Bless This Mess: A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J. Maas
I’ll be real with you: I was not excited to start this book.
And then when I did, it was a bit of a slog to get through. Moreso than the previous books in the series, by a long shot.
Now, I have what I was describing to a friend the other day as a deeply toxic relationship to this book and the series as a whole. I recognize all of the problems but I also just! Can’t! Seem! To stop talking about it and thinking about it. Fuck you, Sarah J Maas.
This book drove me, somehow, to reading fanfic about this series. Specifically, reading fanfic that actually addresses the issues in the book/the series and takes it to task on things, as well as giving justice to certain characters and plotlines. So there’s that, I guess?
Let’s get into it.
The previous installments are here: book 1, book 2, book 3, book 4.
THE MESS
So we start this book very much where we left the last one: Nesta Archeron, Feyre’s oldest sister, is having a Bad Time. We can tell because of all the drinking and gambling and fucking she’s doing, horror of horrors.
Basically, Feyre (and everyone else I guess) are pissed off because Nesta is “out of control,” and essentially send her forcibly to rehab. She’s also spending their money, and that part I can slightly more understand the anger at, but it seems like the other characters are more concerned about the fact that she’s sending a bad message to the rest of the population.
Nesta herself is a decently interesting character. To recap: she basically left Feyre to singlehandedly feed their family, but she also defended and protected their other sister, Elain, and ultimately did a lot to help win the last war. She was turned into a Faerie against her will, but was so angry about this that she ended up taking power from the Cauldron, from which Faerie magic comes. Also, she watched her father die in front of her during said war.
She says in the scene where they’re berating her, “I am not a thing to be controlled.” Good point, Nesta. Sorry nobody else is going to take that seriously.
So Cassian (her love interest, MORE ON HIM BELOW) takes her up to the House of Wind, which is a mansion, I guess, located in a mountain above the city, and told that she’s been set up for a training regimen. Basically, he’s going to whip her into shape, and not in a fun way. And then she also has to help out in the city library with sorting and stuff. Basically she has to do community service.
Meanwhile, there’s some vague plot stuff happening. In short, there’s this human queen called Briallyn, who betrayed the Faeries and sided with Hybern in the war, in order to become a beautiful Faerie herself. However, Briallyn went into the Cauldron after Nesta, and because she had drained its power or whatever, Briallyn became an old ugly crone, and now she wants revenge.
Briallyn also being — helped? manipulated? — by this person called Koschei the Deathless, who’s functionally some kind of god. He’s mostly just a shadowy figure in the background in this book, and we’re sort of vaguely given the information that he was behind some of the problems in the war with Hybern. Anyway they’re both barely relevant to the book.
Cassian and Nesta meet with the BAND OF EXILES, a group composed of the characters that Sarah J Maas doesn’t care about that don’t have a family, namely Lucien (Feyre’s “friend”, Elain’s disliked mate), Jurian (revived human general), and Vassa (human queen turned firebird by Koschei). I’m mentioning this mostly because I like these characters and I wish they had more screentime and I also like the idea of them going off on their own like “fuck you and your bullshit, Night Court.”
Nesta manages to make two (2) friends with their own tragic backstories: Emerie, an Illyrian whose wings were clipped by her father, but who now runs his shop after his death; and Gwyn, a priestess who was sexually assaulted during the war and now works in the male-free library. This is genuinely the best part of the book, the parts where she is forging her own healing through her friends.
Also, she gets said friends involved in her training, because all women must be warriors I guess, and they decide they’re going to become Valkyries, a group of female warriors who got wiped out in some previous war. Fine, sure.
She and Cassian also start fooling around, because of course they do. What’s sexier than a guy who forcibly confines you and doesn’t take a no for an answer? (Don’t answer that, I realize I’m in the wrong demographic here.) It’s obviously one of those “they’re in love but don’t want to admit it so they’re just having what they think is casual sex” things, which I don’t hate in theory, but I do hate Cassian in practice.
Okay so there’s these three items that came out of the Cauldron, the Dread Trove (they’re referred to as Made items) that have incredible power, which Briallyn is trying to get. Because Nesta was also Made, she can sense them to some degree, so they send her to try and find these items in between her training (you know, when she’s allowed out of the house with an escort, because she CANNOT LEAVE ON HER OWN).
This leads to one of the most fun parts of the book, in my opinion, where she’s tracking this mask into a swamp, and she almost gets eaten by a kelpie. I love kelpies, and her fight with one is satisfying. She ends up finding the mask and putting it on, which gives her the power to control the dead bodies in the swamp. Cool!
