Reviews tagging 'Self harm'

A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J. Maas

62 reviews

tinawasabi's review

adventurous challenging emotional 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent and Self harm

katierosecrane's review against another edition

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

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

5.0

This book is very similar to ACOMAF, but with Nesta in it. I might be scared to read some long books but not by SJM. 

I love a mental health troupe and Cassian and Nesta have an amazing love story. I appreciated that this book wasn’t geared towards YA audience. It made the themes hit harder and the parallelism to ACOMAF showed that.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Medical content, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Grief, Blood, Self harm, Sexism, War, Child death, Gore, Alcoholism, Rape, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Violence, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Medical trauma, Eating disorder, Addiction, Alcohol, Sexual content, Cursing, Mental illness, and Murder

rosiem1998's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Violence, Abandonment, Confinement, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Addiction, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Gaslighting, Panic attacks/disorders, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Death, and Grief

Moderate: Sexual assault, Blood, Violence, and Torture

caitlinspeachyreads's review

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

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Domestic abuse, Sexual harassment, Classism, Self harm, Pregnancy, Blood, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Torture, Rape, Bullying, Cursing, Death of parent, Sexual violence, Gaslighting, Grief, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Death, Sexism, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Body horror, Gore, Physical abuse, Vomit, Suicidal thoughts, and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Classism, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Alcoholism, Child death, Murder, Confinement, Cursing, Gaslighting, Body horror, Grief, Sexual harassment, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Abandonment, Chronic illness, Death, Dysphoria, Fire/Fire injury, Addiction, Domestic abuse, Ableism, Child abuse, Gore, Death of parent, and Rape

Minor: Forced institutionalization, Rape, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pregnancy, Infertility, and Medical trauma

smolone13's review

emotional funny hopeful inspiring sad 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

5.0

 Ratings:

Goodreads: 4/5

Storygraph: 4/5

My Rating: 5/5

Synopsis:

Nesta has an intervention and ends up under Cassian’s care to get better.

My Review:

Since the first book I had drawn attention towards Nesta, as an older sister myself, and at first I did kind of dislike her. I honestly saw Nesta as someone who just didn’t actually care about anyone around her except for herself. But after A Court of Frost and Starlight, I quickly realized that she was going through PTSD. She was traumatized.

Nesta is the prime character of this entire book and it shows how destructive her current lifestyle is. The PTSD, the trauma, and most certainly depression. Nesta sleeps around with other fae males, drinks until she cannot remember the next day, and she isn’t eating. She lives in a disgusting apartment, doesn’t clean up after herself, and doesn’t allow any fireplace anywhere near her to be lit. She doesn’t even take baths. Quickly it is noticed that she is broken. Probably for a long time as well. As seen from the first book, it’s almost like she has given up and the only person that she wraps herself around is Elain. Nesta’s destructive behavior ends up leading her to have an intervention. Feyre and Rhysand, mostly these two, decide it would be best that she lives up at the House of Wind, train with Cassian and work in the library with the priestesses. Although Nesta is pissed off about these turn of events, she goes through with it.

Cassian, the sweet man that he is, does his absolute best trying to get Nesta to join practice. Nesta does well with no drinking, working with the priestesses in the library and does an okay job socializing, just not training. Just when Cassian feels like he won't get anywhere, he decides to change the setting by training at the House of Wind instead of training at the military camp. By a miracle, it works. Cassian helps her gain some confidence, helps give her the push to heal, and honestly it made me fall in love with him as a character. Cassian just keeps his hand held out until Nesta is ready to take it. Cassian also heavily protects her when some of the others are just being dicks. Besides Azriel of course who just minds his own business.

Rhysand was actually one of the characters I started to dislike. The excuse being that Feyre is pregnant. However, I find it ridiculous. Rhysand, as old as he is, including the others don't recognize that Nesta is hurting. Only one to truly notice that is Cassian. The others don't understand why she's destroying herself, including Rhysand who truly believes Nesta has some form of hatred in her to hurt Feyre. Amren as well made me upset, but I also understand that she is technically a new mortal. She has been a being of no feelings for a long time.

Feyre believes Cassian is able to help her and has noticed that she has been improving so she isn’t completely involved. Not to mention, she has been trying to have a successful, safe, and healthy pregnancy. Elain was honestly just useless in this book besides showcasing that she doesn’t want to interact with Nesta. Elain I am almost positive is not as innocent as she makes herself appear and that she is a more hate-filled character than we see. Elain almost strikes me as two-faced.

Now for my two favorite additions! Gwyn and Emerie. I love these two women and they gave Nesta a way to interact, become a stronger woman, and even gain a sense of leadership but also understand teamwork and passing the baton around. Gwyn is a priestess who came to the library after witnessing her twin get beheaded in front of her and then gets gang-raped. Emerie was brutally abused by her father, including the rest of the males in her family, and now runs her father’s shop as a way to distract herself. NEsta, Gwyn and Emerie become close friends and create their own group with other priestesses to become Valkyries, an old forgotten group of female fae warriors. The three of them together made me fall in love with this entire book. They bonded over their hardships, overcame their trauma, and in the end became strong females.

The book had multiple plots. The first plot is Nesta overcoming her trauma and becoming a stronger character. The second was her finally letting go of her fear, being able to openly communicate and finally end up allowing Cassian into her heart. The third was stopping the “young” evil queen from taking over.

I truly did love this book and I completely fell in love with Nesta. I would read this book over and over again. It was comforting, it had some depressing topics within the book, it had suspense, it had adventure, it had the spicy romance and I just could not get over this book. Out of this entire series, this was my favorite book.

