Reviews tagging 'Kidnapping'

House of Flame and Shadow by Sarah J. Maas

83 reviews

bee_wuud's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful tense fast-paced

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

4.75

Bryce ♥️ second to Aelin for me for Maas’s FMCs. I love how full of confidence and full of herself she can be. 

As others have said, the threads Maas has laid through other books kind of came together here.

Lydia being a descendant of Aelin’s line ?!?! That got me big. Love how some characters got their dues and how it happened.

wish we had more of the princes of Hel - that whole part kind of felt rushed some. Honestly, the whole book felt a little rushed, but the chaos was 🤩

I can’t wait for the follow up of how they handle everything and what comes next. Love most of these characters.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Torture, and Gun violence

Moderate: Death, Kidnapping, and Sexual violence

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

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

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

amateur_bookworm's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• 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

5.0

My summary: After everything goes terribly wrong in their stand against the Asteri, Hunt, Ruhn and Baxian are now being tortured in the Asteri dungeon and Bryce is—gone. Bryce has found her way to another world and is now desperate to return to Midgard in her quest to save it. Tharion has returned to Lunathion and is fighting for the Viper Queen in her ring, as he promised before everything went sideways with the Asteri and Ophion. Ithan, Flynn, and Declan are trying to get any intel of what’s happening to Bryce, Ruhn and Hunt. When help comes from unexpected places to break Hunt, Ruhn, and Baxian from the clutches of the Asteri, Bryce and Hunt must continue fighting to save their world, but with impossible odds stacked against them. 

My thoughts: I loved it. I love the entire Crescent City series. I love ACOTAR too and the blending of the two worlds was the cherry on top. I’m not going to lie, this one took me awhile to get through. There is just SO MUCH packed in here. I loved all of the main characters and the way Sarah J. Maas wove their stories together and switched between the character’s points of view. True to every other book Sarah J. Maas writes, all hell breaks loose in the last hundred or so pages. I know there is supposed to be at least one more Crescent City book, but I’m content with the ending of this one. I feel like the series *could* end here, even though I am excited for the eventual continuation of the series, and for the foreshadowing of what is to come in the ACOTAR series. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Confinement, Death, Gore, Kidnapping, Murder, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, War, Cursing, Physical abuse, Sexual content, and Slavery

Moderate: Grief, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

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