A review by readingwith_audrey
A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J. Maas

5.0

I’m sure that people have issues with this book. It’s important to criticize literature and hold authors accountable, but it’s also important to let people enjoy things. Here’s my response to the common critiques I see.

Sarah J. Maas is not perfect, but what author is? Someone is always going to criticize the POC characters and LGTBQ characters or lack thereof. However, this is Nesta’s story. Nesta and Cassian. People say that SJM has a lack of diversity, and yet get upset when there’s causal representation. Including black and brown characters casually isn’t just laziness, it’s good writing. Because diversity should be casual. Emerie blushing at Mor is not lazy representation, it’s building a foundation. For people upset at Mor’s lack of storyline...okay? It’s not her story!

Also to the people criticizing the way that the Night Court treated Nesta, they’ve clearly never encountered someone with serious mental health issues firsthand. Sometimes the only thing you can do to help someone, is to help them up once they reach rock bottom. And for some people, rock bottom is very far down. Nesta spent the first 3 books being a cold and ungrateful bitch. I’m not surprised when no one exactly jumped to her aid after all the hateful things she spewed before and during the war. Her redemption arc was necessary, as was her asking forgiveness. She had many people to ask forgiveness of, including herself.

And the Rhysand slander. You cannot have it both ways people. If you love the trope “I’ll kill you if you look at my girl sideways” then you can’t get upset when he treats others with contempt because of the way they treated Feyre. While he did make the mistake of hiding her pregnancy complication, Feyre forgave him. Because people can make mistakes and ask for forgiveness.

It’s almost like that’s the point of the novel.