Reviews tagging 'Cursing'

House of Flame and Shadow by Sarah J. Maas

73 reviews

ahbee_p_'s review

adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.25

I am a SJM fan and love her work, including HOEAB and HOSAB, but this book came up a little short for me. 

While there were a lot of exciting elements to the story and I really enjoyed diving more into the history and legacies of the characters and the world... I felt that it was a bit messy and all over the place. In some places, I felt the story dragged.

The constantly changing POV and storylines was, at times, difficult for me to follow... the book has A LOT of plot!

I also didn't enjoy Bryce as much in this book, or her relationship with Hunt. I was hoping to see more from Ruhn and Lidia!

Overall, I enjoyed the book. But it didn't live up to my expectations. I still appreciate the world building and creativity that has gone into this book and think it was a fine conclusion to this part of the story...

and I enjoyed the final pages with the flying horses 😂

🖤
 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Death, Death of parent, Torture, and Murder

annabithebook's review against another edition

adventurous informative tense fast-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

1.75

The thought that kept coming to me throughout was “how did this get past alpha/beta readers??” Followed quickly by “I cannot believe that if I hadn’t just invested my soul into 17 previous books to get to this point, I would have DNF’d it.” 😳

I am so disappointed in how many things I disliked in the series. Let’s make a spoiler-free list in no particular order: 

1. Open plot points from HOSAB were just effectively dismissed and no actual meaningful resolution occurred.
2. Where the fuck was Fury and why was she not a bigger part of this? 
3. 75 perspective changes inside of a single chapter with no indicator (especially bad in the audiobook format) this made an already 30 hour book take literal HOURS of extra time rewinding and listening again to try and figure out who did what and when it changed. 
4. Dumbass characters making reckless stupid decisions. 
      Sub point here: it really felt like in the early stages of TOG where people are young and reckless and immature but instead of them having the time and lived experiences over 8 books to grow and mature into the better version of themselves (which was 👌🏻) the entire “arc” occurs crammed into one book and feels thin/baseless/disingenuous.  
5.  I never thought I’d say an 800+ page book should have spread things out more but it should have been two separate books (á la Eos & ToD). There were just too many ambitious plot lines/characters/stories competing for page time and so instead of trimming some to fully flesh out the ones you keep or splitting into two books, they’re all sort of chaotic and rushed which makes the story feel disjointed and inauthentic.
6. Kind of related to 5, but SJM is famous for her character growth and well balanced storylines with beautiful relationships, but she just didn’t give herself the space to do that with this novel or really CC as a whole. 
7. The crossover infodump. 
8. SJMs famous “why didn’t you just tell her that in the first place.” 
9. SO MUCH HEAD ST@BB1NG 
10. Hunt/Bryce seem like a couple who should really just break up…. 😬
11. Bryce in general (weakest SJM FMC in terms of how well they’re written as leads). 
12. Other main cast characters who aren’t even in this book. 
13. Characters who only appear when SJM needs them for a plot function so they feel like tools and not people. 
14. Questionable science “oh yeah, let’s just hold the _____ ____ open!” 😒
15. The rumbly in Baxian’s tummy that only hands can satisfy. 

Now. A much shorter but MAY CONTAIN VAGUE SPOILERS list of what I loved: 

1. Ruhn/Lidia - they got snubbed like Lorcan/Elide from more page time
2. Jessiba 
3. The sprites 
4. The message of unity
5. Patricide
6. ……it’s not a good sign that I ran out at 5 things?

Honestly, my thumbs are tired but if you want a more comprehensive and, frankly, hilarious review that is literally all the thoughts in my head too, here is another amazing GR reviewer’s thoughts: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4553540457

TLDR; didn’t DNF because I was stubborn but it tried to be too many things at once and so instead it was successful at nearly nothing. Very disappointed 😢 1.75⭐️

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Drug abuse, Child abuse, Gore, Fire/Fire injury, Child death, Torture, Sexual violence, Blood, Cannibalism, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, Addiction, Abandonment, Drug use, Death of parent, Death, Cursing, Murder, War, Violence, and Medical trauma

nebul_em's review against another edition

adventurous slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture and Violence

Moderate: Sexual content and Slavery

Minor: Cursing

I’m finding it difficult to rate this book, as like most of SJM’s work, I find it incredibly tropey and predictable but I really enjoy reading.

