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

adventurous challenging dark tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

1.0

This felt hard to rate. I did enjoy having a book about the “unlikeable sister”. Though it needs to be said that I’m not a fan of ACOTAR and the characters. I had issues with this book. 
Nesta is portrayed as unlikeable, yes, but there is clear trauma that she’s experienced and is struggling with. This could’ve been a really good book about trauma and mental illness, but it just wasn’t. The other characters were unnecessarily cruel to her and the “just do exercise and you’ll feel better”-thing was really big. But that’s not how mental illness works, so I wasn’t a fan of that portrayal. Some plot-parts I had issues with: the book was SO long, most of it just felt dragged out.
BUT I think the part where they were put into the Blood Rite was really interesting. It did remind me of books like the Hunger Games, so maybe that’s what I liked. Suddenly, everything progressed very quickly and the stakes were high. However, I didn’t understand why the Blood Rite was cut so incredibly short, while the rest of the book was dragged out so much. To me, the Blood Rite was the best part and I would’ve liked to read more about it. 
The second thing: I cannot stand the trope of “girl (woman in this case) giving up her powers to save xyz”. I cannot. And, obviously, this happens (or seems to happen) at the end of the book.

In general, I feel like the behavior of many characters was super problematic (looking at Rhysand in particular). Not a fan. 
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