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belle-keys · 3 years

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Incoherent thoughts about A Court of Silver Flames (2021) by SJM

Do not expect this to be a critical, unbiased review at all. Eet just ease what eet ease. Spoilers ahead laddies.

*unwanted preface*

Okay, so like, you know those things that are neither objectively perfect nor unproblematic yet you love them and are attached to them anyway? Yeah, this is me with SJM’s writing. See, I been with Sarah and Throne of Glass since March of 2015 and with ACOTAR since the summer of 2015 when I was 13 and honestly, ACOTAR in particular occupied a decent portion of my formative teen years. Eventually, when I was about 16 I sort of ended up getting distracted from YA books and went into my thot and kpop era. A main reason for this is that I found ACOFAS particularly disenchanting. This ain’t about that book (sigh) but let’s just say as much as I was still attached to and in love with the ACOTAR world, I was still able to get very annoyed by the decreased quality of the writing and also the evident projecting Sarah was doing onto Feyre with regards to her own life and experiences (ahem). No, the lack of developed POC in the book had nothing to do with it ironically.

So basically, since the spring of 2018 I haven’t read any SJM yet I never fell out of love with the books either. I’ve sworn off TOG after whatever the hell EOS was, but ACOTAR was always more special and close to my heart by tenfold, honestly. See, the best day of my 2016 was the day I found out ACOTAR was getting the extra 3 novels and 2 novellas. ACOFAS was a dumpster fire but I was actually surprised to really, really enjoy A Court of Silver Flames while it obviously has a couple (multiple) sus facets to it. The susness aside, I thoroughly felt at home reading Nesta’s book despite how irrational that might sound. No, I’m not here to say the book was objectively good but I’m here to say I still enjoyed it despite my love-hate relationship with SJM and her writing. :( :( :(

That being said imma still roast tf out of a couple aspects of it. :)

*the susness*

Aight wbk that SJM like, projects a lot onto feyrhys right. I’m not even gonna deny it. Like as horrible as it sounds, when feyrhys were, like, struggling as a couple and shit in ACOMAF, that’s when I loved them the most but then the shitstorm that was ACOWAR hit and they couldn’t go without boning every two seconds or calling each other mates and shit and basically every character in the book started kissing their asses (except Nesta) to the point where they were infallibly good and powerful and everyone’s heads were lodged up their asses... I got PISSED OFF then, right.

Now, in ACOSF (is that correct?), they were side characters and, gratefully, that romance between them was toned down. But here are some things concerning feyrhys and the Court of Dreams that irked tf out of me, and the implications that they had for Nesta (who is perhaps one of the baddest bitches ever) had me feeling homicidal towards the IC:

Every single time Nesta said shit about Rhys and then Cassian got mad I wanted to SCREAM like yooo let her roast tf out of him like yeah I get Rhys lowkey did a lot for her both directly and indirectly but cmoooooon not everyone needs to be riding his dick like the man HATED Nesta from the get-go. I loved the idea that someone in the book lowkey abhors Rhys just for the TEA it gave me. Like yeah, okay Cassian, I get that he’s your bro but he can SUCK NESTA’S DICK also like my girl is a DEATH GOD.

Here me out: the Inner Circle completely dehumanized Nesta, they completely disregarded her personal autonomy and caged her in which is ironically the very behavior that was villainized when Tamlin did it to Feyre. First of all they restricted her movement, they made decisions FOR her, they withheld from her knowledge about her own powers, they decided what’s best for her and acted like she was a rabid dog the entire time. Only Cassian and Azriel seem more blameless in this regard, but the level of scorn and abohorence and moralizing Feyre, Elain, Rhys, Amren and Mor did towards Nes made my blood boil. At the end of the day, the Inner Circle did the VERY THING they hated being done to Feyre. Whatever happened to the freedom they professed? The autonomy they decided all members of their court deserved? That was all bullshit, or was this switch-up SJM’s way of creating justifiable conflict between Nesta and the Inner Circle... either way, there was no closure about this and the way they dictated Nesta’s behavior whilst completely mistreating her imo.