Also, Feyre’s pregnant. I probably should have mentioned that earlier, it’s actually a fairly major plot point. They’re trying to keep it kind of secret, but she has to take a backseat to some of the action because they don’t want to risk the baby.
The reason her pregnancy is plot-relevant is because it’s super risky. Put a pin in that for later but the important part is that they realize through magical ultrasound methods that the baby has wings (because Feyre was shapeshifted into an Illyrian at the time of conception, I guess). However, her poor little High Fae pelvis is too small for wings to pass through, an issue I guess nobody has ever dealt with before in the history of Prythian? Anyway everyone’s convinced the pregnancy will kill her.
“But Erin,” you may be thinking, “you literally just said she can shapeshift. Why can’t she just shapeshift back into an Illyrian, or just the shape of her pelvis?” That’s a great question, reader, and one that they address by saying that to do so would be “too risky to the baby.” “Riskier than her own death?” YES, APPARENTLY. PUT A PIN IN IT.
There’s this whole scene where, in order to blow off some steam, Nesta hammers at some weapons in a forge. However, because she’s Cauldron Made and has Death Powers or Whatever, this imbues these weapons with new power. She essentially creates Even More of the problem that they’re currently dealing with. Lol. Lmao, even. But also kind of cool, I guess.
Nesta actually sees a lot of improvement, both through her training regimen, and having friends around her who support her. There’s some other stuff too that contributes to her eventually having a bit of a breakthrough, but we’re going to talk about that later because jesus christ it’s terrible. Anyway, she recovers and comes to a place of being more grounded and coming to terms with her trauma - in a different book I would probably like this.
So Nesta and Cassian track down the second of the special items they’re supposed to find, and they fight a big bad monster to do it. This part is…fine. Also, they figure out at some point that Briallyn has the last item, the crown, which does mind control.
Okay so here I should probably confess that my singular joy in this book was every time Eris Vanserra was present. To recap, Eris is the eldest son of the High Lord of Autumn, and he’s basically this smug scheming asshole that they’re allied with because of some nonsense that happened in book 3. I think I love him partially because he’s the only regular character who seems to not be totally bought in on the Night Court bullshit, and because he gets to be this kind of understatedly interesting character. I think this is intentional subtext/foreshadowing on Maas’ part, but we get the characters saying he sucks, meanwhile he keeps…showing up and helping them out while asking for nothing in return, lol. Anyway Eris is my blorbo and he deserves better!!!
There’s this whole subplot where they get Nesta to seduce (?) Eris to…idk, prove that the Night Court is legit about wanting an alliance with him? I’ll be honest, this doesn’t make a ton of sense, it feels like it’s kind of shoehorned in to a) give Nesta a reason to use her courtly skills and b) give Cassian a reason to get jealous.
When I say “seduce” I mostly mean “dance him into submission” which she…succeeds at, I suppose? He tries to propose to her, I think because he sees her as an asset, and I’m mostly just thinking about how better of a book this would be if he was in it more. Also they give him one of the daggers that she Made for some reason.
I don’t know where to put this so I’ll put it here: one of the things I genuinely liked about this book was that the House of Wind itself is sentient, and it bonds with Nesta, sending her little treats. This is nice. It never amounts to anything, beyond the later reveal that her powers brought it to life (because she most wanted a friend), but it’s a thing I actually enjoyed, so I’ll take it.
Anyway she and Cassian spend Solstice together, he gives her a magical mp3 player, and then they confess their feelings for each other. I am unmoved, I continue to strongly dislike Cassian, my mind will never be changed on this. Also, she and Elain make up after Nesta swears at her, so that’s…nice, I guess. Not a substitute for any real conversation, but fine.
Case in point: shortly after this they have a conversation about being mates, where Nesta expresses that she’s struggling to admit they’re mated because it cements that she’s Fae, something she didn’t choose for herself (a completely reasonable part of processing imo!!!). Cassian takes this EXTREMELY poorly and says he doesn’t like being “shackled” to her, either. I would like to remind you that Cassian is 500 years old, Nesta is about 25.
Anyway she uses a bargain they made earlier in the book to demand space from him, that he not speak to her until she speaks to him or until a week has passed. He IMMEDIATELY begins planning how to get around these boundaries and I HATE. HIM.
While they’re apart, Nesta goes to hang out with her friends Emerie and Gwyn, and they’re all captured and forced into The Blood Rite, the test that Illyrian males go through when they come of age to prove their manhood, or whatever. This is partially to punish them for being powerful females, and was also influenced by our villain, Briallyn.
