They must suck it up and deal with it and not cause a scene or have trauma responses.

Women who have trauma are not given empathy or understanding. Other stereotypes of the men allowed to be primal and have temper issues and act however they want, but the women must act perfect for the men. During the sex scene with her mate, she sends him a vision of their newborn baby which he climaxes to which is disturbing to say the least. Feyre, despite being 'High Lady' has been reduced to the role of a secretary. In this book in particular, we see how the men have power roles while the women remain at home, shop, decorate their houses, and generally gossip. The mating bond itself is extremely sexist and patriarchal and prediposes the women to grow sick and weak, but the men do not suffer. SJM has even been cited in a public interview as not having a problem with toxic masculinity and claiming to hate psychology, but she seems qualified to write on complex PTSD and trauma in women while their only healing arcs include getting their power from men and elevating the men around them while falling for their abusive 'fated mate'. The toxic masculinity and misogyny is off the charts. Īs an abuse survivor and a #metoo, I cannot condone the willful portrayal of glorifying abuse in this entire series. Maas has been confirmed to actively harm marginalized communities through her books.

Maas takes Nesta’s character in the next book in the series.Sarah J. I would say that this has piqued my curiosity more for A Court of Silver Flames though. If you’re a fan of the series, you’ll enjoy being reunited with the characters and getting to see their festive shenanigans, but don’t go into this expecting anything more. You need to have read, and liked, the others to get any enjoyment from this book. If you haven’t read the first three books in the A Court of Thorns and Roses series, don’t read this one. But even so, it didn’t feel like there was much new information that couldn’t have been woven into the beginning of A Court of Silver Flames. It feels like a stepping stone between A Court of Wings and Ruin and A Court of Silver Flames. By the end, it just fell a bit flat for me because it didn’t really have any direction. We get some insight into what all of the characters have been up to since the war, but there’s no plot to drive this novella. I’m struggling to see what its purpose is as there, well, wasn’t really any kind of plot. So I think I enjoyed it more for reading it at this time of year.īut while I liked returning to this world and spending time with these characters, this novella doesn’t really add much. This was a perfect festive read as the characters are celebrating the Winter Solstice in the Night Court, which has some similarities to Christmas traditions. A Court of Frost and Starlight follows on from the events of A Court of Wings and Ruin with a fun, cosy, wintery novella.

A court of frost and starlight audible