Reviews tagging 'Death'

House of Flame and Shadow by Sarah J. Maas

185 reviews

jackiepreston's review against another edition

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

4.0

There are too many POV characters and disparate plotlines happening in this story. I could have used less of almost every plotline because so many of them like the characters were just repeating their thoughts with no forward movement. Overall a good conclusion to the story. 

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barbarianmissy's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny 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? No

5.0

Finally finished this series! 

WOWEEE! Ok, this series was rockin’. 

The ending was stellar, it was tied with a pretty little bow and left us a few snippets of what’s possibly to come and I’m QUITE HOPEFUL even though it’ll probably be a long while until we get the next book! 

As for my final thoughts on the characters:

Fire sprites are just my favs, idk why but in the last 100 pages just the mere mention of them made me cry twice. 

I love the endings we got for our main characters, Bryce and Hunts ending, so great, HORSES?!?! Iconic. Ruhn’s ending, I’m so happy for him, he’s such a sweet lil guy!! I hope these characters can find peace in the new world. They’ve dealt with enough. DOWN WITH THE MONARCHY! 

BUT AS FOR THE FUTURE BOOKS I’m kind of hoping the next ones are centered around the side characters because their set ups for their storylines are super intriguing! Like Ithan and his new role and POSSIBLE ROMANCE???? And Tharion, Mr. unrelenting-need-to-defy-very-powerful-women-who-could-destroy-him-very-easily, dealing with marriage??? Won’t that be a treat! Also what’s gonna happen with Baxian, Isaiah, or Hypaxia and their new roles in the new world? Exciting stuff, man! 

Anywho, I loved this series and these characters. They were absolutely delightful, I’m gonna miss them till the next book, same as ACOTAR. 

NOW….. *drumroll*

I can’t believe it, folks, but I’m finally ready to start my THRONE OF GLASS journey! 🫡 WISH ME LUCK! 

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hellsbellsbeepbeep's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny medium-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? It's complicated

3.0

I’m SO disappointed honestly. I expected so much from the third book in this series. How can this long of a book feel so rushed??? I was literally in LOVE with this series until reading this book. I think SJM does amazing portraying emotions and making you feel exactly how the character(s) feel. But in this book there was so much going on you couldn’t sit with the gravity of each huge plot twist because another kept coming. It’s definitely epic as hell and I still love Crescent City but I am so sad this one flopped. 

It was cool to see the universes collide but boy oh BOy was Bryce not trusting Nesta & Azriel and vice versa so fucking annoying.
Imagine if they all tried to communicate and the whole first chunk of the book could’ve been removed. But it’s the Fae I guess lol. 

There are some small things that I do love having answers on, in both histories of the Fae and the current characters backgrounds.
Especially when the Pegasus' return is mentioned. 

Extremely loved having more time between Lydia and Ruhn but I’m dying inside because their traumatic lead up to their eventual mating was, again, TOO RUSHED. Also, Hel was a much shorter interaction that expected after allll that build up and ALSO felt rushed. ALSO why can’t SJM just let people die sometimes??? It’s crazy how long she can keep a mf character in these books


while I have really enjoyed most of the maasverse - I’m ultimately really annoyed that in the end of this book, Bryce is very similar to both Feyre and Aelin. I’m kind of tired of them all being the same type of person and overall personality. I had originally loved the Bryce the most because she stood out to me as such but by the end of this one I can’t care as much as I did before. 

Ultimately, I still like this series and want to know what will happen next but I’m not nearly as excited for the next book if it’s going to feel like this one. 

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bluerskies's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark funny inspiring reflective 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

3.5


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kelctini's review against another edition

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

4.0


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payton_layne's review against another edition

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

3.0


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amy_in_the_city's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional 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? It's complicated

3.0

This book was just OK. It did have some major issues and was definitely my least favorite of the three books in this series. I'm just glad to have a conclusion to the Asteri plotline, even if the final battle was underwhelming.

The book suffered from pacing problems. The first third of the book dragged on and on, with Bryce spending way too much time wandering through tunnels looking at art. Maybe it would have been a bit more interesting if we at least got some angst from Bryce, but it felt like she wasn't all that concerned about her mate and brother being in grave danger. There was no sense of urgency on her part to rescue them from being tortured and maybe eventually executed. Then, later in the book, we get to follow along as Bryce wanders through tunnels again. Not exactly riveting stuff. 

There were also too many POVs happening to allow enough time with the main characters. I really didn't care about Ithan's and Tharion's storylines and dreaded every time it switched back to their POVs. They were mostly just those two characters making stupid mistakes followed by a lot of self loathing. I hope they make Tharion much more interesting and likeable if he's going to feature prominently in the next book. I did like his marriage of convenience subplot and think there is interesting potential there.

Bryce and Hunt's relationship was a mess in this book, and I really didn't like Bryce much. She never communicates her plans with Hunt. Then even though Hunt is blindly following her into danger, she picks fights with him because he isn't enthusiastic about being there. How can he be 100% on board with her plans when he doesn't know what they are? She doesn't seem to care that this is only a couple days after he got back from spending several days being brutally tortured for allowing her to drag him into this mess. Or that the situation is reminiscent of how things went with Shahar and to say that ended tragically would be an understatement. Bryce was being so disrespectful towards Hunt and his trauma because she wanted to look like a badass with gotcha moments and zingers. Really, it feels like most of her plans were half-baked at best, and they only work out in her favor because of plot armor. It didn't feel like an equal partnership between the main couple. Bryce just does whatever she wants, doesn't tell Hunt, and leaves him to deal with the consequences. At least she does apologize to Hunt for being a dick at one point, but I'd prefer if she didn't spend most of the book acting like a dick to begin with.

Ruhn and Lidia were this book's saving grace. I kept wishing they were the main couple because they were great, and I wanted the story to spend more time with them. Lidia was such a badass, so clever and sneaky. I love sneaky characters who know how to play along with the game in order to achieve their goals and there aren't nearly enough leading women out there like this. I don't know that we got enough justification for why she joined the evil side to begin with though, and I feel like the explanation for why she changed sides was kind of flimsy. Ruhn is almost perfect in every way, with a major exception for
when he shot Lidia to try to save her. That was kind of a patriarchal bullshit move.
. I still love him so much. 

Other characters I really liked spending time with in this book were Nesta, Azriel, Hypaxia, and Aidas.


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unboundbooklover's review against another edition

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adventurous 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? No

4.0


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ashleynp24's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful 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? It's complicated

4.75

Loved the book, I wish the ACOTAR characters had a bit more time in the books but I’m glad that Nesta was the main character in the crossover. I felt that everything kind of got summed up really nicely. Lidia probably turned out to be my favorite character, and the hint she’s related to Brannon, and therefore Aelin was wild. I do want to know what happened with Sathia and where Ariadne was considering she appears at the end and that’s the last of that chapter.

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hematthews's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark 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? No

5.0


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