Book Review: A Court of Silver Flames (A Court of Thorns and Roses #4)

A Court of Silver Flames

Sarah J. Maas

2/5

So like I don't think I really need to give an overview cause if you don't know what this book is about by now you're probably not going to and that's totally okay. This series has so much hype and I don't really understand why, I read a lot of indie books and I just think that there are books out there with a lot more substance. But if I had read this book as an indie book I'd probably have given it a lot higher rating and that's just my own recognized intrinsic bias what can you do. I also took forever to read this because my friend and I read it together and we were doing like 30 pages a night so it was definitely a lot. But overall thoughts, it was good on Nesta's character but SJM is really incapable of boosting one person up without tearing down others. I don't think it was all that awe inspiring I think she overwhelmed us with how bad she was to the point that once she got over herself we were so relieved that we just let it slide. Like I do think she was redeemed but I really wouldn't call it a comeback story because we all expected it to happen.

I'm going to break this review up into sections because I feel like there's a ton that I just need to address about it. From this point on like it's going to be written with the assumption that you've read it like I think my first paragraph is a sufficient explanation without spoilers. 

What I Liked

• I liked how she didn't use Cassian as her primary motivator to change her life story, he was obviously important but he didn't really consume her entire arc it was nice and balanced on that front. 
• She didn't let Feyre and Rhysand dominate the narrative but she also was nowhere close to writing them out. Would have preferred if she had just made this a separate series considering the previous three books were narrated nearly exclusively from Feyre in first person (I think) and this one doesn't fit that at all but like whatever.
• The ending was cute without being overwhelmingly predictable. Like I was much angrier throughout pages 1-600 than I was in the last 150 pages so props to her for that. 

What I Didn't Like

• Bro, Sarah, you're worth 40 million dollars and these sex scenes feel like they're straight out of Wattpad. I didn't find them romantic or like even shocking, they were just kind of gross for no reason? The language was incredibly bland for something that has been hyped up as the most anticipated/spiciest book of 2021. Maybe it's just that it gets reductive once you get away from like the fluffy kind of love but really not even those parts felt significant. 
• Nesta didn't teach her sister how to read and that was a big issue for me that I think we forget. I know she was like she didn't know and all but it was just so much backtracking for SJM. She vilified Nesta and Elain to give Feyre a more tragic backstory and make her more of a hero throughout the first three books and then she was like oops people actually want substance from these characters. So we try to blame it on a phantom mother who isn't relevant to the story and we also tear Elain down a bit in the process. SJM can't lift characters up without tearing other characters down and it's just hard to keep track of who we're supposed to like. 
• Same thing happened with Rhysand I don't know am I supposed to like him now or hate him? I don't really think that any of the choices that he made were outside of the characterization that everyone liked in the first three books. You wanted a dude to tear the world apart for the girl who he loves and like he's doing it but like people don't realize that to tear the world apart they make some questionable choices in blind obsession with the girl. He's not like a women's rights activist, but I never thought he was so like whatever. 
• The biggest flaw with this entire world (which is hard to say cause there are a lot of flaws) is the timeline of everything that happens. These people are literal immortals, they've lived for over 500 years so the events of these books are like the blink of an eye. Why does everything have to happen so fast? People having kids and getting married and getting their redemption arcs and learning to read, I think this story started literally two years ago and some characters have already died and been brought back twice over. I don't know how I'm supposed to find anything realistic when everything is so rushed in the grand scheme of things. 

So yeah, I read it for the hype and I finished it to be allowed to give an opinion on the hype. I didn't hate reading it I just hate that it's promoted as such a great example of fantasy when like, the plot is all over the place and the characters are just okay. I might read the next when it comes out to continue providing opinions but like I honestly enjoyed the first book more for it's just straightforwardness in what it was. I will say that I came in hating Nesta a lot and at the end I was just kind of fine with her, so she succeeded in wearing me down there and I really recognize that she's just a product of a bunch more general things that make me mad.