Reviews tagging 'Death'

House of Flame and Shadow by Sarah J. Maas

187 reviews

literary_laur's review against another edition

adventurous tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Sexual content, Kidnapping, Torture, Blood, Sexism, Violence, Murder, and Death

marinway's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, War, and Death

Moderate: Child death

Minor: Rape

josxphinchen's review against another edition

dark funny tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

0.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Cursing, Death, Sexism, Torture, Excrement, Misogyny, Body horror, Cannibalism, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Sexual violence, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual content, Gaslighting, Gore, Physical abuse, Slavery, Violence, Vomit, and War

jpoe_16's review against another edition

I spent so long reading all the other SJM books only for this one to have me baffled at every turn. SJM switched POV’s so often with a “soap opera” type cliffhanger at the end of each POV. When it comes to the characters, it felt like we needed 2-3 more books of building relationships with them to really care about them. Do not get me started on the joy-sucking and utterly moronic character that is Tharion. 
Maybe one day I will come back to this, but after the reveal of HOSAB, this was such a let down I couldn’t keep going for now. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Violence, Confinement, Colonisation, Death, Sexual content, Vomit, War, and Body horror

esageser19's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and Torture

melissat's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Woof. Okay, I've loved SJM for 10 years. But this book was a slog. 

Going from how much I loved Crescent City 1, and how I was starting to get annoyed with Bryce and Hunt in book 2, I thought 3 would have a lot of room for redemption. Instead it was almost 1000 pages of self-flagellation from the male characters, and gaslighting and narcissism from Bryce. Internal and external dialogues, infodumping (but not about anything interesting), and more of Bryce being incessantly full of attitude that really grated on my nerves by about halfway through.

I wish the editors had been allowed to do their jobs and cut so many unnecessary POVs and chapters. The characters all acted in toxic ways under the guise of "doing it for love". Meanwhile, what they were doing was just abuse and control. I essentially hate-read this til the end. 

I really hope that we get better character arcs and plot for the next ACOTAR book, otherwise I'll be so sad!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Torture, Violence, Blood, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Genocide, and War

Moderate: Toxic relationship and Child abuse

Minor: Addiction

rhiannon_burden's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

I enjoyed this book at the root of it but Bryce was absolutely insufferable for the most part, she spent half the book complaining about the fae being selfish and callous and then proceeded to do exactly the same. She is essentially a hypocrite and I have no idea how Hunt puts up with her considering how horrible she was to him throughout. But despite what appears to be the popular opinion I enjoyed Ithan and Tharions stories as they had intricacies that others were lacking. There are some clear set ups for the next book namely the return of Ariadne at the end but otherwise the story felt finished as most ends were tied up.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Sexism, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual content, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Violence, Gore, Kidnapping, Sexual assault, Excrement, Genocide, War, Grief, Gun violence, Torture, Animal death, Blood, Cursing, Death, Misogyny, Racism, Rape, and Slavery

kayanoelle's review against another edition

adventurous funny medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

2.0

How tf did nobody die😭😭 The book would’ve been better if Bryce and Hunt had both died, I’m so serious. I was hoping all throughout the book that at least one person would die, then I would’ve at least felt something, anything. But I already knew that we wouldn’t get that lucky😭 and what is it with the resurrecting?? Girl, there are no stakes, literally none.

The pacing was all over the place, why did we get 650 pages of world building and revelations (that I didn’t care about at all) and then everything went down within the last 150 pages? I know that she was probably trying to build the story up to a grand ending but it kinda didn’t work out because over 50% of the book was irrelevant. Everything worked out way too smoothly and conveniently.

I could tell that some (most) of the things were written to serve a certain purpose, like

Tharion jumping off that damn submarine and not even 20 pages later marrying Sathia. Which btw didn’t do anything for the story at all.

Bryce was so annoying and disrespectful, I started crying at one point because she got on my last nerve. Same with Tharion and Ithan drowning in self-pity.

Lidia, Ruhn and Hypaxia carried this book!! I need to know more about them. Sarah J Maas is very good at creating characters and relationships/friendships, that was easily my favorite part about all of the books.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Violence, Death, and War

Moderate: Gun violence, Blood, and Kidnapping

princessrory's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Blood, Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Sexual content, Torture, Toxic relationship, War, Sexual assault, Excrement, Cursing, Gore, Gun violence, Slavery, Grief, Death, Colonisation, Physical abuse, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Child death, Addiction, Drug use, Classism, Domestic abuse, and Drug abuse

Minor: Pregnancy and Vomit

slwyatt01's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful tense

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and War

Moderate: Child death and Addiction