Finally, after what feels like months, I have finished (or caught up with, given there’s a pending sixth book) Sarah J Maas’s A Court of Thorns and Roses series reread. There have been ups and downs, pleasant realisations and some no-so-pleasant moments where I strongly reconsidered this reread journey. I knew it was to get to this point though, A Court of Silver Flames, the book I really wanted to talk about, and now that I’m here it’s time to crack my knuckles and get typing.

It’s no secret that I’ve been reserving some opinions about Feyre. Fans of her will be happy to note that this book has me giving her a nod of respect given the character development and change I’ve seen in her throughout the series, especially the last two books. I said in my ACOMAF post that I thought she was naive, selfish, victimised herself and had no common sense or awareness of those around her. I can see in this book, through Nesta’s perspective, that she has changed her ways. She no longer takes other people’s criticism or harsh retorts as personal attacks. Instead, she reflects and considers their pain, their hurt, and the reason for their reaction before continuing. She is also fighting for her sister more, acknowledging that how she treated/approached Nesta’s isolation before was not the right way to go about things and she’s actively voicing her reproach for Rhysand’s blatant hate for Nesta.

There’s this saying “if you love me, you don’t love me in a way I understand.” I feel like Feyre has shifted her mindset towards her outward showcase of love for Nesta in a way that Nesta can see, in her own narrowed lens of what’s going on around her, that Feyre does love her. Not only that, but Feyre is forgiving Nesta for the harsh words and actions knowing that Nesta is struggling and still trying to come to terms with the depths of her trauma and fears. This is the kind of Feyre I wanted to see earlier. This is the Feyre I believe earns the title of a strong female character. A worthy strong female character. I know there will be some people that think I’m giving Feyre a hard time here, that I’m siding with Nesta. I will say outright that Nesta’s ways of controlling her anger, her pain and her thoughts and emotions in general were toxic and bad for everyone around her, especially herself, but people in those situations cannot see that until they step away and heal. There has to be time and work put in before someone can look back and see how poorly they treated others and themselves during such a time in their lives.

Nesta’s perspective is my favourite of all the characters so far. I won’t say my favourite altogether because whatever perspectives come out in that sixth book may take first place (I have a soft spot for Azriel). Nesta is so painfully human that the layers to her personality, her ways of thinking and acting and reacting, feel so raw and jagged. Her most wounded self is so human, so intrinsically human, that 80% of this book feels like a genuinely great healing journey where someone goes from pain, hatred, self-loathing and regrets to acceptance, loyalty, love, respect and devotion. Not only do we get that healing journey, but we get all the ugly aspects of it too, the elements that aren’t glamorous or “productive” or simply regress into those dark habits and ways of thinking. We get the doubt, the uncertainty, the acknowledgement of mistakes and the acknowledgement of fears. We get to see Nesta as a striped back human being who has gone through so much from such a young age, who had been shaped into thinking and acting one particular way and who couldn’t break out of that mindset even in the throes of poverty. Even when her youngest sister had to put herself in harms way to feed them. A human being who was abducted, forced to watch her younger sister be Made into something they’d grown up fearing – hating – and then to go through that herself. To see all that she saw during the war, in that final fight, and to then be thrust into a world where suddenly everyone seems to be fine. All of that pent up emotion coming to the surface. It makes this whole journey, in my opinion, worth it.

Unfortunately, there are some negatives to say about this book. I will keep it to the objective elements as to stay in people’s good books. The ending (or should I say four endings) felt incredibly rushed and out of sync with the pacing of the rest of the book. We have a novel split into four parts, two of which are running pretty much on a day-to-day basis. There are some small time skips but we’re largely following a fluid chronology. Part three has a large time jump, again it’s fine but it does make all of the events following it feel like they’re packed into a space too small for them. We go from the Blood Rite right into the confrontation with Cassian and the crone queen, right into the situation with Feyre, and then into a denouement that feels lacklustre to say the least. It feels like the three “endings” are cutting into each others time and making things feel unresolved. There is no time to come to terms with the end of the rite because we’re thrown into that engagement with the queen and that was extremely short which then immediately jumped to being by Feyre’s bedside. These are moments of high emotional investment without any real payoff for the reader and with how quickly things wrap up after the fact it feels like we’re left hanging, waiting around for a true ending.

It’s a shame because I think that most of the book works really well. There’s a good balance between pacing and tension, especially when juggling between Nesta and Cassian’s perspectives. The sex scenes are a little heavy-handed for a teen book (I know these are technically New Adult but the sticker on my library book says Teen so that’s not really doing the book any favours) and the plot line with Eris and the crone queen felt wedged in there. I know there needed to be an external pressure spurring things on but it felt like it didn’t match up with the significance and tempo the rest of the book’s plot lines carried. Feyre’s pregnancy was something that was exciting and scary and a different spin on the Bella pregnancy (you knew I would draw the comparisons here, the similarities are glaringly obvious and Nesta is Jacob 2.0). Nesta’s journey not only with her healing through learning to fight and train but through making friends and getting that subtle unconditional love come through to bolster everything was heart-warming and the crux of this book. Even her journey with Cassian, coming to terms with their history and their connection being mates felt integral to the overall plot because it is part of Nesta. If the external plot line was worked in a little more in part one, if there were more scenes showcasing it’s importance to the court and the Fae realms in general to ground that portion better, I think it would have been a great tether for the otherwise introspective novel. I’m happy to note that the line editing seems to be a lot better in this book – still a few poor word choices in my eyes but it doesn’t hinder the flow of the narrative voice.

In all honesty, this book is making me consider whether or not I should buy it for the sake of having a novel that deals with a pretty good healing journey on my shelves. I know enough about the series as a whole to be able to have only the one book as reference but I know how awkward that will be having only the fifth book. Oh well, I’ll just have to do without. Maybe that sixth book with change my mind – if it’s got Azriel’s perspective I’m already tempted but don’t get me started on where I sit in the whole Elain-Lucian-Azriel-Gwyn situation.