Reviews with content warning for Child death - A Court of Silver Flames (Part 1 & 2) [Dramatized Adaptation]

I either LOVE sjm books or don’t like them. I didn’t like this book. Hot take, I know.

First I want to talk about the few things that I really liked about this book…

Nesta. I hated Nesta before this book, and while her perspective doesn’t justify some of the things that she has done, it makes sense. Like the whole situation with their childhood and her resentment towards her father, mwah. Her character growth and realizing that she is not the mistakes she has made, i have grown to honestly love her.

The house, I think it is absolutely beautiful that Nesta

Spoiler

a death god of sorts

brings the house to life. And the fact that sjm included the darkness in the house, it was so poetic and beautiful.

Spoiler

the rite, I liked the dynamic of fortified female friendship, the girls showing how badass they’d trained to become, and the sacrifices they made for each other. First friendship ever fully developed in this series in my opinion

And thats it. Literally.

Now for what I HATED.

The sex scenes were literally jump scares, Nesta always compares his dick to a sword?? At one point she literally describes their sex as impaling herself.. I’m sorry please it was so bad. My vagina literally sewed itself shut reading that. SJM needs an anatomy class too I’m pretty sure because the way she describes breasts… you’d think she doesn’t have any of her own. Not to mention, that it did not make sense. One second Cassian would say “I love Nesta, she destroyed me” the next scene he was saying “her ass is on display for me” to telling her that everyone hates her?? Like Jesus, pick one. Are you in love with her, is she an object, or do you hate her? So poorly written.

Also, SJM is SO bad at writing villains, the villain was boring, flat, and pointless. Every female villain she rights is exactly this, so sooooooo boring. And then every male villain? A rapist. Why are there so many rapists in this world? (I know it’s kind of accurate, but seriously get more creative)

And her hero’s??????????? Almost worse. She creates these beautiful powers and women who are so badass and powerful and then she just rips it away before it’s even good. Like Amren??

Spoiler

and Nesta, develops her powers and learns to hone her strength and be selfless, and then just gives it away?? I get saving Feyre after Feyre has done so much to save Nesta BUT, the one things “the mother” gives her back is an Illyrian birth canal? Spare me.

I just want to see one powerful woman stay a powerful woman.

Rhysand… god this book RUINED rhysand for me. He’s so “I love women’ and letting them make choices” but then

Spoiler

literally withholds important medical information from Feyre about the fact that her baby could literally kill her?? And then basically threatens to kill Nesta for telling her??

So so bad, and he’s just straight up a “moody bastard” as described. A straight up dick.

In fact the entire inner circle pissed me off in this book. Hopefully Nesta is just an unreliable narrator but they were all such dicks omg. Even Cassian the “love interest”.

SJM is so predictable with her endings it’s TIRING.

Spoiler

Yet another ending where there are no real consequences, no one of any importance actually dies, so no I will never believe that any one is going to stay dead in these damned books. It’s not that I want the characters to die, but God don’t put them in dire circumstances time and time again if you are never going to kill anyone. If Nesta had sacrificed her life for Emerie and Gwyn or for Feyre and the baby, this would’ve been so much better

Anyways this book was bad. And had far too many pages.

Content Warnings

annesophiekeita's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny lighthearted tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

ce n’est pas mon tome préféré, mais je dois dire objectivement que c’est le meilleur que SJM ai écrit jusqu’ici. malgré certains événements assez prévisibles c’était satisfaisant de plonger à travers ce livre (qui a été plutôt rapide à lire ??).

ps : si vous avez moins de 18 ans et/ou que les scènes de sexe explicite vous mettre mal à l’aise, ne lisez pas ce livre ;)

Content Warnings

paigeinabook's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Content Warnings

faithharmony's review against another edition

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dark emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

Content Warnings

vii_412's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

"So Nesta had become a wolf. Armed herself with invisible teeth and claws and learned to strike faster, deeper, more lethally. Had relished it. But when the time came to put away the wolf, she'd found it had devoured her, too."

Moría de ganas por leer este libro y aún no me creo que ya lo terminé, Nesta es mi personaje favorito y moría por ver cómo iba a ser su proceso de adaptación al mundo Fae.

