Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J. Maas

61 reviews

taylorroseship's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Eating disorder, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Murder, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, and War

edie_reads's review against another edition

emotional fast-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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Sexism, Rape, Mental illness, Blood, and Cursing

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Blood, Body horror, Violence, Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Pregnancy, Misogyny, Kidnapping, and Grief

Minor: Excrement, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Torture

kbairbooks's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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

Wow this was. Breathtaking. (Spoiler review) the depth, the insight, the growth, the pain, the just pure incredible artistry…. Wow. This was something else. Working through the trauma of losing her father, and all the personal failures as a person and a sister and a daughter. The physical help from the training, the mental help from working at the library, the emotional help from the house then Emerie and Gwyn then Cassian. The spiritual help from the music, the steps, being pulled into the bloodrite just wow. This was an enchanting read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Death, Death of parent, Eating disorder, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Torture, and Violence

claudiamacpherson's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful tense 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

4.0

Months after the war with Hybern, Nesta is still estranged from her sisters and the rest of the Night Court. Finally, Feyre gives Nesta an ultimatum: she can start going to training with Cassian every day and work in the library in the House of Wind...or be banished to the human lands. Angrily, Nesta agrees—but she won’t acquiesce that easily. It doesn’t help that she’s now spending hours a day with Cassian, the one person who always seems to set off her anger—or worse, her desire. Though the war has ended, peace is fragile, and the human queens are up to something that Nesta, Cassian, and the other members of the Night Court must prevent...or go to war again.

I was underwhelmed by the ACOTAR series when I first started reading them (partly because they had been so hyped up on booktok, and probably also because I listened to the audiobooks...mistake), so I didn’t have high hopes for A Court of Silver Flames. I surprised myself by enjoying it more than the others, though the plot is still just as confusing. The biggest difference I felt between this book and the previous several was the importance of the female relationships. Though Feyre has some female friends, their relationships never felt as fleshed out as Nesta’s friendships with Emerie and Gwyn. Also—and I am fully aware that this is a very unpopular opinion—I never liked Rhys all that much, and seeing him from Nesta’s point of view only supported that opinion. Cassian, on the other hand… (My favorite of the “bat boys” is still Azriel, though, so I’m holding out hope that one of Maas’ upcoming books will be about him

...and Gwyn, perhaps?? I never cared all that much for the Azriel/Elain pairing (she is just too boring, I’m sorry) but I want him to find a happy ending, and I loved Gwyn!

)

Happy ending meter (no specific spoilers, just the vibe of the ending):

Happpy! But still plenty of room for sequels because God forbid these poor idiots have a minute of rest.

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Cursing, Death, Sexual content, and Violence

Moderate: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Body horror, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Murder, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Vomit

Minor: Domestic abuse and Fire/Fire injury

scarlettx's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious fast-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Alcoholism, Blood, Body horror, Death, Misogyny, and Sexual assault

Minor: Physical abuse

sugarbear's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark 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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, and Torture

Moderate: Abandonment, Body horror, Death of parent, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, and Suicidal thoughts

thevietvegan's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful 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

4.0

Confirmed a lot of things I suspected about certain characters, I really loved Nesta’s growth and her relationship with her friends. I loved the meditation and sort of acknowledgment of past trauma and working through it internally when she was ready to face it.

I also just love how raunchy Nesta and Cassians connection is. WE ALL KNOW THIS WAS GONNA GO THIS WAY. But I very much enjoyed the journey. Steamy reads 🤫

Actually editing this down to a 4 star review because I was let down by a lot of the plot. I saw some other reviews that mentioned they initially lived Feyre and Rhysands decision to wait before they had kids and I was like yeah! They have forever! But then their characters were reduced to pregnancy and trying to survive pregnancy and I kind of wanted more out of them. I wanted more from Az, I hope he gets his own book, Amren and Elain and Mor were barely present and so one note that I agree with a lot of other reviewers: so much could have been done there, I definitely wanted more.

This definitely is the most sexually explicit of any of the books I’ve read by SJM. I definitely enjoyed this more than Crescent City, but yeah, lots of storylines that fizzled out so anti-climactically that could have been way cooler.

Also introducing Balthasar and then he walks away forever? Mannn too convenient.

I still really enjoyed this though. But yeah, down to a 4 star

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Blood, Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Grief, Medical content, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual content, and Violence

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, and Torture

decklededgess's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-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

3.0

trigger warnings: sexual assault, rape, physical assault, war, PTSD, physical disfigurement and mutilation, abusive family, sexism and misogyny, sex and nudity, alcoholism, pregnancy complications, birth complications, emotional abuse, depression, anxiety

me a sjm in a deep south accent: i can’t quit you 

anyways this book is proof sjm books wouldn’t be getting so much shit for being “toxic” if they were simply categorised as adult and new adult like they should have been since like throne of glass. 

all the queer baiting/lack of diversity/insensitive oversight on ableism/lack of diverse bodies etc all of that stands. in fact in this one she regressed and i honestly thought she forgot mor was selectively lesbian from acowar. 

anyways. there are better books to read but these would be easier to ignore if teens weren’t reading this. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Violence, Torture, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Body shaming, Genocide, Incest, Miscarriage, Slavery, and Torture

rwmccormic's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, and Sexual content

Moderate: Bullying, Death, Gore, Kidnapping, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, and Torture

effy's review against another edition

emotional mysterious 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

4.5

Review from 2nd re-read: I really enjoyed this reading, the power of Nesta's journey continues to be one that I truly adore. There were a handful of things that I noticed both both and bad during this re-read.

The "bad" were a mix of less than great writing (but that is on brand for Maas) and the fact that a couple of the story beats were quite similar to ones that we saw in the core trilogy. Neither of these issues massively impacted my enjoyment but were more of eyeroll moments.

In the "good" column, I feel like I saw a good amount of setting up what was to come which made for a really enjoyable experience. 

Overall this was a thoroughly enjoyable return to the world of ACOTAR.

Review and rating from first read: This review will be appropriately spoiler tagged for ACOSF however it may contain spoilers for the previous 4 books so proceed with caution if you are not fully caught-up with the series.




I went into this book feeling fairly neutral about Nesta and quite liking Cassian but overall kinda being sad that we were no longer following Feysand. This book managed to make me fall in love with Nessian as a pairing as well as a brilliant cast of new characters. I was a little disappointed by the

queerbaiting

that occurred as it seemed it would lead somewhere but there did not although that could be the set-up for

Emerie and Mor becoming a couple in a future book

. I think there were a couple of other things that I wasn't the biggest of fan of namely

Feyre managing to get pregnant within a year of deciding that she would like to despite it being established that Fae only menstruate twice a year

but overall I found the character journeys within this book to be really compelling and enjoyable.

There is definitely more story to be told after this book but the book ends in such a way that it is more loose threads than a massive cliffhanger which I appreciate. 4.5⭐

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Body horror, Confinement, Rape, Emotional abuse, Medical trauma, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Grief, Kidnapping, Child abuse, Blood, Cursing, Death, and Murder

Book contains pregnancy, kinda of depicts death of mother and child in childbirth