A review by lizziaha
A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J. Maas

1.5

I am not immune to bloodied women holding swords BUT SJM’s insistence on subjecting her female characters to unnecessary trauma is getting tiresome. I appreciated the idea that women don’t have to conform to the standards set by the patriarchy but that message was completely undermined
by the women being forced to compete in the men’s dick measuring contest and by some complete fucking miracle accomplishing a legendary task with nothing but a couple months of training under their belts
. 
The entire gang’s insistence on
not telling feyre that her pregnancy is going to kill her
left a sour taste in my mouth. They’re supposedly all about freedom and choice and yet, they deny this woman—their friend!!—bodily autonomy. It’s honestly so sickening.
And to punish nesta for it!! I understand that her delivery wasn’t the kindest way to do it, but they’re all acting like Nesta did something unforgivable when they’re the ones at fault. To know that Nesta considers herself unworthy of love and then to see the man who claims to love her, force her to a breaking point was infuriating to watch.
As always with SJM there’s soooo much potential and she squanders it blatantly. This book could have been Nesta’s redemption, but instead SJM’s falls back on the trusty old “she’s not actually a bad person, she just SEEMED like one.” And instead of actual character development, the “development” was just Nesta learning how to show her good side. Despite this 700+ page book solely about Nesta’s “journey” i felt like characters that we barely see had more complexity. SJM is taking more care with fuckign Eris of all people. Some people actually don’t need a redemption arc and the ones that do deserve the chance to actually redeem their horrible actions, not just save the day at the last minute. 
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