This part is fine. The girls are separated, but Nesta is able to use her smarts, her fighting, and also the friendship bracelets they made a few chapters ago to find the other two. She’s also helped out by one chill Illyrian male. Basically they have to survive, and/or make it to the top of this mountain, which is kind of non-specific. They decide to try for the mountain, though Gwyn is injured.
It all amounts to a scene where Nesta attempts to sacrifice herself in order to buy time for Emerie and Gwyn to go on. Honestly these relationships were the ones I was most invested in, so I kind of buy this. It’s a satisfying enough conclusion to this part of the novel, even though she also knocks Gwyn out in order to accomplish the self-sacrifice. Cannot allow people to disagree, I suppose.
Nesta holds out pretty well, and then as she’s fighting the final guy (Emerie’s shitty cousin, he doesn’t matter), Cassian and Briallyn show up and — okay, so at the same time as Nesta is doing the Blood Rite, Cassian and Azriel have to go hunt down Eris, who’s been taken by Briallyn (We learn that he was captured because he tried to help his soldiers, who had been taken by Briallyn earlier in the novel. I’m just gonna tack this onto my board of things I like about Eris Vanserra and nobody is going to bother me about it). This goes about as well as expected, and Cassian ends up getting captured and mind-controlled instead while the other two get away.
So Briallyn’s whole thing is that she’s jealous of Nesta, so naturally, she wants to watch Nesta get killed by her lover. Briallyn’s dumb, though, and just gives Cassian the command “kill,” wherein naturally he attempts to kill himself. Nesta uses her extremely convenient powers to kill Briallyn instead, and this resolves that entire subplot I guess.
Anyway before this can really be processed, they have to rush back to Feyre, who’s in labour, and it’s going badly. She, the baby, and Rhysand are all on the verge of death (cool, so glad we didn’t take ANY PREVENTATIVE ACTION). Nesta launches into action, using the Dread Trove items she’s spent the book hunting down to stop time and try to prevent their deaths. Ultimately, she ends up making a bargain to give back most (but not all) of her powers, in exchange for Feyre, Rhys, and their baby’s survival.
The book ends with a little epilogue of the sisters taking the new baby to their father’s grave, the still-unnamed Mr Archeron. She’s accepted Cassian as her MATE, accepted her Fae life, and I guess is healing from her trauma. Good for her.
THE ACTUAL BAD STUFF
Oh my god the extent to which Nesta is controlled in this book. Feyre ruined Tamlin’s whole life for less, lmao. In the House of Wind, her entire day is controlled for her, including what she eats. Furthermore, she can’t leave: the only way in and out, if you can’t fly (which she can’t) is to go down literally thousands of stairs. This is not presented as ethically dubious AT ALL.
Like, Nesta is obviously dealing poorly with her trauma from the earlier books. She needs help. When Feyre was dealing with trauma, she was mostly coddled. I suppose one could make the argument that different people need different things, but jesus christ, the sheer condescension that Nesta’s trauma is treated with is SO troubling to me.
There’s a part where Elain comes to visit Nesta and explain her role in the plot (against Nesta, not the overall plot, although…), and Nesta just fucking loses it on her. Elain verbatim says, “We did this because we love you.” I hate this.
Also, I hate how focused these books are on the concept of virginity. I know romantasy does this and books aimed at women generally do this but GOD, I didn’t need there to be a little divergence in the middle of this otherwise interesting and tense confrontation between siblings for Nesta to think about how Elain “lost her maidenhead” (BLEGH) to her human fiancé before becoming Fae. I rolled my eyes so hard I think I hurt myself.
Do I talk about the part where Cassian tells Nesta she has the most beautiful vagina he’s ever seen
So the thing with Feyre’s pregnancy that truly enrages me (beyond the fact that she’s 22 years old, as well as this persistent “we must save the baby at the expense of the mother” thing that I was sick of way back in Twilight) is that Rhys elects not to tell her about the risk. And everyone else goes along with it.
Let me repeat that: Rhysand decides, by himself, not to tell his wife that giving birth will KILL HER
AND ALL OF HER FRIENDS AND FAMILY
GO ALONG WITH IT
Do you see yet why this book broke me
If you’ll recall, also, at the end of book 3, Feyre and Rhysand made a magical promise that neither will die without the other. This means that, as far as any of them understand, the order of events will go as follows: Feyre gives birth -> Feyre dies -> Rhys dies -> baby is left orphaned (if it survives) -> the Night Court is left without its rulers. BUT NO, THE SHAPESHIFTING THING FOR SURE SHOULDN’T BE ATTEMPTED.
