A Court of Silver Flames: With Spoilers and Lots of Profanity

In the long-awaited "A Court of Silver Flames", we go back to Prythian, this time through Nesta, the sharp-tongued former human crushed under the trauma of the war and Cassian, the Night Court's general, forced to watch the woman he loves self-destruct as enemy forces rise once again.

General Impressions

In my spoiler-free review, I focused mostly on the good: the themes of mental health, healing, friendship,...I was honest when I said that I loved the beginning, how raw it felt, how you could see how Nesta was feeling and completely understand both why she had been acting that way and how that had been hurting the people that loved her. This book would have been the best work by Sarah J. Maas' hand so far if not for the way the overall theme and message of the book crumbled at the end.

Plot

The biggest and best-dealt part of the book was definitely Nesta's mental health journey.

There were no sad pretty girls who cry beautifully in their underwear and are saved by a man's love. Trauma is not pretty or sexy, no matter what so many movies tell women. Nesta was in a very bad place where the hate she felt for herself bled into how she treated everyone else and she had to learn to work through those feelings to start to heal. It took time. It was painful. And most importantly, it wasn't magically fixed and forgotten.

Nesta's physical training enmeshed itself with her emotional and psychological wellbeing. It was clear that Sarah J. Maas put a lot of time into researching both the physical and psychological exercises. Some of my favourite scenes involve the training sequences, the strength she develops and the companionship she finds on the ring.

Lastly, there was the overall big theme of the next big war. All the problems in the Illyrian society and army that we had been reading about for years now were resolved in a single sentence, the fall of the wall and the consequences for the humans, the bad blood between some courts and territories were discussed a little bit more extensively but nothing came of it which was a pity, as well because dealing with those problems would have been thousand times more interesting and meaningful than another foreign enemy.

This was such a big book and yet, the overall plot was handled so clumsily that just felt as if there wasn't any: Cassian and Nesta were sent in missions they had no business going in, the Death Trove was purely aesthetic and fanart fodder, the romance and friendship arcs felt completely unresolved in a way that sabotaged the entire book and the characters we loved turned into villains for no good reason.

Cassian

Cassian was all the fans loved about him: thoughtful, intuitive and loving as well as strong and loyal. I liked learning a bit more about his past, hurts and insecurities and watch how he evolved throughout the book and only wished I had gotten to spend more time in his head and see his worries and traumas be taken more seriously.

In the first three-quarters of the story, I was content with the way they interacted: he was not blind to Nesta's flaws, afraid to tell her no or face up against her while at the same time he made a real effort to understand what she had gone through and often was the only person to defend her to The Inner Circle. I remember initially thinking that he did not stand up enough for her, but since then I think he was simply in a very difficult position, with people that took advantage of his loyalty and sense of inferiority.

It's that loyalty that Rhys remorselessly explores every time that he insults Nesta in front of Cassian, every time that he forces him to do something he does not think is right and most obviously when he shows no concern for Nesta having been kidnapped and in danger of being raped and murdered when he sends Cas away in some bullshit mission.

We are shown or hinted at Cas insecurities but sadly they are never addressed in the same way Nesta's were because when his trauma turns into cruel words and actions, they are always aimed towards Nesta, and that is never chastised but rewarded.

Nesta

Let me start by saying that I know and everyone knows Nesta did a lot of bad things, mostly when it concerned human Feyre and while they still matter, Nesta had started to make amends before she was turned.

This book starts with Nesta at rock bottom and being given an ultimatum by The Inner Circle. Even though that Nesta does ultimately recognizes that being sent away did help her, being in the middle of a mental health crisis does not make her blind or dumb. The Inner Circle's motives for sending her away and not liking her are hardly pure or impartial and the way they treated her was disgusting.

Throughout this story, Nesta recognized her mistakes, made amends and commits herself to be better. No one else does. She is 25 and expected to deal with her trauma, they are five hundred years old and piling up on her while their own faults and drama are never addressed.

No one seemed to be angry or worried that she was in a bad place as much as she was being difficult and refused to be used or choose to do what they wanted her to do. Had she been less powerful, they would have simply cut her off financially and washed their hands of her. As it was, she was too powerful to get rid of and risk falling on their enemies laps so she is given the illusion of choice and when that fails, Elain is waived in front of her eyes so she is forced to do whatever they want anyway.

Nesta was gaslighted for the entire book and that was never addressed because it was the heroes doing it.

The Inner Circle

One of my favourite things about this book was seeing The Inner Circle, through Nesta's eyes because she does not like them at all and she is right. While Feyre is cherished by them and loves all of them in turn, after all, they were part of her healing journey, they were also the beginning of the end for Nesta, and that, like so many other things, is never acknowledged.

Rhys

One of the things that Rhys made sure Feyre knew in their relationship was that no matter what, she always had a choice. It's a nice thing that she always chose what he wanted her to. A variation of those words is repeated by him to Nesta at least three times in this book and yet every time she doesn't choose what he wants her to, she suddenly stops having choices.

