Reviews tagging 'Death'

House of Flame and Shadow by Sarah J. Maas

201 reviews

cnannery19's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

jades3's review

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Torture, Violence, and War

Moderate: Cursing, Death, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Slavery, Blood, Medical trauma, and Murder

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: Gun violence, Torture, and War

Moderate: Death, Sexual violence, and Kidnapping

huddle_dragon's review

adventurous dark emotional tense fast-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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Murder

literary_laur's review

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, Death, Gore, Sexism, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, and Murder

marinway's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Torture, and War

Moderate: Child death

Minor: Rape

josxphinchen's review

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: Body horror, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, War, and Injury/Injury detail

jpoe_16's review

I spent so long reading all the other SJM books only for this one to have me baffled at every turn. SJM switched POV’s so often with a “soap opera” type cliffhanger at the end of each POV. When it comes to the characters, it felt like we needed 2-3 more books of building relationships with them to really care about them. Do not get me started on the joy-sucking and utterly moronic character that is Tharion. 
Maybe one day I will come back to this, but after the reveal of HOSAB, this was such a let down I couldn’t keep going for now. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Vomit, Colonisation, and War

esageser19's review

adventurous emotional funny medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Torture, and Violence

melissat's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.0

Woof. Okay, I've loved SJM for 10 years. But this book was a slog. 

Going from how much I loved Crescent City 1, and how I was starting to get annoyed with Bryce and Hunt in book 2, I thought 3 would have a lot of room for redemption. Instead it was almost 1000 pages of self-flagellation from the male characters, and gaslighting and narcissism from Bryce. Internal and external dialogues, infodumping (but not about anything interesting), and more of Bryce being incessantly full of attitude that really grated on my nerves by about halfway through.

I wish the editors had been allowed to do their jobs and cut so many unnecessary POVs and chapters. The characters all acted in toxic ways under the guise of "doing it for love". Meanwhile, what they were doing was just abuse and control. I essentially hate-read this til the end. 

I really hope that we get better character arcs and plot for the next ACOTAR book, otherwise I'll be so sad!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Genocide, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse and Toxic relationship

Minor: Addiction