Reviews tagging 'Gore'

House of Flame and Shadow by Sarah J. Maas

126 reviews

vel629vet's review

adventurous dark sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

Disappointingly this was one of my least favorite Maas books... I waited a while to write this review to try to gather my thoughts about everything but I'm still having trouble pinpointing the exact issues I had. But here are a few:

- too much exposition, too much story in one book
- too much telling of the history that led the world to where it is. Literally entire chapters of a character just telling Bryce about the history of Midgard or battles or whatever. It was too much. 
- 'twists' just to make things exciting, rather than them actually being planned out
- everything with the wolves felt useless
- everything with the house of flame and shadow felt useless (like it was only there to make sure the title of the book tied into the story)
- the climax and big battle didn't have the same intensity as books 1 and 2 - like she felt like she needed to make them even bigger than before and instead they just fell flat 
- I was incredibly bummed with how the ACOTAR characters actually came into play
- the torture scenes were excessively and unnecessarily graphic

Overall a really disappointing read for me from SJM. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Gore, and War

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

smkelly1997's review

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful fast-paced

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

4.5

1. SJM has done it again. The plot, the development, drawing you into the story. The most amazing part for me was
   the connection between TOG, ACOTAR, and CC. I didn’t even realize Brann was the king talked about in the first book. It also made me wonder about Lidia connection to it all
   . Overall a great book. I cannot wait for more. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Classism, Confinement, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Slavery, and War

dulcyj's review

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, Gore, Death of parent, Death, and Torture

Moderate: Slavery, Vomit, and Blood

Minor: Grief, Sexual content, and Child death

spicyspookypotato's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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? No

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Genocide, Cursing, Blood, Death, Violence, Torture, Gore, Confinement, War, and Murder

tinkerbelle's review

adventurous challenging emotional funny mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.75

i dont like that people are mad about this book, i think it wraps up the trilogy perfectly and i was glad to find that it wasnt all about bryce this time.

really excited to see what else sjm has to offer!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Violence, Gore, Torture, War, and Genocide

Moderate: Sexual content

Minor: Sexual assault, Vomit, Death of parent, and Death

i literally started crying when when bryce was "dead" but like purely bc it broke my heart to think of hunt going through that pain 😭😭

kowalskepie's review

emotional hopeful inspiring 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Gore, Physical abuse, Violence, Addiction, Sexual content, Cursing, Genocide, Torture, and Death

mviolet11's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Torture, and Violence