Reviews with content warning for Forced institutionalization - A Court of Silver Flames

I'm not gonna get into a whole detailed essay with this book. Read my previous reviews of this series for context.

It's no secret I hate Rhys and reading from Feyre's perspective, so this book was so refreshing in that I could almost forget they existed. Almost.

Overall, I loved the journey Nesta and Cassian went through. As someone who struggles with mental health, I think Nesta's healing was handled beautifully. I loved seeing her realize her love for Cassian and find friendship in Gwyn and Emerie when she thought she didn't deserve it.

Two big things I didn't like: Feyre's pregnancy and the fact that Nesta sacrificed her power because of it.

I love that we see Nesta coming to terms with the truth that she doesn't wanna be a cruel, ruthless queen. I even love that she makes sacrifices for family members who didn't see what she was going through- I think it really brought her story full circle. However, I hate that there was no other way for Feyre to have survived the pregnancy. For a world in which magic is abundant, you'd think they'd have figured out how to perform a C-section correctly.

It gets an extra half star over the other books literally only because Spicy Cassian and I didn't have to read Feyre saying "my mate" over two hundred times.

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planetshelf's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective 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

4.5

Maas mentions bones and toes far too often.

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abbybiegs's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective sad tense 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

OH??? MY???? GODDDDDD??????????? i am so unwell. i am CRYINGGGGG in the airport right now. the ending of this book makes me want to scream and cry with joy like i have no words for what to put here. this is genuinely one of the best books i’ve ever read. at first, i was a little nervous because the main focus wasn’t on feyre and rhys, it was on feyre’s firey sister who i never really liked UNTIL NOWWWW. nesta was such a baddie and i absolutely adored her development throughout this whole book. i cannot count on the fingers of both hands of mine the amount of times i slapped my hand to my mouth out of surprise due to a plot twist, or a sad moment, or a feisty comment by nesta. sarah j. maas put her whole soul into this book and we LOVE HER FOR ITTTT!!! i felt every single emotion possible in this book, which was such a pleasant surprise considering my original biases going into it! absolute 100/10 recommend and READ THIS ASAP AND LET ME KNOW WHAT YOUR THOUGHTS AREEEEE!!!!!

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daisycantread24's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful reflective 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

4.25

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delliomellidom's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional inspiring tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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thebankofbooks's review against another edition

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emotional funny inspiring 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

There’s not really much of a plot aside from Nesta’s character growth, but it’s such a beautiful book. It’s the most emotionally raw of the series, and it also happens to be the ~spiciest~.

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reading_ray's review against another edition

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DNF - 12%
The only thing I liked was the map.

I could not get past the first 5 or so chapters. How Sarah had the Inner Circle leave Nesta on her own to deal with her PTSD and get mad at her for not getting better is so aggravating. Mental illnesses, for most people, don't get any better without help. Her family should have reached out sooner, not when they were embarrassed by her behavior.
They didn't reach out because they were concerned for her but embarrassed when she spent their money. Which I feel the need to point out, they have been paying everything for her for a year. I also find it unbelievable that none of the Inner Circle are sympathetic towards Nesta with her PTSD. The fact that the Inner Circle can't relate to her PTSD after having gone through what they did in the first three books and what others are said to have gone through before is completely unrealistic.
There were also better ways to get Nesta up to the mountains. The Inner Circle didn't need to trick her out of her house, steal all of her things, condemn her building, and give her an ultimatum where both options are threatening to her life(go to a place that is known for its misogyny or to a place where Fae are hated).
On a final note, A Court of Wings and Ruin had an ending. There was not hint of another book, besides it being listed on Goodreads. This reeks of an author only continuing a series for more money. I know authors get their money but I feel that if an author is going to continue to write about a world different characters should be the focus of the story. Yes in the first three ACoTaR books it was about Feyre and Rhysand and this was about Nesta and Cassian, but Nesta and Cassian also had important roles in the first three books.

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lisacanteven's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

2.0

Someone said to me, “If you weren’t already a SJM fan, this isn’t going to be the book to change your mind.” Well this book actually Unmade (capital U on purpose) me a SJM stan. I have seen a lot of reviews applauding Sarah J. Maas for how she wrote about the topic of mental illness, and I’m going to have to disagree with this point of view and offer another POV.

As someone with mental illness and a bit of trauma, I hated reading this book. I really felt unheard the entire time and like SJM was doing those with trauma a huge disservice. I am one of the few who has liked Nesta from the beginning, and I saw the trauma she held onto. It made me feel seen. I even felt alienated when I defended her before ACOSF was released, so I was really hoping this would be her swan song, her redemption arc. Some would say she was redeemed, but at what price?