More on Nesta’s treatment - okay listen the way the narrative had every character acting like Nesta was fricking scum and for WHAT??? Okay, she didn’t hunt when Feyre and they were poor, she was bitchy, she hates the Fae... okay, why is Nesta still being punished for her mistakes like this by the Court? Does their forgiveness only apply to those in their clique? They’re acting like her drinking and sleeping around and her general bitchy behavior is sooooo toxic when they ALL coped with their respective trauma in questionable ways in their centuries of living. And the narrative never condemned them for this behavior either... like cmon they had an “intervention” about Nesta like if she needed to reach a certain moral standing to be lovable or something. Seems to me that only Cassian was willing to love her, bruises and all... “There’s nothing broken to be fixed. You are helping yourself. Healing the parts of you that hurt too much - and perhaps hurt others too”. But as beautiful as that it, it seems the IC see Nesta’s healing as her “redemption arc” when I never saw her as a villain or monster to begin with. They acted like she had to become deserving of their acceptance. Bullshit.

No cus more on this... Cassian is the only person who defended Nesta, the only person that wanted to help her heal and grow when everyone else wanted to fix her. He was the only person who was kind to her from the original trilogy (i.e. not counting Emerie and Gwyn). He stood up for her and I’ll gush about them in the next section, but the dynamic between Nesta and the IC was the least enjoyable aspect of the book for me. It was clear SJM wanted to spur Nesta towards the path to healing yet only figured out how to do so whilst only keeping feyrhys as the nucleus of this arc, and so she had them force Nesta into her “special journey” (because she loves them so much, cus they’re sooooo perfect right *rolls eye*), yet, the narrative didn’t quite condemn them for their toxicity towards Nesta at ALL, even towards the end. The good thing is that Nesta did not become an ass-kisser throughout the story and laud them for “helping her” every waking second. Only Cassian didn’t shun her for her inner negativity but embraced her. And Az was pretty cool too, can’t hate him.

Ahem, the ending: okay, I’m not even capping, but I hated that Nesta lost her power for feyrhys. I get that she genuinely did it out of love and shit and I’m not even gonna lie, the thought of feyrhys dying had me on the verge of tears cus as much as I hate them, I also love those bitches. Yet, the culmination of Nesta’s power was, what?, to save feyrhys. This way, the narrative put Feyre at the center of Nesta’s narrative towards the end. And Nesta lost that Death God power that she basically EARNED in that Cauldron. This is the biggest flaw of the story. She fought against her own power to give it up... for Feyre. Like??? What??? Why was that baby arc even necessary????? Why was Nesta giving up her power necessary to fulfil her healing arc which was the POINT of the book??? Like what?????? It left a sour taste in my mouth. No- an abhorrent acidic bitter taste in my mouth.

Elain. I CANNOT STAND THIS GIRL. She completely abandoned Nesta and for WHAT??? For Feyre??? This only served to reiterate from the narrative’s POV that Nesta was scum and again, idk WHY. And also, why tf does this girl mistreat Lucien like this??? LUCIEN AKA MY FAVORITE CHARACTER???

I just don’t get how the narrative reiterated that Tamlin is the worst of the worst when you got Rhys hiding shit from Feyre, hiding knowledge of Nesta’s power from Nesta, all of that. Like, was the entire point of ACOMAF not for Feyre to embrace her power and become her best self? Rhys never for one second tolerated withholding Feyre’s power from her. So why tf does this apply to Nesta? Cus she’s unhealthy? Okay... so what??? Why villainize her like this and imply she’s undeserving of her power and a waste of life??? I’M LAUGHING SO HARD RN LIKE WHERE DID THIS EVEN COME FROM??? What did my girl do that was sooooo bad that yall needed to treat her like this. Tell me why feyre and amren and varian and rhys all acted like Tamlin in this book. Cardi voice WHAT WAS THE REASON. I AM SO MAD ABOUT THIS CUS THEY ACTED LIKE THE FRICKING MORALISING SYCHOPHANTS THEY CLAIM TO HATE.

Like bitch??? They’re like those youth pastors that reiterate how broken and messed up people with mental illness are? Acted like Nesta screwing guys was the worst thing ever when they should have embraced her? Like I get she would push them away but really??? “Waste of life”???

