict between the Fae is far from over. A new threat, a queen named Briallyn, has stepped up to take Hybern's place and is threatening to disrupt the fragile peace that Rhysand and Feyre have established. Nesta inherited some extremely powerful abilities when she was turned Fae, but she has been afraid to explore them. Those abilities are needed now to try and stop Briallyn from assembling a trove of magical items that would make her unstoppable. Nesta must balance the work she must do to try and help herself with the work she must do to try and help others, a process which will push her further beyond what she thought she was capable of ever achieving.  

At 757 pages, this is a very long novel, and it genuinely felt like an epic journey reading it. I have maintained throughout my reviews that Maas does a nice job with the emotional complexity of her characters, and never has that been more true than here. Nesta starts off the story in a very bad place, and watching her slowly heal over the course of the plot was so satisfying. Her struggle felt genuine to me, especially her inner monologues, in which she was extremely hard on herself. Nesta has always been a character that spewed venom at everyone that reached out to try and help her. Seeing the story from her perspective revealed that she spews the most tonic venom at herself, which was both very sad and very humanizing. Many of the things she would think mirrored the types of things I think about myself when I am having a hard time, so I related strongly to what she was going through.  She was well-developed and I was rooting for her throughout the story.

I also really enjoyed getting to know Cassian better. He has his own difficult backstory, and we got a closer look at how his past has changed him here. He has come back from dark times himself, making him a good match for Nesta. The chemistry between the pair was very well written. Maas really kicks the steamy scenes up a notch here as well, and if you like that kind of thing...it's good. Their relationship wasn't perfect--they say messy, cruel things to each other sometimes and don't always make the right decisions, but that only served to make the story more realistic. 

All the other story elements were good as well. I enjoyed the pacing, which was slow but not boring. I liked the supporting characters and the plot events too. The conflicts in the Fae realm are not completely resolved in this book, leaving plenty of room for additional sequels to branch out into. I assume that from here on out, the point of view will shift to other characters. I feel like Elain will probably be featured in the future, and maybe Mor as well. I look forward to seeing what Maas come up with for her next installments. I am officially a big fan of this series now. As I mentioned before, these are still partially guilty pleasure reads, but this book pushed them past that for me. 

I know from looking at Goodreads reviews that not everyone shares my affection for his novel. Some were disappointed with it and consider it to be a low point for the series. For me, however, it was different. Something about this one really spoke to me. I get the feeling that Maas must have been through some hard times herself recently to write like this. This is a ridiculous fantasy series full of magical powers and flying hunks, but it somehow still conveys human pain and emotion in a way that reaches me deeply. Any book that can do that is well worth the time.  

Challenge Tally

Finally in 2022 - Series Edition: 8/28

Total Books Read in 2022: 19