Warning: This may contain some spoilers for the previous ACOTAR books!
So recently I have been loving exploring Sarah J Maas’ books. I loved the Crescent City series and so immediately had to start the ACOTAR series when I finished it, but I didn’t quite fall in love with it in the same way, I found Feyre so annoying but as I kept with the series I remembered what I loved about her writing. Namely, how addictive it is. I don’t know how she does it, but everything I’ve read of Maas’ so far has just been so hard to put down, she writes in a very compelling way where you’re desperate to continue on for just one more chapter… But when is it ever really just one more chapter?
And when it came to A Court of Silver Flames, this addictiveness only reached new heights for me. This book is a continuation in the ACOTAR series and focuses not on Feyre as the previous works have, but instead on her guarded and stubborn sister Nesta. After the recent war, Nesta has been retreating into herself and isolating herself from the family, surrounded by bars and drink, Nesta finds herself revelling in it to the distaste of her family. And so she is given an ultimatum, to leave the city for good or to stop what she has been doing and be trained up by Cassian.
This brings us to the incredible chemistry between the two, both hot-tempered and witty, they make a compelling dynamic to read. Much more compelling than Feyre and Rhysand who I often found grated on me, perhaps falling victim to the main character syndrome of fantasy novels where they actually become the least interesting in the book. So I have definitely preferred reading about Nesta and Cassian and the acknowledgment that they aren’t as ‘perfect’ as Feyre and Rhysand, because it makes for much more interesting characters in my opinion.
Their relationship was written very well, full of humour and wit and dry remarks. A constant teasing between one another, attempting to mask the evidence of their feelings for one another that had been obvious from the previous books in the series. The back and forth between them I loved, and I loved jumping into the other's perspective too, as Cassian’s point of view was just as well written as Nesta’s. And they just ticked off so many tropes too that I loved, though I won’t go into that too much!
Another thing that I liked about this book was that the development of the relationship between the two of them, while important was not the central theme of the book at all. Instead, we found a book about healing, overcoming grief and trauma, and Nesta finding herself again. She was aided in this by Cassian, and by the friends she made on the way, but this was primarily down to Nesta, making her a strong female character. I loved this about her and is what has cemented her as my favourite character within the ACOTAR universe, and the longer I have had to reflect on the book in the months since I have read it the more I have felt this.
When looking at the friendships, these are vitally important to understanding Nesta’s character. Someone who had never truly had a friend, someone who was taught to use people to her advantage and step on them to rise herself, someone who did not believe that that they deserved to have friends or love. The friendships we find with Gwyn and Emerie were so important, not revolving around men, but instead a shared desire to be strong and to overcome their pasts. And thus we get some badass women ready to take on the world, which I just loved. But it also shows incredible character growth from Nesta, who is deconstructing who she has been taught to be, and she manages to do some truly selfless things and support and build up other women along the way.
The pace of the book I felt was perfect, an almost 800 page beast of a book and yet I never wanted it to hurry up, even through the long training sections, because they were perfect at progressing Nesta’s character. Even through the ‘slower’ sections, I was still just as hooked as I was at the intense *ahem* climaxes of the book. And now that I have alluded to it, the sex scenes were also well written and essential to the development of the plot and of the characters, and I loved how they changed over the course of the book. In my opinion, they were better than anything in the ACOTAR series so far, and perfect to Nesta and Cassian’s relationship and banter.
I’m definitely intrigued for the next book, Maas also did really well to build up more elements of the plot and backstory that although it didn’t focus on Feyre and Rhysand, it has still pushed the plot forward. Something that I personally find quite bold, for a book mid-series to suddenly focus on side characters, but then I haven’t read the Throne of Glass series so don’t know if it happens in that! But, this book has definitely progressed the storyline and I’m intrigued to see what happens next and gain some more insight into the other characters. I feel like with every book we’re starting to understand Morrigan more which I’m also intrigued by, and also Azriel.
This seems like a deeply personal book, with moments of heartbreakingly honest and raw emotion. There were so many moments that I felt truly connected to Nesta, as if she were seeing through my eyes, and I can only imagine the same is true for many people who have also found themselves at the low points that Nesta does, who have the same thoughts that she does echoing through their minds. But what Maas did with writing her journey showed us that even Nesta, stubborn Nesta, had the capacity to heal and grow, and therefore so can the reader. Nesta’s story arc is easily the best of the entire series and I’m really excited to see where the next book takes us, although I think it will be hard to top this one as I can confidently say this was my favourite of the series, and I find myself itching to pick it up again now as I write this, because I just cannot stop thinking about it. I honestly feel like I could write ten more blog posts on this book alone because I have so many thoughts flying around in my head, but I think I’ll stop for now and maybe revisit it another time before this ends up being a ten hour long review.
I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this, and please feel free to jump into my instagram DMs to talk to me about this book because I just want to scream about it, I never properly understood the hype for Sarah J Maas’ work until now. And though I’m excited for the next book, I’m afraid Maas has peaked for me because I just know if it’s not totally about Nesta and Cassian… I don’t want it (as much). But I will take any scraps of them I get.
Comments