It feels like half of the book is spent in caves, and even then the caves repeat themselves, so we already know what’s coming. Hunt/Ruhn/Baxian’s torture feels like a pause on plot advancement, because SJM doesn’t know what they’d be doing without Bryce to lead them. On top of this, the stakes for the torture are completely irrelevant, we know Ruhn will stay alive because of unresolved romantic subplot, and Hunt won’t die because he and Bryce quite literally would not be able to live without each other. Baxian is a decent character, but isn’t really interesting enough to care about for more than a few pages (when SJM remembers he exists). I did enjoy the Prythian crossover (who didn’t) and I especially liked Nesta being a main point of contact. However, most of Bryce’s time in Prythian was spent in caves, so most potential interest was lost. I especially would have enjoyed seeing Bryce getting the treatment of Ember and Randall, and actually getting to learn about the world. The dungeon rescue was interesting, as the pacing sped up massively, and seeing Lidia’s planning effectively work was satisfying. SJM’s desire for cheap drama shoehorns Lidia being shot into the story, when practically, it has no effect other than making Ruhn conflicted. The depth charger was possibly the dullest deus ex-machina in the story, its ability to turn up where the plot requires might as well be explained as teleportation. Bryce’s ability to waltz into a situation and start sassing anyone without consequences is very similar to Aelin from ToG, but gets infuriating to the point that I was seriously hoping she’d go too far and get punished for it at least once. I enjoyed learning about Lidia’s sons, despite the obvious drama bait of ‘they might be Pollux’s’. Avallens caves are just as dull as Prythians, and drag even more with Hunt and Bryce’s forced squabbling that could be resolved easily if they had a civil conversation for more than 5 minutes. I appreciated Sathia as a breath of fresh air, but she gets so little focus that SJM forgets she exists by the end of the book. Hunts father reveal was a little underwhelming to me, but that might just be because it had little effect on anything other than Hunts feelings, for a page. The Jesiba reveal was satisfying, but it made little sense for her to keep it a secret from Bryce (and the readers). Ithan spends the entire book feeling guilty, and being jerked around by circumstances. Despite his obvious flags to become Prime (or at least an Alpha) he does nothing - and it gets very annoying. From page 1 Sigrid was obviously not the answer to the Prime problem, and Ithans belief in her makes him even more infuriating. Hypaxia’s discovery of an antidote is extremely quick, yet another deus ex-machina that SJM drops into the plot. The scene where they gain the second light bullet is heartfelt, put then looses impact for me when the under king is killed by a smack over the head. Hypaxia was almost a non entity in the plot, and her loss of queendom to become head of F&S felt very token. I liked the scene where Bryce gets the mask from Nesta, however the interaction between Hunt and Celestina is dull because it’s a forgone conclusion. The last 200 odd pages pick up the pace as with every other book by SJM, however because the final battle happens so quickly it looses all impact and makes the Asteri feel a lot less powerful than they are described as. Lidia’s hidden firepower is extremely obvious to the reader, and makes the scene with Pollux and her children much less dramatic and more ‘when will she use it already’. Bryce’s death is obviously fixed within a few pages, because all of SJMs main characters are so co-dependant that they cannot handle grief.

So: Bryce - has no character development and keeps pulling new powers out of her ass (basically). SJM attempts to give her a character arc of hating all fae, but it just seems pointless character corruption. Hunt - sad boi who follows Bryce around and gets angry occasionally. Ruhn -

spends most of his time trying to decide if he is more horrified by Lidia’s actions or more attracted by her *smell*.