So we gon gloss over how Amren was insisting Nesta shut up about the baby business to Feyre (aka hiding shit from her)? How she was implying that Rhys should conquer all of Prythian? Hear me out, even as someone from a Caribbean country that was colonized by the whites, it actually doesn’t bother me when the theme of conquest comes up, like, this is a fantasy novel and colonization does not exist within the same context for me. That being said, like, it felt as if the narrative telling me lil Rhysie is just sooooo perfect that he needs to be High King. Like, I respect the fact that Rhys has no wish to do so. Homeboy never seemed to care for conquest beyond ensuring his Court’s prowess and safety so WHAT WAS THE REASON AMREN??? Like? What kinda crack was Amren on this entire book???

The worldbuilding... listen, the politics and history felt all over the place, felt incoherent and flat honestly. Didn’t bother me as much as it did in ACOWAR but it was just *meh*, not good. Not horrible, but not great. I preferred the world when it was directly the result of Beauty and the Beat and East of the Sun, West of the Moon.

The Fae have lost their *magic*: no cus what I loved about the first book was that the Fae were one with the Courts and felt very fleshed out in terms of their powers and shit, but now only Eric and Lucien and Tamlin and sometimes Rhys have that same magic for me. Like... the sensuality of the Fae in terms of their actual Celtic roots, that which felt whimsical and immersive in the first book, feels lost to me. I can’t explain it but I feel less nuance and orthodoxy in their portrayal. However, I DID love this one line featuring none other than the loml : “Amid the pink and white blossoms, the cold-faced Autumn Court heir looked truly faerie - as if he’d stepped out of the tree, and his one and only master was the earth itself”. LIKE I SALIVATED THAT IS MY MAN.

*good stuffs*

Okay let’s talk about the smut like I didn’t like the word choice as usual like quit with the euphemisms and say cock and goooooo. That being said like, okay, I like how she set up the physical dynamic between Nesta and Cassian cus the sex wasn’t some big romantic climactic build-up like how it was in acomaf like they were being NASTY from the get-go and I respect that drip. Like she did not cap on how porny the smut was and thank God it wasn’t some cliche romantic honeymoon type shit, like it was almost on the ao3 level of smutty goodness. All it was was missing was coarse language and hard kinks but in general, I liked the Nessian smut in this book more than the feyrhys smut in particularly ACOWAR and ACOFAS, like Nessian just do not cap.

Listen... you see that whole part when Nesta was like imagining how awesome it would be to dance Lucifer’s Bachata with Az and Cassian? Yeah, my girl just let her thoughts run wild. Like Nesta makes Feyre look naïve. Like you know how Tumblr porn in 2016 used to be with the aesthetic type shit? That’s Feyre, but Nesta is like on Pornhub level and it’s so fitting I was YELLIN lowkey. I feel like less importance was placed on how meaningful the sex and shit should be in the book and I respect that.

YOU SEE WHEN NESTA TOLD FEYRE ABOUT THE BABY!!! I WAS CHEERING HER ON. No cause they were being so nasty to Nesta especially Amren and then Feyre entered with all of her moralising shit like honey you KNOW damn well what you’re doing to Nesta is what you hate being done to you. Like damn right tell her, cus I could not STAND the double standard.

The whole training the women thing was a nice touch. It was kinda corny but also sweet. That being said, I laughed so hard when I realized how this entire book was Nesta’s quarter-life hippie rebirth where she learns to meditate and work out and read romance books and face her inner demons like this is some real New York college shit. All that was missing was a Starbucks.

Cassian. Man I love this man so much. No like he displayed peak dilf behavior. I think his attractiveness isn’t based on his bravery or his hotness but his humility man. Like he’s not a thot, he’s respectful, yet tough, yet contemplative. He’s contented with his life station yet wants to always be a better person yet is such a strong rock who really loves Nesta not despite her flaws but because they are part of her. I love the way he stood up to Rhys a lot, he didn’t shame her when she was awful to him, and he is protective (annoyingly so sometimes) but he really wanted her to empower herself. Their relationship isn’t perfect (I’m not in the mood to dissect the problematic aspects rn) but they were so sweet together and I didn’t expect to like them as much as I did back when they were lowkey a thing in ACOMAF.

The mates thing didn’t bother me cus I saw this shit coming since 2016. Yes, it’s cliche and annoying but the mates status also, like, has no meaning to me so it is what it is. Didn’t think they NEEDED to be mates but I was happy that them being mates wasn’t the core of the novel and it was secondary to Nesta’s individual healing journey.

