Reviews with content warning for Toxic relationship - House of Flame and Shadow

Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

House of Flame and Shadow by Sarah J. Maas

35 reviews

_readobituaries's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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? It's complicated

4.0

I originally rated this 4 stars... but on second thought, I've changed my mind. 3 stars is the best I can give it... Which is sad considering I am someone who LOVES the ACOTAR/CC/TOG universes....

1st we will address the cross over.... It was nothing but fan service.

90% of it was either storytelling (tell- not show) and Bryce being "all powerful" and Bryce being a selfish cunt toward the ACOTAR characters. I wish we had seen more of these characters because I truly feel this was the bare minimum... I was expecting far more.

2nd.... Bryce was a cunt during this.

She hates the fae for how they treat humans- but she was willing to treat all fae like crap (including the fae of the acotar world) because shes got daddy issues? The way she freed the dagglan- just for Nesta to have to clean up her mess and then Bryce has the ADAUCITY to get upset she wasn't able to do more? GIRL- GET FUCKING REAL. Then she straight up STOLE from the ACOTAR characters. Just to come back and gaslight her "mate" and try to manipulate him out of his valid feelings. Her "I didn't know if I'd ever get to come back home, or if I'd ever see my family and friends again, I didn't know if I'd get to see my mate again!" pissed me off so bad. He didn't know if he was ever going to get to go back home. He didn't know if he'd ever see his family or friends again. He didnt know if he'd ever see his mate again. He also had already been through this once, lost everyone important to him, was enslaved for a fuckton of time, finally got his freedom and is being dragged back into the same thing- in which he was then tortured and had to watch his friends be tortured! HER OBJECTIVELY HAD IT WORSE THAN YOU DID IN THE ACOTAR WORLD!!!! SO SHUT THE FUCK UP AND LEAVE HIM ALONE. "its like you dont wanna be here"- NONE OF THEM DO!!!!!! none of them WANT to be there, fighting people, risking their lives and loved ones. ---Then you have her taking over 2 royal courts and disbanding everyone else. Like, they can't have power to dictate- but you can? She also wasn't any better than the fae. She was prepared to treat the fae like shit and righteous in it. Bryce lost me in this..

The way she seemed to be oh so special over everyone? Yea, no. She gave "pick me".

Lidia was AMAZING in this. Honestly, carried the entire story. I

never seen her having kids coming- which is both good and bad. Her having them in a magical ceremony kinda came out of nowhere and her having children/a past life wasn't really hinted to that I remember... So while it was an awesome reveal- I feel like she could have hinted at it to add a bit more impact and make us think back and go "HOW DID I NOT KNOW?!" but truthfully, I'd bet this was something she came up with on the spot while writing& that would explain why it wasn't foreshadowed at all.

Ruhn was weird tho... Like a wet sock... There but not useful for much.

Ithan and Therion were..... there... Therion made every stupid decision he could and Ithan swiftly followed in his footsteps.

I was PISSED when Therion jumped onto the pod. Like you selfish fucker. Have you not caused enough problems and burned enough bridges for one day?! Then for Ithan to constantly be on about that fucking Fendyr heir- who's purpose I still don't understand other than being cannon fodder. Also, Don't get me started on the antidote. SO MUCH time was spent on that freaking antidote and all the vials FOR NOTHING. Also, the Perry thing?

Overall, I loved the book and the characters. Just.... disappointed. This book had SO MUCH potential. and honestly, I don't see why she'd write a fourth book.. She's defeated the big bad- why create so many lose, mediocre plot lines to leave unraveled for a 4th book when she could have easily just tied everything up nicely and finished book 3. It's like she's milking it because there really is no reason to keep the story going....

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winterwoodbooks's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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

5.0

This book had me ugly crying so hard I couldn't read anymore.

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naes's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-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

4.5

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groskrmc's review against another edition

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adventurous fast-paced

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

2.0

I want hofas (Sarah’s version). It’s giving “support by AI.”

