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A review by siglerbooknook
A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J. Maas
adventurous
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
The actual plot of A Court of Silver Flames was absolutely up to par with SJM's other work, however, I was disappointed with how overshadowed the plot was by needless smut scenes. I feel like this series is changing from an epic, full fantasy world and adventure, to an excuse to cram as many smutty scenes as possible into a book and it detracted from the over all story. Not to mention I don't enjoy SJM's style of smut at all. It feels gross more than sexy and I found myself skipping a good 5 or more pages to get past an overly long scene that added nothing to the story. This was the biggest reason for my low rating.
Another reason I feel I didn't enjoy this book as much as earlier ones in the series was how unlike themselves most of the characters acted. It felt like in an attempt to justify some of Nesta's venom, SJM tried to villainize characters we've come to love and make them the worst versions of themselves, or unlike themselves entirely. Rhys, Mor, Elain, and Azriel especially seemed to fall prey to this. I was sad to see Lucien practically written out of the story also along with several other characters I came to love in the other books.
Over all, this book felt like SJM changed her mind on where the story is meant to go and forced the book to go in a way it wasn't meant to. Most of the characters felt incrediblu awkward even though the plot was enjoyable. I would have rathered see all new characters and had our beloved heroes off on a mission instead of this. A point made by how much I lovrd new characters like Emerie and Gwyn.
I DID enjoy the growth in Nesta. I felt like a lot of the story from her pov was rational for the problems she's dealing with and eas relateable, more so than most everything else in the book. I still don't like her, but I don't hate her like I used to.
It will be interesting to see where SJM takes this story next.
Another reason I feel I didn't enjoy this book as much as earlier ones in the series was how unlike themselves most of the characters acted. It felt like in an attempt to justify some of Nesta's venom, SJM tried to villainize characters we've come to love and make them the worst versions of themselves, or unlike themselves entirely. Rhys, Mor, Elain, and Azriel especially seemed to fall prey to this. I was sad to see Lucien practically written out of the story also along with several other characters I came to love in the other books.
Over all, this book felt like SJM changed her mind on where the story is meant to go and forced the book to go in a way it wasn't meant to. Most of the characters felt incrediblu awkward even though the plot was enjoyable. I would have rathered see all new characters and had our beloved heroes off on a mission instead of this. A point made by how much I lovrd new characters like Emerie and Gwyn.
I DID enjoy the growth in Nesta. I felt like a lot of the story from her pov was rational for the problems she's dealing with and eas relateable, more so than most everything else in the book. I still don't like her, but I don't hate her like I used to.
It will be interesting to see where SJM takes this story next.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Sexual harassment