Reviews with content warning for Classism - House of Flame and Shadow

Reviews tagging 'Classism'

House of Flame and Shadow by Sarah J. Maas

58 reviews

infjkiki's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional 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? No

5.0

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angelofthetardis's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.5

So I didn't want to buy this in hardback as it won't fit on my bookshelf, and I have no idea when I'd be able to get it from the library (the reserve queue is huge), so I made use of my Audible subscription and bought the audiobook instead. Cheaper than the physical copy, and means I save more money to spend next year!

Thus far I haven't been as drawn into the world of Crescent City as I have with Sarah J Maas' other realms, but I was nevertheless very excited to read this one as soon as it came out as it starts to draw the worlds closer together. With Hunt, Ruhn and Baxian stuck in the dungeons of the Asteri and facing torture, and Bryce no-where to be found on Midgard or in Hel, everything is set up for this to be a gripping, bloody, thrilling ride toward the ultimate showdown.

I was hoping for an epic crossover event, a really impactful tale that would serve as an episode in both of her incomplete series and a temporary yet meaningful blending of the Night Court and Lunathion... but I was left feeling a bit cheated. I will be fair, although the ending of CC2 had been spoiled for me some time ago, I only read the book a few weeks ago so I haven't had the same length of time to have this building in my head. But if I had, I suspect I would have hurled the book across the room. Ultimately, there's a lot of wandering through tunnels, a little bit of friendly interrogation and a bitch-off between Nesta and Bryce and... that's about it. I did like the fact that little hints from both CC and ACOTAR were pulled into the narrative here, but overall the crossover element felt more like it was there to please the fans than to actually move the plot along. There is one moment which is gorgeous and brilliant and sort of illustrates Nesta's character development in a nutshell though...

This series is probably the most complex of the three in terms of worldbuilding, and generally speaking you can see that a LOT of thought has gone into it, but it almost feels like too much. There are just so many elements to keep track of, so many character threads to follow and so much lore to remember that a lot of bits and pieces get lost in the noise. And this book only adds to the worldbuilding, expanding on the origins of the people of Midgard, the history of the Asteri and so on. Unfortunately, while I can imagine the scenes where this is set out playing well on a TV or movie screen, when listening or reading it does feel like a never-ending info dump during these moments. And there are more than one of them, which really deadens the pace and had me zoning out a little. Similarly, I'd say that a lot of snippets could have been edited out so that the focus remained on the main story.

I'm ashamed to say that I can't ever really tell you who my favourite character is. I just can't connect with anyone in here. Their relationships with each other are well drawn and every one of the main characters and supporting cast is really well fleshed out, but there's just nothing binding my soul to one of them. If I had to choose, I'd probably go with Hunt, but even that doesn't sit quite right. And in terms of their character arcs throughout this book, I wouldn't day there are any major surprises - everyone basically acts exactly as you'd expect them to.

Likewise, most of the major plot points are fairly predictable; however, there are a couple of moments that make you sit up and take notice, and those are worth tuning in for. There are a couple ofmloose threads that I guess could be picked up in another book or two, but I suspect any future instalments might suffer from too thin a plot and too much magical politics.

The whole series has a bit more of a sci-fi edge to it, but that's definitely expanded in this book - why am I imagining Stargates dotted a over Crescent City and at the Northern Rift? I do like it because it's not what I was expecting, but equally I think I'm more of a straight fantasy type of girl.

I'm not disappointed with the book, but nor am I particularly worried about picking it up again. A shame for such an anticipated release!

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pagesihavenotyetread's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful tense medium-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

3.5

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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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briannagriffin567's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious sad 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

5.0

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selena13's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny informative mysterious 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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infusionofviolets's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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gemma_clare's review against another edition

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adventurous tense medium-paced

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

3.5

Slightly underwhelming but still a good read. This book somehow simultaneously moves too fast and too slow and was a bit of a slog to get through. It also lacked so much of the emotional depth of characters and relationships we’ve come to know and love from SJM. It’s also inconsistent with previous books imo - previously unkillable, god-like characters get taken down like some run of the mill villain and so many things just seem to happen way to conveniently to be fully believable. Overall felt rushed. A fine read, but not what I expected for CC3.

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amschelly153's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective 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? No

4.75

Really fun, well written read! Sarah managed to pull together many pieces in a gorgeous way that made me feel like I was putting together a difficult, but satisfying puzzle.

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vermontsnowboarder's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional medium-paced

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

2.0

It pains me to rate this book so low. I like Maas' books. I enjoy the characters, the worldbuilding, and the writing. This book fell flat in many ways. Before you read this review, please know that it contains SPOILERS. Big ones.

1. Pacing. The pacing throughout this entire book was off. Parts of it were dragged out unnecessarily

(I did not need pages upon pages of Bryce wandering through the tunnels, only to be repeated 500 pages later.)

Parts of it were rushed through. All of it was like getting whiplash over and over again. Honestly, there were far too many points of view. I doubt most authors could get a pacing that worked for so many different storylines.

2. Plotholes. Again, I think this is because there were too many different storylines to keep track of. But the mistakes were glaringly obvious.

Let's take Bryce at the beginning as an example. Rhys locked her up in the Hewn City. Knew that she would go through the grate. Made it so that she only saw one path. After we were told over and over again that "even Rhys doesn't know these tunnels are here".

??? Make it make sense. This is one example of many things that don't add up and contradict.

3. Repetition. Ok, all of this can be blamed on too many storylines. One storyline would end. That last paragraph would be *marginally* rephrased and then used at the beginning the next time that storyline was picked back up. A literary technique might be used here, but it wasn't used well. I would have thought the editors would have caught how jarring it was to repeat sentences. But it was more than just that.

I know that Maas was attempting to draw the connection between Midgard and the original world of the Fae (we still don't know what that planet is called, despite five books taking place there). But the repetition of Bryce walking through the same tunnels on two different worlds was a bit much.

4. The characters. I've never been a big fan of Bryce and Hunt. Bryce was excellent in the first book and has only slid wildly downhill into being an unrelatable, whingy, my way or the highway. Hunt was still cardboard. Truthfully, the only characters that were developed and interesting were Ruhn and Lidia. The fact that she did well writing them and devoted a similar amount of space means that if more care was taken, we could have cared about the others as well. Even well-established characters weren't written well.

We saw Rhys once, in the beginning. Really? He is the most powerful high lord in history, and he manages to talk to Bryce once. Gotcha. Nesta, at least, made sense and was written all right. But it is not at all believable that Bryce would be able to get Truth-Teller away from Azriel. Super Powerful Magical Starborn Princess nonsense aside - there is no way that the shadows and his training failed that badly.

It just....wasn't believable.

5. Writing. There are many instances of weak writing. It feels a bit odd for me to say about an author that I like so much. Having read everything Maas has written, I know that she can write torture scenes well.

Aelin went through it in Kingdom of Ash.

And we were given this watered-down jumble? Maas did not make me care that they were getting tortured. My heart didn't hurt, it wasn't sad, it wasn't brutal. It just was. I think it was because it was all past. There wasn't an action that she cut away from. She would cut to after, occasionally right before. But there was no skin in the game. Nothing for us to feel emotionally attached to. Battles. From ToG and ACOTAR, we know that Maas can write battles (some of them are better than others, but we know she can) well. Yet this giant battle that the entire book felt like it was working up to was blase. Boring and nonexistent. Where was the heartbreak? Where was the emotion? Where was the fear? It wasn't at this battle if you can even call it that.

After all that work to get Hel to Midgard to help them fight, we barely noticed their presence. The Asteri, who are supposedly the biggest bad that there ever was, were barely an inconvenience.

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