She brought a lot of hurt and disapproval upon herself. I get that, and I guarantee that most people who have trauma do the same. You know what we should do for those who are acting out of trauma and hurt? Create a safe space for them to come to us. Do you know what we shouldn’t do? Ignore it on the grounds of “just letting them get it out of their system” until it gets too bad and inconvenient for us. Then put our foot down and do the most extreme thing ever like locking them away on the mountainside with one person whom they blame for a lot of their problems. We shouldn’t threaten them with complete exile from the only land they have left because of the trauma you brought on them yourself.

Everything that the inner circle did for her was brought on by their own anger and impatience with her. They locked her up there and then continued to meet without her and discuss her in such an ugly and negative way that would have brought her to her knees if she had known. Feyre was allowed a lot more room and grace when she had to transition into being Fae as opposed to human. And if your response to that is, “yeah but she handled it a lot better” I would remind you that everyone processes trauma differently.

The absolute horrendous negative self-talk that Nesta had throughout the whole book was very, VERY triggering with someone who struggles with this on the daily. Her self-talk is a great example of what can spiral when you have a complete shit support system around you, and I don’t believe that self-talk evolved over her transformation. I don’t believe it benefited the story at all but to show how much her toxic relationship with the inner circle negatively affected her perception of herself and her mental health in general. However, I do not think that was Sarah J. Maas’ intention. I think it was supposed to shed some light on mental illness, but it was just so triggering and did nothing but bring up my own trauma and exhaust me mentally. I know this wasn’t everyone else’s experience, but it is important to shed some light on this POV. I don’t think SJM understands or has as much right to write about trauma and healing as most readers give her credit for. I think she caused a lot of damage with this book, and that is what we aren’t recognizing.

Even when Nesta finally gets her moment and proves she is not some damsel in distress that needs the whole privileged inner circle to save her from, she is quickly pulled into Feyre’s moment. And this was unjustly done just by the writing by SJM. She could not give the reader who relates to Nesta a moment to feel her triumph, to feel her joy and power. She could not let us castaways believe that our moments are coming. We too can come away from our trauma and change everything people doubted about us. Then she saves the day again, but SJM makes sure to acknowledge that her work will remain a secret. Sure, she earned her place in the inner circle but somehow I feel like they are all quicker to remember her misdoings than her resurrection.

Mentally this book destroyed me, and I feel like it didn’t have to. It did not have to bring up my trauma, my self-doubt, and my negative self-talk. It did not have to be this miserable reading experience. I have said it once during this review, and I will say it again: Sarah was irresponsible with this one. She was disrespectful with how she wrote about a character with obvious trauma and mental illness, and you will not convince me otherwise. In fact I hope this review served to show another POV. I do not want to ruin anyone else’s experience with this book; in fact I hope no one else has the experience I had with this book. I don’t think that will be the case though, so if you felt any of this while reading you are not alone.

I also thought SJM was careless with the topic of sexual assault, and I want to make sure I acknowledge how triggering this book is if you are triggered by sexual assault or rape. There are several times when it is written graphically, and I didn’t find that necessary. There is also a lot of graphic sexual content with consent that I just felt could be triggering as well. @graciouslyrooted talks about this a lot in her review. Thank you, Brooke, for your transparency with this. If you have any sexual trauma in your past, even the consensual sex scenes could be triggering.

I am a huge Cassian fan, but SJM did him dirty in this book. I felt like he took advantage of Nesta during a time when she was most vulnerable and should have been recovering. But then she centered Cassian as the one who was being hurt by Nesta. Their sexual relationship had me rolling my eyes with disapproval the whole time. It was like the fandom said, “More steam! More smut!” And Sarah was like okay I’ll put it everywhere even when it completely disrupts the healing that Nesta should be experiencing, even when it completely takes away from the actual plot. It was exhausting. And also can we get Sarah J. Maas a thesaurus? Every sexual encounter used the same few words and terms; there was nothing new!

After this experience, I think it is safe to say that I:

Do NOT regret quitting the Throne of Glass series after two books.
Will NOT be continuing with this series.
Am seriously questioning whether I was correct in loving House of Earth and Blood so much or if the rest of the Crescent City series is going to let me down as much as this book did.

If you think that sentencing someone to isolation while angrily discussing their well being and toting that as “taking care of them” is acceptable, you may have read this book. But let me just clarify that if you have experienced trauma in your life, you deserve better than this. You deserve a support system that wants your healing for your sake and not because they are exasperated with you. You are seen, and you are appreciated no matter where you may be in your healing. Please consider this review when recommending this book to others. If you know they have experienced trauma, severe depression, and/or sexual assault in their lives please give a content warning or just don’t recommend it. This is not a book to be sweepingly recommending to all audiences.

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