Nesta es una persona rota y, a pesar de que sus amigos pensaban que dándole tiempo y espacio iba a ser de ayuda para su adaptación, ella necesitaba esa ayuda aunque no la quisiera. Una vez Feyre y los demás se dieron cuenta de lo lejos que fueron las acciones de Nesta, tomaron cartas en el asunto y la forzaron a recibir esa ayuda. A pesar de que al principio ponía las cosas complicadas para Cassian, poco a poco fue aceptando su situación y vamos viendo cómo esto le sirve para gestionar sus emociones.

Si bien Nesta expresaba su enojo, conforme lo iba controlando íbamos conociendo más de ella, sus emociones, sus miedos, traumas y necesidades y porqué actuaba de esa forma. Pero también muestra mayor control sobre el poder que le robó al Cauldron y cómo esto iba a ser de ayuda para los conflictos que se estaban presentando para el reino Fae. Ese control que iba desarrollando gracias a los entrenamientos con Cassian, no sólo demostraron la fuerza de su poder, también la fuerza de su generosidad y su forma de amar a otros.

Hubieron muchas cosas que no esperaba en este libro y que quedaron perfecto con la personalidad de Nesta, sus nuevas amistades, acciones para ayudar a otros, el saber disculparse por el daño que había hecho y muchas muchas cosas más que no diré porque serían SPOILER.

NESSIAN!!!! Los extrañaba tanto, si bien Cassian es de gran apoyo para todo el proceso de curación de Nesta, conocimos un poquito más de él y su pasado, mostró a Nesta cosas que ella consideraba no merecía y le permitió sanar a su ritmo
Tal vez al principio o de repente cometía errores, pero nunca hizo nada que impidiera a Nesta avanzar, y si daban un paso atrás, siempre encontraban la forma de dar dos adelante.

Me la pasé llorando, riendo y mordiendo mis uñas, me encantan estos personajes y sus historias, a pesar de que hubieron momentos en los que me hacían enojar, nunca los dejaría de querer, su lazo, su unión, lo que los hace una familia es lo que amo de estos libros. Muero por leer más de Gwyn y Emerie, las Valkirias y cómo está nueva guerra va a avanzar. Por supuesto también se me acaba la paciencia por leer sobre Elain, Lucien y Az, qué pasará con esa tensión que siempre se percibe ahí 😪😪

"The first time I saw that look on your face,you were still human. Still human, and I nearly went to my knees before you." [...] "Your power is a song, and one I've waited a very, very long time to hear, Nesta."

Content Warnings

beccaeve26's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

haileyf16's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Content Warnings

downsophialane's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

A Court of Silver Flames is outstanding, but it is not for the faint-hearted. My girl Nesta goes through it. There are parts of her journey to healing that are hard to read, and this novel is long, but it's absolutely worth it.

This summer is my reintroduction to speculative fiction after a long time away so I'm not fantasy expert; thus, I'll leave the critique of the fantasy worldbuilding to other reviewers. My expert area is romance though, and the development of Nesta and Cassien's relationship is something special. This book is notably sexier than previous SJM books, but I would argue that the explicit scenes here are doing what they need to, to serve the emotional arc (which is what sex scenes in romance novels are supposed to do). Cassian is also a god among men in the ranks of romance heroes. He is fully devoted to Nesta despite her tendency to lash out at him, but he doesn't veer into creepy "persistent" territory where harrassment is treated as romantic.

Truly, I would go to war for Nesta. She is what may be called an "unlikeable heroine", but that label feels reductive when the reason is so clear and deliberate... She isn't unlikeable, she has debilitating trauma and self-hatred. She is surrounded by people who are not able or willing to give her the grace of being depressed, compounded by her lashing out at anyone attempting to reach her. I felt the conflict between Nesta, Feyre and Rhysand was so well-done: no one is blameless but everyone's perspectives are understandable.

SJM's unabashed appropriation of romancelandia chat, Nesta's friendly house that reads romance novels, and the Valkyries' training also affords some much need levity. This book is as much a celebration of female friendship as it is a soarching romance.

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