Legit plot holes and inconsistencies and no scenes of character growth. The character growth or interesting plot lines that did exist were yeeted into the sun. Everything happened too tight chronologically for any significant character growth or exploration. It is 800 pages of mess.

Apparently Sarah doesn’t take notes and I think we need to point to the Pete Davidson monologue from snl where he tells Kanye to take his meds. And she needs better editors. There were TYPOS. And bad layout! I might give up on her after this book.

Bryce was a dick, tharion and ithan were idiots, ruhn and Lidia were devoid of any growth together, juniper and fury just accepted Bryce and got over being angry, no one questioned Bryce’s story about Micah. The sprites just. Found the queen? All of the asteri were easy to kill and hyjack, even pollox was easy.

Lidia and rhun carried the plot but even those two were bad!!! No healthy relationship! Ruhn clearly respects that she has trauma from Pollux but still decides to shoot her to save her kids. Also, the whole “this characters actions are excuses because uhhhh babies” is disappointing!!! It’s like feyre!!!

Ithan is a disaster and the bird from lion king says it the best “if this is where the monarchy is heading count me out” (he and hypoxia are fendry bendrys). Tharion was a fool who couldn’t think beyond himself for the next 30 seconds. Fury and juniper were side notes, Jesiba just happens to grow a heart (although the whole Apollyon curse and librarian thing was a nice touch).

Bryce was diet aelin and said the ends justify the means but they definitely did not. How does she have any friends left? And she should have died. Or hunt should have died. Someone needed to die!!! She abused hunt and manipulated him and he followed her blindly. Unless that is the whole point (and it’s meant to be “see even these two can have bad dynamics”) which I DOUBT IT WAS, it’s bad!!! And hunt just happening to be a son of hel created for Bryce??? No. I wanted his dad to be no one important, not for him to LEGIT BE JESUS BUT SPERM FROM HEL.

Where was erawan? The sacrifice of the 13? The tamlin trapping feyre and her having to decide to leave? Lucien had more development than any of the side characters in CC.

And like. It’s clear that nesta has gone through some shit. But the bonus chapter where she just accepts Rhys yelling at her? And says her mate was even more upset??

What happened to all the character growth??? Nesta is smart! She might not be aelin but I don’t believe she didn’t have tricks up her sleeves. She’s a Valkyrie. She didn’t just say “you can’t have the mask but I have the mask and I’ll go with you”. I feel like Rhys has been acting out of character since he died in acosf. Did he sustain brin damage when he died? I don’t understand.

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hrpower2's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional mysterious 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? No

5.0

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readwithde's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional inspiring 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? It's complicated

4.25

Action. Adventure. Romance. Mystery. Lore. Sacrifice. Character Growth. Secrets. Meaningful Choices. This book had it all.

This book read like the end of a trilogy, despite the fact that there are four houses (and supposedly a fourth book coming). Most of the main characters had their story arcs conclude, and there are only a few loose ends.

Along with the obvious: How will Midgard be ruled now? Will technology survive? But these seem like simple worldbuilding questions, not future books or series of content.

Bryce and Hunt became less vital and important to me; the background characters became much more important. I love that the story focused on so many different paths and choices, all culminating in the final conflict of the book.

All that to say, it was good. I liked it. But I wanted more, and I'm not sure when or if that will happen.

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spicycronereads's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

I maintain that this series is often unnecessarily convoluted but this third book seemed somewhat less so than the first two. I do wonder how the story might have been streamlined had the author not done the crossover with another series.

That said, it was a satisfying installment in the series - I laughed out loud, I cried, I … well, it was less spicey than the last one. Maybe 🌶️🌶️?

