From the moment I heard that “A Court of Silver Flames” by Sarah J. Maas would be told from Nesta Archeron’s point of view, I immediately didn’t want to pick it up. I decided I would push through, for the other characters that had captured my heart in the previous books. So, I went in with not-so-high hopes, and somehow I was still disappointed with how the story unfolded.
Nesta Archeron, eldest sister to the protagonist, Feyre, from the previous four books, is introduced in the first book as one of two “evil” older sisters. She is portrayed as unloving, cold, and rude. With those character traits, she became quite a hated character among the fandom, often finding her uncaring and scornful personality annoying to read about. Her actions are even worse. With the Archeron family being poor in majority of the first book, Feyre is forced to hunt in order to help her family survive, producing just enough to eat and sell to support her family. With the little amount of money they receive, Nesta is seen taking most of the money for herself, buying things only she sees fit for her benefit.
In the beginning of the book, when the readers were being introduced to Nesta’s living situation and how she was dealing with her post-war trauma and depression, we see that not only does she get shamed for her current state, but she’s also is forced to move to a sexist and homophobic war camp to train with the one person she doesn’t want to see, all thanks to the glorious High Lord of the Night Court and his lovely wife, Feyre. The only reason for this abrupt change is because it’s “embarrassing” for Nesta to be living in the so-called slums because it could ruin her own sister’s reputation as leader of the Night Court.
Another major issue in the book was the pacing. Over the course of the story we follow along with Nesta’s course of self discovery and acceptance, making for a pretty slow telling of her story. In the last 100 pages, she and two friends are suddenly kidnapped and thrown into the Blood Rite, basically an off-brand Hunger Games where men compete to become a warrior, but somehow makes an exception for the main character and her friends, which is when the book speeds up at an alarming rate.
My final problem with the story is the antagonist; Queen Briallyn. Briallyn was an incredibly weak antagonist, almost designed just because the author needed to have an antagonist. In addition to the poor antagonist, there were also multiple parts where I had to reread a certain section just to briefly grasp what was going on.
With those main points in mind, I rated the book a solid three stars. The only true thing that saved the rating from being a one star in my eyes was that I love the ACOTAR world and the characters that are in it.