Anyway, they also don’t tell Nesta that she can make super badass and possibly deadly weapons. Because why should she get to know anything.
This inevitably blows up in everyone’s respective faces in a way that SHOULD be satisfying but ISN’T because GOD FORBID anyone actually have interesting conversations. If you’re like “hey Erin this all seems plot-relevant why is it down here in the bad stuff” it’s because it’s ALL BAD.
Basically Nesta finds out that everyone was keeping information about her powers from her, and when Feyre tries to defend this practice, she blows the whole pregnancy thing wide open. She tells Feyre to her face that her pregnancy is going to kill her. This in isolation is fine, interesting even.
UNFORTUNATELY, the immediate repercussion of this is that Rhysand tells Cassian to take Nesta out of the city, because otherwise he’ll kill her. COOL.
I /think/ we’re meant to believe that this is an overreaction, and I think he walks it back (and maybe apologizes for it…maybe) later, but Cassian does what he says! He takes Nesta on a fucking week-long mountain hiking expedition that essentially serves as penance for, y’know, being honest with her sister (admittedly in anger).
This fucking hike, I swear to god. I’m triggered by this because this would be my worst nightmare but also fuck you, Cassian. Feyre even tells him he’s free to bring Nesta back to the city, that Rhys has calmed down, but he pursues this as punishment. This is not taking care of your love interest, your “mate,” or whatever the fuck. She eventually has a whole breakdown where she realizes that she’s been kind of a shitty person (she specifically keeps thinking about how she “deserves” how he’s treating her) and then they have sex at a lake or something. I am incandescent with rage over this whole thing.
Also everything about the Inner Circle lying to Feyre just kind of blows over. She takes it all super well, which, good for her I guess, but also nobody suffers any consequences. Rhys et al are not held to account for this in any meaningful way.
During the Solstice Party, Feyre wears a gown that “show[s] off her pregnant womb.” This honestly is small stuff after everything above but Jesus H. Christ, Sarah, you do not mean this literally, unless this scene is a LOT grosser than I think. Either way, ick ick ick, not a good enough excuse to use the word “womb.”
I barely even have the energy to be annoyed at this but I don’t love that Maas has now used the “powerful woman has to give up her powers to save her friends” trope twice? (Amren and now Nesta.) In isolation it’s fine, I think it’s trying for some kind of message about how connection is more important than power, but it feels so telling that none of the men in these books (nor Feyre) have had to give up their power. Can you imagine if she’d done this with Rhysand? It’d make his character more interesting, imo.
Oh yeah also Nesta changed her own womb to be able to carry winged babies, for when she and Cassian are ready to have kids. This is practical in one sense but oh my god please do we need to have every couple immediately jumping to have children.
Because this book hates me, in particular, we get one more scene where Cassian goes to check in on what Eris told his shitty father, who’s working against the Night Court. Eris assures him that even though his father TORTURED HIM FOR INFORMATION, he kept their secrets. Cassian — I think in an attempt to push Eris to…I don’t know, join them more fully? — calls him a coward. That’s cool.
IN CONCLUSION
I am so tired. I am somehow still angry about this book and yet I am also exhausted by it.
I don’t know how to summarize this succinctly, without repeating points from earlier. I think primarily, I’m frustrated by the white feminism of it all. This is a story about Strong Female Characters in the sense that they get to Kick Ass and Have Powers, but also where a) their agency is constantly denied to them and b) the sense of societal issues doesn’t go past “letting one (1) woman have power.”
Like are we going to address the fact that, just with their in-universe rules, the characters are not really concerned with nor doing anything to help the quote-unquote “lesser Fae”? That the entire Inner Circle are presumably letting people suffer in the Hewn City even though they fully have the power to make changes? Do we care at all about the injustices in the human world, where our protagonists grew up, or is that moot now that they all get to be cool rich powerful Fae?
And that’s not even talking about the Doylist perspective of Sarah J Maas’ choices to set the world up this way, to include barbaric brown people who mutiliate their women, to include queer characters whose queerness is often shameful or looked down upon.
I know that I am not the target audience for this kind of book, but I beg people to be at least a little critical of their fiction, even when it’s being read for escapism. You can still enjoy the thing, I promise! I had moments of enjoyment here! But I think it does us all a disservice to hold our hands over our ears and not admit faults.
Anyway, I’ll get off my soapbox, this document is somehow 3800 words.
This was technically better than ACOFAS in that it was, at least, a story. Let’s call this 2/5 magical mountain mansions.