Prepare for me to get sappy but another reason why I loved this novel was because it was a story of healing. :( :( :( The road to healing and growth in the emotional sense is always beautiful to me despite how flawed it often is when SJM writes it. I just felt really immersed in the emotional woes and eventual growth of Nesta despite my issues with the book and this is perhaps one of the main reasons that I found it beautiful, because healing as a theme is always beautiful and raw.

More of Nessian but like their relationship feels so real and raw too. No, cus like, it wasn’t tinged in as much fictitious idealism as feyrhys’ relationship was. They weren’t all stupidly in love and seeing each other in the universe and shit, like they just made each other happy and weren’t portrayed as the perfect soulmates who were each other’s yin and yang and whatever thank the LORD. Them having each other’s back was enough and ughhhh Cassian was just so sweet and such a good trainer and so aloof yet passionate like I been waiting to see more of him since ACOMAF so yayyy.

Okay... that scene where Rhys kneels to Nesta and she embraces him. yes. YES YES YES YES YES that shit was the shit that made my year like I want this man to be in her debt for the end of time like this hoe saved yall like big strong high lord better bow to the “witch” like I could hear angelic choirs at that scene like Rhys doesn’t just yield to people so easily so like, it was just kinda epic okay. Little bitchass Rhys with his perfect little river house and emo boi clothes stfu hoe.

No cus I love how Nesta told Cassian she didn’t wanna hear about Feyre’s special journey or Rhys’s special journey or Mor’s like I got fed up of people acting like they epitomized “good” and the “good path” to self-discovery when they can choke on a baguette as far as I am concerned.

*shit no one except me probs cares about*

Eris. So here is the thing. Since 2015 in ACOTAR when Eris was Under the Mountain being all red-headed and cunning and sexy and evil I have been obsessed with him... well, the idea of him I had in my head and how delectably abhorrent he seems (I like villains and side-characters okay). Maybe it was just his name (Eris is a hot name shut up) or the idea of a rich, cunning fox-faced prince in the same universe appealed to me. Either way, I actually never expected by favorite cameo-character to become... important. I’ll die on the hill of loving him. Here is the thing... I don’t want him to be good, in the same way I did not want Rhys to be a good guy in ACOTAR either. I don’t need him to be a secret angel, I don’t need him to be sweet and good like Rhys always was apparently. Honestly, I want him corrupt but likeable and pertinent to the story. That being said, I really want him as the main character for one of the upcoming novels sooo bad like please PLEASE let me see the autumn court and it’s two-facedness please like if not Eris then Lucien as the main character please.

Lucien... aka my fave character since the first book man. Mannn, SJM does homeboy so dirty like I have always loved Russian fables and hence, I am so ready for Lucien x Vassa x Jurian in the Vasilisa retelling with the firebird trope and Koshei. NO CUS in 2018 I was finna write a 100k word fic about this but then I forgot about it no cap, I still have the story plan in my Onenote actually but let us not reminisce. See, my ao3-loving ass wants an angsty poly relationship and also a hot Koshei I have been waiting YEARS for this you hoes, ever since Elain got the premonition of Vassa as a firebird in ACOWAR like God please please please give it to me and make it feyrhys-less as well yasss.

I lowkey wanna suspect Eris is gay and Mor, also gay, knows and that’s why she lowkey kinda tolerates him now. Yet, I cannot be sure and yeah I just wanna say that I kinda want that arc lmfaooo (my ao3-self is showing shut up).

No cus I was TEASED by only seeing a glimpse of Vassa and Jurian but THEY SHALL HAVE THEIR TIME I KNOW IT.

Tamlin living as a beast is so interesting to me. He’s a side-character now but ughhhh he was so mystical and interesting as our good ole Beauty and the Beast beastie like it’s sooooo mysterious and alluring how he’s becoming his own villainous legend like I still care about Tamlin’s blond ass self despite everything.

Give us the snowball fight scene you coward.

I just gotta say Nessian could outsmut Feyrhys any day and that makes me proud.

FRICKING AZRIEL like first of all Mor doesn’t NEED to come out until she’s ready but she gotta let the man down nicely some other way so he can move on. I do not like Elain. Never did. I still do not. I do not, frankly, want a whole novel where she and Azriel fall in love and she rejects Lucien like... okay, I DO want her to reject Lucien so he can be with Vassa at the very least but also I am not interested in Elain’s POV rn. BUT I WANT AZ’S POV AND LIKE WHAT THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO DO I WANT MY EMO BOI TO BE HAPPY. This is so frustrating cus Az is a walking DILF right and so, what am I supposed to do now.

