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

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

4.0

SARAH J MAAS, YOU LITTLE FREAK. This is PORNOGRAPHY. I've heard plenty of people refer to the ACOTAR series as "fairy porn" or "fairy smut", and though the first three entries have some scenes and the little novella has one, it honestly didn't seem...that spicy? Well...now I get it. This book is filthy lol (honestly, too much so; though it's fun for the jaw-dropping, faux-pearl-clutching, I didn't really need all of those scenes). I found Nesta's journey interesting, though, and I really enjoyed all the new characters we get in this—Gwyn and Emerie especially—as well as the love story between Nesta and Cassian. Nesta is a truly unbearable character to start out, but I do think Maas does a solid job of leading her arc back toward redemption and not making it too easy. That being said, the whole "not being too easy" part does drag a bit at times, and there were moments where I was so over her character. I understand that Maas is trying to convey that the path of recovery is not a straight line, but there was enough wavering and ebbs and flows throughout that she could have left out some of Nesta's later regressions (especially toward the end when she gets mad at Cassian for

calling her mate. Like spare me, I'm so over you Nesta, shut up

. But the final section of the book is great—action-packed and satisfying, so long as you don't get too tripped up at Maas's continued reliance upon the deus ex machina trope that essentially undermines all of the huge stakes she's set up. Ultimately, there's a decent exploration of mental health struggles and the challenges of processing trauma here that I ultimately enjoyed and felt moved by. Again, though, I could have done without quite so much of the porn.