Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

House of Flame and Shadow by Sarah J. Maas

89 reviews

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

lintonen's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Kidnapping, Violence, and Murder

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

neliadiedenise's review against another edition

adventurous informative tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Gun violence, Medical trauma, Sexism, Torture, Animal death, Blood, Sexual assault, Classism, Vomit, Body horror, Confinement, Kidnapping, Rape, Sexual content, Slavery, Death, Excrement, Gore, Murder, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence

aloveh's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional inspiring medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, War, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Torture, Violence, Self harm, Genocide, Sexual content, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Rape, Emotional abuse, Confinement, Drug use, Sexual violence, Slavery, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, and Addiction

readingisfun14's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I’m always give Sarah 5 stars. I will say, part 2 was a little bit slow. I enjoyed this a lot but I thought hosab pulled me in more. Bryce and hunt fell a little flat for me in this book. Also Bryce in general was pissing me off. But Lydia and Ruhn…give me a whole book on them. Ithans little quests were so rogue and there are still a lot of questions left unanswered. But I loved how theories I had from previous books and worlds showed up in hosaf! Definitely a book for the fantasy girlies. If you are looking for steam, this one isn’t it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Death, Gun violence, and Violence

Moderate: Sexual content

Minor: Sexual assault

savshanae's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.5

I have never been so disappointed by an SJM book and it’s RUINING me. If it was any other author, I probably would have DNF’d this book. So many words for so little to happen, the end left me shaking my head, and don’t even get me started on the lack of character consistency! 
As one of my friends put it, “it feels like she flew too close to the sun” and I wouldn’t be sad to see this book dropped into the ocean forever. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Slavery, Toxic friendship, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Sexism, Vomit, Racism, Toxic relationship, Violence, War, Classism, Misogyny, Murder, Kidnapping, Gore, Gun violence, Cannibalism, Abandonment, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Torture, and Blood

Moderate: Alcohol, Animal cruelty, and Bullying

booksalacarte's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective tense medium-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? Yes

4.25

First read- 4.25⭐️ 3🌶️

Adult High Fantasy

Multi POV

Fantasy Romance

Magic

Found family

Journey

Secrets

War

Rebellion

Tech/sci-fi elements

Tw: torture on page, language, 

This was a Crescent City book. It wasn’t an ACOTAR or TOG book. It was crescent city through and through with the quick POV shifts and 

This large cast of characters has always been the messiest. They are completely flawed and full of contradictions and harder to completely stand behind. There wasn’t a lot of self reflection for anyone in the cast. There were a lot of really brash decisions, even from seasoned warriors and politicians, that I rolled my eyes at. There just wasn’t the character growth that I had hoped to see… if anything, some of the characters, a main character even, seemed to get worse… some character growth and revelations that were foreshadowed in the other two books seemed to have been completely tossed out the window. 

The plot was A LOT… and all over the place. There were moments of world-building that was just gigantic info dumps. There were times where we went into sci-fi elements. Many things were concluded and tied up prettily. I’m having a hard time thinking of how this is going to be extended into any more books… 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Murder, Violence, War, Excrement, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, Blood, Body horror, Death, Cursing, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Misogyny, Sexual content, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, and Vomit

_meganrose's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

This teetered between 3 and 5 stars for me throughout the book. Settling on 4 stars. This was by far my favorite book in the Crescent City series. The series is my least favorite in the 16 book SJM universe, but I loved how many dots were connected in this one. Had me on my toes! The varying POV/storylines within a chapter drove me crazy though - please, for goodness sake, just start a new chapter if you’re changing POV/storylines! Or consolidate them! It annoyed me so much. Bryce also annoyed me a lot, but I feel like that’s just how her character is. We learned so much in this book! Ahh! Excited to see which book she releases next.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War and Violence

Moderate: Physical abuse, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Gun violence, Murder, Gore, Grief, and Death