Lidia - for the most part has an actual likeable character. Tharion - very meh in this book, gets tossed around by the plot and occasionally makes a decision. Ithan - uughhh just do something already. Hypaxia - barely exists. Other characters that barely exist -

Baxian, Fury (what is she!) and Juniper, Ariadne, Celestina.

All in all, a very fun book to read, but very little immersion from all of the tropes, deus ex-machinas and randomly gaining powers.

toweroftheunread's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense fast-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

3.5

I loved CC1&2, and this felt a bit off. There were lots and LOTS of POVS that kept skipping around. I like that it followed the timeline and you were able to see what everyone was doing simultaneously. 

I felt like Ithan’s plot had so many flaws in it. I understand it is to give him a decent amount of character development, but I felt like it could be done without the excessive self-deprecation and serious damage to other characters that ended up not amounting to much. 

I also felt like there were really good plot resolutions, but we jumped there. There was so much build up for the ONE plot in CC1, and I liked that. This had like a million plot lines that just resolved too quickly for me. It felt rushed and tidied up too quickly for me. There were a lot of emotional parts to the story, but honestly, I wasn’t drawn in like 1 & 2. I definitely cried in the first two, and I swear I’m not a monster, but I didn’t feel attached enough to shed one here. 

I feel like this book could have been really good if we teased it out and added details to the separate POVs and plot lines. The books could have even been shorter, but more detailed in the plot holes. 

It kind of felt like the marvel movies where the first ones were SO good and the quick resolutions left this book feeling almost cheesy. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Torture, Death, War, Child death, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, and Blood

emmerylynn's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny 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

4.25

I loved reading this! Though there were moments I just COULDN’T with some characters (*cough Ithan *cough Tharion) this was a very tense and memorable rollercoaster of a story! I laughed. I gasped. I cried. Can’t wait for the next one!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Torture, Violence, and Body horror

Moderate: Misogyny, Cursing, Gore, Kidnapping, and War

sneha_sarcar's review

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Genocide, Bullying, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Addiction, Classism, Confinement, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Physical abuse, War, Child abuse, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual content, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Cursing, Violence, Domestic abuse, Torture, and Slavery

aliciareadsit's review

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Sexual content, and War

Moderate: Torture, Slavery, Excrement, and Cursing

yarisbooksandbevs's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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? It's complicated

4.5

This book was so good. So much is happening but there’s a good mix between lore and action. Some of the characters make questionable decisions that have me screaming but it was a beautiful emotional rollercoaster. Occasionally the POV jumps were happening a bit too quickly and it felt like whiplash but it was nice to see what was happening in the different places all at once. I absolutely love Bryce and Hunt but Lidia stole the show for me. Her character development is absolutely amazing. This was a great read and still left more to be said.

It was nice to see that after the Asteri were defeated. It wasn’t just going back to normal and everything is okay. They are still facing challenges.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Sexual content, Death, Death of parent, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, War, Murder, Torture, Cursing, Gun violence, Slavery, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, and Grief

Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, Kidnapping, and Police brutality

Minor: Alcohol, Child death, and Suicidal thoughts

winterwoodbooks's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Slavery, Vomit, Child abuse, Gaslighting, Fatphobia, Violence, Cannibalism, Genocide, Medical trauma, Sexual content, Death of parent, Alcoholism, Blood, Classism, Murder, Police brutality, Self harm, Sexual assault, Child death, Dysphoria, Medical content, Death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Sexism, Body horror, Body shaming, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Misogyny, Abandonment, Alcohol, Cursing, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Torture, Kidnapping, Suicidal thoughts, and War

taryn_g's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful 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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, War, Torture, Violence, Blood, Death, and Murder

Moderate: Colonisation, Classism, Slavery, Child death, Cursing, Sexual content, Death of parent, Gun violence, Fire/Fire injury, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Kidnapping, Pregnancy, and Child abuse