I kinda miss the Spring Court just a little. It’s pretty shut up. It got that Zuhair Murad fashion too.

Umm like, what the hell is up with that business with Helion being Lucien’s dad? We need more on this which is why I want a Lucien POV book goddammit.

Yoooooooo yall remember that bitch from ACOWAR who hybern was finna kill and she had a name and everything and then there was some foreshadowing and shit? What’s up with her? Like I can’t even remember her name lowkey but yeah what’s up with that. Was it something like Briar or Briannon or somthing???

Is Mor getting a book? Like deadass I need the Lucien and Vassa book, I need the Eris book, I need the Mor book and I need the Azriel book. Damn. Been waiting 6 years for some of this shit.

Okay that is all for now. Yes, this book has problematic elements at every level but I still loved it yet also hated some things about it. I won’t read House of Blood and Earth nor will I finish the TOG series but I guess I’ll stick with this series which remains near and dear to my soul despite what people gotta say about it. It made me happy and that’s what matters. Nesta is a huge ass inspiration to me as a character and I still wanna see her make the Inner Circle’s life a living hell uwu. I admittedly got HELLA emotional reading this story because it’s nonetheless super meaningful to me even at age 19 and it’s really powerful for me as a comfort book, and I look forward (a little) to what this woman put out next... sort of.

Signing off! Don’t @ me (okay you CAN @ me but idc).

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mautadite · 5 years

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august book round up

22 books this month! which is the most i’ve ever read in a month i think. most of them audiobooks. i usually don’t listen to audiobooks while i’m at work but since we’re doing a lot of repetitive data entry these past several weeks i can afford to. also it helps with drowning out my obnoxious coworkers whom i fucking: hate.

temeraire 8: blood of tyrants - naomi novik ⭐️⭐️⭐️ i liked this a little better for rereading it, though i will always and forever hate amnesia plots. i remembered soooooo many things wrongly about this book it’s ridiculous! it did contain one of the highlights of the series: laurence saving tharkay, for once.

temeraire 9: league of dragons - naomi novik ⭐️⭐️⭐️ eh. a satisfactory end, but it let me down in so many ways. NOTHING HAPPENED for so much of this book, it meandered aimlessly and so many of the resolutions were underwhelming (ning in particular was just sort of... there). don’t get me wrong, there was some VERY GOOD character stuff... but goddammit i wanted more! (ps laurence/tharkay 4 life, naomi novik is a coward)

just jorie - robin alexander ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ another VERY CUTE lesbian romance, this time a late in life coming out, which is a genre i think i’m starting to really enjoy lol. robin alexander’s characters are very true to life, and there’s something about her writing style that’s just very very appealing in a romance. and the narrator for the audiobook was super talented. definitely going to be on the lookout for more of her books.

a charm of magpies 1-3 - k.j. charles ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ AHHHHH. SO GOOD. witchery and adventure and history and SO MANY GOOD TROPES. i’m definitely a fan of k.j. charles, this was the second series of hers that i’ve read and thoroughly enjoyed. lucien and stephen were such good characters, played very well to the sappy romantic FOOL in me heart. i loved reading about them falling in love. T__T also: tol and smol. very good.

jackdaw - k.j. charles ⭐️⭐️⭐️ spin off novel of the charm of magpies series. i enjoyed it; not really a ‘redemption’ book, but tells the story of one of the minor villains and had me rooting for him all the way. his love interest ben was one of those unfailingly GOOD people who made me want the best for him.

a queer trade - k.j. charles ⭐️⭐️⭐️ a short story that introduces the characters of the next charm of magpies book. yay black men in historical romance!

rag and bone - k.j. charles ⭐️⭐️⭐️ another enjoyable instalment, though it didn’t have me as hooked as the first three stories did. one thing i like about k.j. charles is that she explores all aspects of victorian england. i would have never expected to read about a waste paper man as one of the heroes of a romance novel, but here we are. sort of fell short on the sympathetic warlock storyline, but i enjoyed it.

