Why the “A Court of Thorns and Roses” series is a must-read.
The bubbling anticipation, shocking reveal, and subsequent celebration mark the trajectory of an exceptional experience. However, I’m not referencing the upcoming awards season or even Harry Styles on the cover of Vogue. I’m describing the receiving, reading, and completion of a long-awaited novel, and the newest addition to the A Court of Thorns and Roses (ACOTAR) series, A Court of Silver Flames, was no exception.
Fondly featured in the niche TikTok community known as BookTok, which is a section of TikTok videos dedicated to books, ACOTAR has been entertaining readers since 2015. With its deft world-building and delightfully sensuous relationships, the series has become the head monarch in the kingdom of young adult fantasy.
Based in a realm where immortal, magical, and supremely attractive beings called faeries exist, author Sarah J. Maas presents a world divided. Humans exist on one side of the Wall in the continent Prythian, frightened of faeries preying on them with their mind control and shapeshifting powers, while the Fae galavant on the other side, ruling over courts and fighting tooth (and sometimes claw) for power.
These two worlds collide when protagonist Feyre Archeon ventures into the wood near the Wall, in search of food for her starving family. After killing a wolf, Feyre finds that the creature was actually a faerie in his animal form and she is dragged over the wall by an angry High Lord, the most powerful kind of faerie. Essentially, Maas adopts the tale of Beauty and the Beast into the Prythian world. Feyre learns she was manipulated to kill the wolf, so she could break a curse set on Prythian by an evil former general named Amarantha. While the first novel is by no means poorly written, every ACOTAR fan knows the second and third books are superior to the first.
A constant in all of her literary works, Maas interweaves serious messages into her plot. Abusive relationships, trauma, deteriorating wills to live are all presented throughout the entire series, making the otherworldly beings she has concocted more human. This is concisely represented by a quote from her latest addition to ACOTAR; “That’s the key isn’t it? To know the darkness will always remain, but how you choose to face it, handle it…that’s the most important part. To not let it consume. To focus upon the good, the things that fill you with wonder.”
While many will say they continue reading for the “plot,” or put more plainly, the erotic scenes between supreme beings with unrealistic sex drives, readers have found solace in character arcs and stirring conversations filled with quotes like the aforementioned. They witness the breaking of individuals and the slow but constant process of healing one must go through to become whole once more. It is these subtleties and applicable messages that take Maas’s smut series to another level of artistry. Maas may very well be the best writer of the “will-they-won’t-they trope”, which is when two characters have undeniable sexual tension. When characters finally confess their love, it is not uncommon for a reader to tear up or feel a slight hollow in their heart.
In the fifth and latest book of the series, A Court of Silver Flames, Feyre’s sister and recently-made faerie, Nesta, and her love interest Cassian become the focus. Nesta’s self-loathing and trauma are the main antagonists of the story, with her actions constantly pushing her sister and potential friends away. Like the prior novels, there is conflict originating from other areas of Prythian. A vengeful human queen seeks powerful magical objects, High Lords quibble over territory, Feyre and her mate Rhysand cope with a potentially fatal pregnancy all while Cassian and Nesta combat their growing sexual tension and their own personal demons.
Without a doubt, A Court of Silver Flames is the best novel of the series. Many readers were hesitant to read about the happenings in Prythian from a different perspective than Feyre’s, however, Nesta is supremely more relatable and driven as a female protagonist. One of the main plot points is Nesta finding emotional and physical healing in her training and interactions with priestesses that live in a secluded library in the Night Court, one of the seven Courts of Prythian.
The library was created for women who had survived generally intense forms of physical and sexual abuse. Nesta finds her own trio of friends and encourages others to join the training, which implements the teachings of historical female warriors, the Valkyries. The relationship she forms with priestess Gwyn and Illyrian Emerie is the epitome of sisterhood and sacrifice. Eventually, their bond is threatened by a life or death situation toward the end of the book, resulting in all three women confiding in each other, releasing their trauma despite overwhelming grief, and realizing the love they feel for each other is not influenced by past mistakes.
At one point during this task, Gwyn says to Nesta and Emerie, “I want to take that road. I want to take the road that no one dares travel, and I want to travel it with you two. No matter what may befall us. To prove to them, to everyone, that something new and different might triumph over their rules and restrictions.”
While Nesta and Cassian finally confronting their feelings for each other was extremely satisfying in previous ACOTAR novels, the unity and healing Nesta created with her companions was strong and impactful in a way that underlined the importance of supportive friendships. Any ACOTAR fan should be extremely pleased with Maas’ new installment, and any reader new to the series should seriously consider devoting the time to dive into these richly crafted, fantasy novels. I promise, you won’t regret it.