I truly hated Rhys in this book. Not only does he come across as a bad leader (Does he have no one else other than his IC? Does he only care about Velaris? How come he is so critical of everyone else when he cannot even control his own territories?), his actions inside his own family also reveal him as a bad person. The way he and the people around him treated anyone that was not them, that disagreed with them, that didn't kneel to them was very telling of why his court was not liked or trusted. He behaved like a tyrant, without any concern for the people around him, not deserving the loyalty he demanded, principally Cassian, that never admitted a bad word to be said about him and to whom Rhys only had demands and insults towards the woman he was in love with.

If you are a fan of Rhys and Feyre's relationship you won't like Rhys here either. He insults and berates Nesta endlessly and the only time Feyre calls him on it he distracts her with sex and then laughs about it to his friends. He hides important information from his mate and then threatens to kill Nesta for revealing it to her, who he also hides information in order to better control her. On both occasions, Feyre, who throughout the book is shown to have been learning how to lead, shows none of that decisiveness here. What he did to Feyre and Nesta in this book was exactly the kind of behaviour the fandom hates Tamlin for.

Amren

Amren is in a greyer area. I completely understood why her friendship with Nesta ended but she was needlessly cruel and never admits any wrong.

Much of my complaints about Rhys extend to and even stem from Amren who manipulated Nesta at every turn, influencing every situation in order to screw over Nesta and take away her choices. Every advice she gives Rhys in this book is in order to advance his own power, no matter who is in the way. If it's the other courts, conquer them, if it's Nesta, take advantage of her.

Not only that, at one point the impression she gives is that none of the Archeron sisters (should) have a choice in who they mate with, being destined instead to stay and mate someone in The Night Court to solidify Rhys power and destiny as High King and he should use the weapons Nesta unknowingly Made and he had in his possession for that. The same weapons she voted on hiding from Nesta.

Rhys does finally disagrees with her when she wants to conquer the rest of Prythian but that felt like fan service alone, when he was perfectly happy ruling every other court from the shadows.

After all of this, Nesta goes looking for forgiveness, kneeling in front of Amren, who like everyone else, makes no apologies of her own.

Mor

One of the reasons a lot of people hate Nesta is her cruelty towards Cassian after he tried to court her with gifts and attention. What most people forget is that Cassian only ever was vocal about his interest for her when they were about to die and once he was safe, he always gave priority to Mor, even slapping Nesta's hand away when Mor entered a room. Even the gifts he gave her, were often given away from his friend's eyes (something he continues to do in this book), the same friends that were always vocal about their dislike for Nesta and who he never tells to stop, unlike with Nesta.

Mor is one of the people that hates Nesta the most, both because of her treatment of Feyre but most noticeably whenever it comes to Cassian's affections. That is why it makes no sense why, after teaching Nesta how to dance and not having a nice word for her then, she is revealed to have taught Cassian, so he could dance with Nesta.

Gender and power

One of the reasons Nesta was sent away (to a place where women are not only treated as lesser in every aspect of the law but physically maimed and that Feyre had previously visited and described in the direst of ways) was because she was sleeping around. That was not the biggest reason I'll admit, but it wasn't the only time where Nesta's femininity and choice (the choice she always has in Nigth Court remember?) were used against her.

Once again, the problem is not that she is making the right choices, but that she is not making the choices other people want. When she is choosing to sleep with strangers, she is shamed for it. When they need her to seduce a man that is famous for his mistreatment of women, one of them in The Inner Circle, they try to dress her with as little as possible. The choice she makes to sleep around is vilified, the choice she makes to dress modestly is an impediment...it seems her sexuality is just another weapon she is not allowed to use without permission.

Rhys who is the most powerful High Lord to have ever been born should be nothing but a gnat to Nesta, how clawed her power from The Cauldron itself. That is hinted at but every chance she and Rhys face up against each other, she is never allowed to be victorious. Giving up her power at the end is not out of character when you examine how much having that power scares her and how she wants to have only what she considers she earned (she gives up The Death Trove and her own Trove as well) but when you consider the way she was never allowed to be powerful unless it was against someone The Inner Circle disapproved of, then that acquires a completely different meaning for me.

Instead of ending like one of the most powerful creatures in the world with her mate by her side and threading her own path, she is forced to compete in an Illyrian competition only to never reach the top, gives away most of her power to save her sister whose endangerment makes absolutely no fucking sense (there are magical mp3 and they know what lactic acid but they can't perform a fucking cesarean? Jesus Christ...), refuses to keep any of her own weapons and completely submits to Rhys and his court.

Cassian who for most of the book has been absolutely respectful of who she is, suddenly forgets that she has thoughts and feelings of her own. After leaving her alone for a week after mating with little explanation, the only meaningful conversation they have where she opens up about her fears ends with Cassian showing that he has absolutely no respect for her as a person, only as someone fate chose him to mate him to. When he makes her insecurities about himself, Nesta bows down to what he wants. Cassian never tells her he loves her.

The moral seems to be that women are allowed to be more powerful than the villains, not the sexy heroes. The fucking book ends with them about to have a big wedding, that Rhys pays for because now that she, like everyone else, is licking his boots and doesn't rival him for power, he can afford to be nice. Now, like everyone else, he owns her.

Conclusions

I know most of these were about the negative parts of ACOSF and if you truly loved the series or this book, in particular, it might appear as if I'm an ungrateful bitch or nitpicking.

I did find some lovely scenes and messages throughout, I'm just really disappointed with how this story could have meant so much more concluded.

Rating: 3/5