think of england - k.j. charles ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ murder! mystery! blackmail! spies! scheming guests at a house party in the country! all of these parts of the book were very good but the romance was the best. A Wounded Vet Learns to Love. also there are surprise lesbians. let me tell you, so many m/m books could be improved with a sprinkling of dykes.

the children of gavrilek 1-3 - julie kirton chandler ⭐️ it pains me to rate this book so lowly. physically pains me. i recced this book on a femslash post years ago without reading it, i just saw the synopsis and read an extract and it seems good. it COULD have been good. the first book in the series was weak, but had promise, the second started off SO STRONG but fizzled hard, and the third was a fucking travesty nightmare. god i don’t even want to talk about it.

beneath the surface - harper bliss ⭐️⭐️⭐️ after subjecting myself to the children of gavrilek i went hunting through my shelves for something with cute lesbians and settled on this, the second in a series about austrailian gays. it was pretty good! it’s about a long term relationship and their ups and downs throughout 20 years of being wives. i like when books show you what comes AFTER the happily every after.

femme - marshall thornton ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ a really sweet m/m comedy romance, that tackled intra-community discrimination in a way that managed to be serious and genuine but still stuck to the light-hearted tone. joel leslie on audio killed it as usual.

40 souls to keep - libby drew ⭐️⭐️⭐️ neat concept (guy wakes up with amnesia and gradually discovers that he’s been tasked to save 40 souls, after which he’ll be given back his memories) and style, but the execution flopped a bit. always unfortunate when you figure out who the villain in a crime/mystery is, 20 seconds after he’s introduced. cute though, really liked the love interest.

blackmail, my love - katie gilmartin ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ favourite book of the month maybe? a mystery/suspense set in the 1950s about a lesbian searching for her missing gay brother. in her search she gets pulled into a whirlwind of blackmail, murder, and the queer nightlight of san francisco. this was painfully good, well researched and lovingly written, and it’ll stay with me for a long time.

boundaries - jane retzig ⭐️⭐️⭐️ lesbian romance; dealt very competently with abuse and youthful longing and growing up. there were a few narrative things that left me ?_? (ALICE SHOULD BE IN JAIL) but i enjoyed it overall.

a king undone - cooper davis ⭐️ bad bad bad. m/m fantasy romance that dragged. you could find more chemistry in a primary school baking soda volcano. someone tell this author that they’re allowed to say ‘men’ and not ‘male’ all the time.

axel’s pup - kim dare ⭐️⭐️⭐️ see, this was well written and appropriately slow burny and had so much meaty character interaction and a decent enough plot and world-building but when it comes down to it... MAN i hate lifestyle d/s. it's all fun and spankings until character b needs to fucking. ask character a’s permission to visit his dying grandfather, and then my skin starts crawling away from my body i’m so skeeved off. subjective! character b was chill with it! but oooof.

lillian byrd 1: holy hell - elizabeth sims ⭐️⭐️⭐️ lesbian murder mystery with a splash of comedy ahoy. this was okay but also meh. we just flat out knew who the killers were pretty early on; the books pretty much became about proving motive. which wasn’t as entertaining. also (and this is one of the FEW times you’ll hear me say this) i’m not sure we needed the romance.

a hundred thousand words - nyrae dawn ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ new adult m/m romance, very cute. the love interested was open and honest in a way that surprised me, it was so atypical of your run of the mill romance character. and i liked the way this dealt with family and friendships and getting to know and develop YOURSELF. this book surprised me with how much i liked it.

that’s it for august! no grand plans for september; i’ve gotten a bunch of extra stuff dumped on me at work and i won’t be surprised if i don’t read as much. but there’ll still be lots of romance, i’m betting. currently reading the first in the society of gentlemen series, which i’m liking very much.

#book talk #long post

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letsbfrank4 · 5 years

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Book Review of The Indigo Spell

Rating: ☕☕☕☕

Title: The Indigo Spell

Author: Richelle Mead

Series: Bloodlines

Publisher: The Penguin Group

Genres: Fiction, Fantasy, Young Adult

Pages: 401

Format: Hardcover

Sydney Sage is an Alchemist, one of a group of humans who dabble in magic and serve to bridge the worlds of humans and vampires. They protect vampire secrets-and human lives.

In the aftermath of a forbidden moment that rocked Sydney to her core, she struggles to draw the line between her Alchemist teachings and what her heart is urging her to do.