Next is The Assassin’s Blade and after that is The Crescent City Series! I absolutely can’t wait to get through these books.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, Misogyny, Self harm, Sexual content, Cursing, Kidnapping, Pregnancy, Alcoholism, Eating disorder, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Blood, Death, Rape, Death of parent, Body shaming, Kidnapping, and Child death

chaos_and_chapters's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious relaxing 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Murder, Misogyny, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Sexism, Mental illness, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, and Sexual content

Moderate: Death of parent, Sexual violence, Rape, Drug abuse, Medical content, Emotional abuse, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, and Kidnapping

Minor: Physical abuse, Child death, War, Vomit, and Torture

devsreadsnrambles's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

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

3.75

I don't love the actions of the author RE: Using Brionna Taylor's death as a marketing ploy. 
That being said, I felt I needed to finish this book. It was fine. The last 1/4 of the book did play on my emotions. I was mostly annoyed throughout the book..

that Nesta was as miserable as she was. Yes I know she went through traumatic experiences, however I just found her incredibly insufferable, even when she went through her "redemption arc"

. 

All this to say, it was fine. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Sexual content, Death, and Cursing

Moderate: Cursing, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, and Self harm

Minor: Confinement and Emotional abuse

bree_h_reads's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional slow-paced

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

2.5

Honestly, this was the best book in the entire series. Despite the weak ending I felt this was the strongest and best written book out of all 4.5 ACOTAR books. I really hope the shifting POVs continue with these books, as I think it really helps the plot stand up and justify how ridiculously long these books are.

As always the narrator was amazing, but I think this is her best performance. There was just so much more emotion put into the dialogue AND narration. It really sold me on the story and feelings. Which was important as this book is VERY focused on emotions and how they impact the characters. The exploration of trauma and healthy vs unhealthy coping mechanisms was written better than I anticipated. I also really appreciated the friendship Nesta developed with other women in the book and how that aided her recovery. It’s something that was sorely missing from Feyre’s story.

The relationship dynamics in this book were pretty hit-or-miss for me. I thought Azriel and Nesta had the best written dynamic. I really enjoyed the few interactions they had. And the change of Elaine and Nesta’s dynamic as a reaction to their trauma was also interesting. It didn’t feel out of place. It also allowed for more expansion on Elaine’s character, which I really liked. Aside from that, Cassin and Nesta’s dynamic was fine. I didn’t find it anything special, but I enjoyed the way they played off each other. The rest of the dynamics were pretty lacking, and actually made me dislike the Inner Circle. While Nesta wasn’t the kindest, it was clearly a response to being abandoned by the others. My dislike was further driven by their upset at Nesta being traumatised. Where they were gentle and patient with Feyre, they were short tempered and cruel to Nesta. Again, Nesta wasn’t perfect, but it was because the people that were treating her poorly had abandoned her when she needed community. The worst dynamic was Nesta and Rhysand. While it was pretty strong when they hated each other, their reconciliation at the end was horribly rushed. Especially considering Rhysand’s HORRIBLE actions in the book.

On that note, wow. Mister Your Choice shows his colours by taking away Feyre’s choices. Shocker. I am blown away. Truly. Shocked. It’s not like he’s been doing this, but more subtle the entire series. Honestly, if anyone is still swoony over Rhysand after he WITHHELD MEDICAL INFORMATION from his wife about how she MIGHT DIE is a new low. It’s disgusting behaviour and the fact the book brushed it off and shamed Nesta for telling Feyre the truth is INSANE.

My only other gripes are the spice and end, which just felt very rushed. Along with the wedding, their mating ritual happening so abruptly really threw me. The spice was hilarious, but not on purpose. I really don’t like the way SJM writes spice, so I mostly zoned out during those scenes.

Overall it was a just okay book. Nothing special, but better than the others. I presume due to less Rhysand content.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Murder, Cursing, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Confinement, Toxic relationship, Sexual assault, Alcoholism, Blood, Sexism, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Death, Grief, Mental illness, and Misogyny

Moderate: Miscarriage, Stalking, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Body horror, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Rape, and Child abuse

thatswhatshanread's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional inspiring reflective 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

5.0

Although it took me about an entire month to read it, the 750 pages were worth it! At first I was skeptical of the third person POV, but it really suited Nesta and Cassian’s story. I loved how the focus shifted between the two seamlessly, between romance and action, between lust and rage. Nesta’s character development was outstanding and happened naturally across the pages, not just all at once at the end. Once again, the last 100 pages were INTENSE and ruined me, but they were fearless and passionate and so fitting to the characters’ separate arcs.

I adored the friendship and found family between Nesta, Gwyn, and Emerie, and even the House. Nesta realizing that she did deserve love even after all of the horrible things that happened before was a satisfying plot point, even if it took her a long time to get there. We love a proper redemption story.

It was funny and sometimes ridiculous (in a good way) how Nesta and Cass tried to act like FWB for much of the book, but they were NEVER that casual. They both literally risked their lives for each other on PURPOSE before they’d ever even KISSED. It was way too laughable how they both pretended to not care for one another, and how spectacularly they failed. So stubborn, the both of them.

“The music was no longer the most beautiful thing in existence. He was.”

The grit, the determination, the unbridled power unleashed(!!!!)…. All of the right relationships gained. The SPICE!!

An incredible read, even despite the Wattpad direction that Rhys and Feyre’s story went (I still love them sooooo much but the pregnancy storyline was a little too Breaking Dawn for me). 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Medical content, Confinement, Cursing, Medical trauma, Death, Bullying, Grief, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, War, Murder, Death of parent, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Physical abuse, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Rape, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Self harm, Classism, Kidnapping, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Vomit, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Stalking

oatboat23's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful slow-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual content, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, Addiction, Rape, Injury/Injury detail, and Death