I thought the second book had some pacing issues but this one worked really well. The multi POV chapters flowed really seamlessly.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 / 🌶️🌶️

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zanazy's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-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? It's complicated

2.5

CC3 picks up right where book 2 ended. Bryce finds herself within the Prythian, in the Night Court with Rhysand, Nesta, Amren, and Azriel. Although we see ACOTAR characters in the first few scenes, the overall world overlap is only 5% of this story. For most of this story, Bryce is in Lunathion/Crescent City. The small parts of the story where Prythian is the setting, Nesta and Azriel are the main two characters Bryce interacts with. Feyre does not make any big appearances, and eve Cassian is hardly present. Rhysand is present in that they say his name a lot, but he’s also barely in the story. This is truly a Crescent City story more than anything else.

The book is told through many perspectives and the scene breaks are very abrupt. There were quite a few times where the POV changed mid page that made me do a double take to make sure I was following along. A LOT happens to everyone and we see it all. We see into the dungeon Hunt, Ruhn, and Baxian are in, as well as get Ithan’s POV from his journey, Tharion also has his own bits throughout the story. The main POV is of course Bryce, but Lydia is another featured POV that adds a lot, and she has one of the better character developments in this book.

This book ends Bryce and Hunt’s storyline, giving them

their own happily ever after. My assumption is that future CC books will follow Lydia and Ruhn, who were by far my favorite couple in this book. Ithan is also someone I would love to continue to follow along, so I hope he and Tharion also appear in future books.

As far as the impact to ACOTAR characters, I think that

Nesta will continue to be the POV we read, as Bryce sets her up to follow whatever the eight-pointed star has in store for her.

CC in general has not been my favorite story, and this book did nothing to change that. I think this story made me hate Bryce as a character, and there were plenty of times I wanted to chuck my book at the wall. Bryce’s actions throughout the book show she is selfish, conceited, and only concerned about what she wants, regardless of the cost or impact to others. I will admit I was not a big fan of hers, but I ended the book disliking her even more. All the other characters talk about how selfless she is, how special, kind, good, insert other nice things throughout the scenes and story, which makes things worse. There should be no need for other characters to rave about her, the fact they do, tells you enough that her actions do not reflect what other characters think she is like. Lydia, Ruhn, Tharion, and Ithan save this story from being completely unreadable.

Unfortunately, this is my least favorite of all the Maas universe books, and I am truly hoping this was the end of Bryce’s story, because I do not care to read more about her.

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hanlkg's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional tense fast-paced

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

4.0

*spoilers*
Whew. That book was relentless from start to finish. Haven’t had so much fun reading in a minute. That said, it’s not a five to me:

Things I liked:
1. Ruhn and Lidia - this pair might be SJMs best yet. Every time I turned the page I was looking for their names.
2. Lidia- deserves her own note becuase her story is just that good and the final nod to Brannon is stunning.
3. The way the 3 worlds we know were tied together. I still have plenty of questions but I’m left feeling really satisfied which surprises me. I think endings of this magnitude can read as lackluster after so much build up and leave the audience disappointed. It was a blast to read all the pieces click into place. The crossover was well done too. although I was disappointed to not see more of nesta, Azriel, and the rest, With more ACOTAR books coming, I’m glad the story focused primarily on Midgard.

Things I didn’t like:
1. Like I said, this book is FAST. Like staring into the sun. The first part could have been extended into a standalone and been sufficient. Because of that, I don’t think time was given to the character development and relationship building that Maas is adored for, and certain plot points are so abrupt that they feel glossed over (see the deaths of the autumn king and morven). Nothing wrong with a few more pages if we really get to feel the intensity of certain moments in a deeper way.
2. Bryce is at her worst as a cringey millennial in this installment. She’s so quippy and immature at times that I just couldn’t fully get behind her as a leader.
3. The POV switching. Good lord. I think that contributes to the feeling of whiplash throughout reading. Switching to multiple POVs within a single chapter of characters on different continents was just too much and detracted from the story.

All in all I’m rating this one fairly high because I do think it accomplished its most important goal of fleshing out a history and magic system that make sense to tie 3 separate worlds together. That is no small feat. Despite my grievances, I had a blast reading and would still recommend this series and author widely.

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sarahtaymo's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional mysterious 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

4.5

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