Then she finally tracks down the elusive, enigmatic Marcus Finch-a former Alchemist who the organization denies exists, and who lives in the shadows, on the run. With Marcus’s help, Sydney realizes that the group she’s been loyal to her whole life has been hiding the truth from her. Is it possible that her golden lily tattoo might have more power over her than she thinks?

As she struggles to come to terms with what that might mean, Sydney is compelled to use her growing magical powers to track down an evil magic user who is targeting powerful young witches. Using magic goes against everything she always thought she believed, but she realizes that her only hope is to embrace her special blood-or else she might be next.

Forging her own way is harder than Sydney ever dreamed. Maybe turning off her brain-and following her heart-she’ll be able to finally figure out where she belongs.

Ever since high school I have been a huge fan of Richelle Mead’s work and my favorite book series to this day is still Vampire Academy. So naturally I find myself reading her series Bloodlines which, if you don’t know already, is a spin off series from Vampire Academy. This third book in the series focuses a lot about Sydney, her development as a character, and how her boundaries get pushed to the absolute limit.

One of my favorite reasons for reading Mead’s work is that I feel like her style of writing is very easy for me to read. Her books are the kind of books that one can just pick up, sit back, and get lost in. The overarching plot is fairly simple; classic villain hurting others, the main character trying to protect them while being a target herself, finding clues and hunting villain down, etc. In addition, the sub plots dealing with Sydney’s relationship with Adrian, the Alchemists, her friends at school, her mentor, and Marcus (who gets introduced in this book) help to keep everything moving along. I was absolutely surprised by the plot twist near the end of the book. It was the perfect “what you least suspect” without it crossing over into a random dark horse coming out of nowhere. Lastly, I felt that the book had a great ending that gets the reader excited for the next book which is always a nice touch.

I felt that my favorite part of this book was watching Sydney’s character go through a metamorphosis. This whole book is about Sydney not only looking around herself for answers but also is about her looking inside herself and listening to her heart instead of her, ever logical, brain. At times Sydney even comes into contact with losing control for the first time which is something that is very foreign to her considering how every little aspect in her life has always been controlled either by her, her father, or the Alchemists. The Sydney you meet in the beginning of this book is almost a 180 of the Sydney at the end; not to mention the Syndey at the beginning of the series. Even though most of the books in this series are more adventure and action packed this book still did a good job with keeping me interested and invested in Sydney as a character.

Now while I may be a fan of this book it does have quite a few flaws. The biggest problem I had with this book was the overly repetitive back and forth between Sydney and Adrian. We all understand the taboo that comes with an Alchemist and a Moroi vampire falling in love. We. Get. It. At times I would find myself shaking the book out of frustration. While romance is interesting it is not interesting enough to take up half the book with all the to and fro. Instead I would have like more information about Marcus and his Merry Men. I feel that if the reader had more information on the rebel group they would have felt more of the internal struggle when it came time for Sydney to choose if she wanted to join up. More details could have been put into the other characters at the school as well. The only details or “drama”, as one could put it, was the characters at the school falling prey to the classic “everyone eventually dates everyone” sink hole. So much more can happen, anything can happen, other than making characters go on a round robin of love, come on now.

So even though this book wasn’t what I normally expect when reading this series I have to say I was pretty into it. The dynamic between Sydney and Adrian kept me interested when Sydney wasn’t off hunting for an evil witch or trying to dig up secrets about the Alchemists. I also couldn’t help but notice that Mead was hinting at a love triangle between Sydney, Adrian, and Marcus but decided to not go through with it. Maybe she will pick up this breadcrumb trail in the next book?

After taking all my notes into consideration I would have to rate this book a 4 out of 5. I wouldn’t go so far as pulling an all nighter for this book but it did have me flying through the pages fast enough. Would I recommend this book, and this series, to someone? If they are into young adult books, vampires, and some romance…Absolutely! I am looking forward to reading the next book in this series to see what Mead has in store for Sydney and her new outlook on life.

Bookmarking it for now.

“You're my flame in the dark. We chase away the shadows around each other.”

“Sometimes it's worth lingering on the journey for a while before getting to the destination.”

#book review #book blog #bookworm #can you guess it #clue #library #mystery #bibliophile #young adult #vampire #vampire academy #fantasy #fiction #challenge

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