Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

House of Flame and Shadow by Sarah J. Maas

41 reviews

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

---

Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Slavery, Vomit, and Blood

Minor: Grief, Sexual content, and Child death

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!!

---

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 😭😭

sierrabowers's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective 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

4.5

This was the best in the Crescent City series! I highly recommend to those who have already read ACOTAR. This book truly made everything come together and so much makes more sense. It ties up loose ends but also makes room for some new storylines. Was different than I thought it would be but also somehow better? 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Murder, Vomit, Cursing, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Rape, Torture, Body horror, Sexism, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Confinement, Genocide, Gun violence, Drug use, Gore, Sexual content, War, Abandonment, Animal death, Classism, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, and Injury/Injury detail

kayceeisbookish's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Suicide, Torture, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Suicide attempt, Child death, Colonisation, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Child abuse, War, Death, Gaslighting, and Sexual violence

emcdonald's review

adventurous challenging emotional 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

5.0

Literally so good I would die for these characters ten times over

---

Content Warnings

Minor: Death of parent and Sexual violence

psydneigh's review

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

The battle was too easy for me. Wish we had been in Bryce’s head a little more in Part 1 because I still dont get why she did some things. 
There are 5 bonus chapters (you can find them all on Reddit)

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Death of parent, Gun violence, Sexual violence, Torture, War, and Confinement

elledanie's review

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? It's complicated

5.0

✨🪽🩶🦌👨‍🎤🖤

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, War, Slavery, Sexism, Murder, Violence, Sexual content, Gore, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Gun violence, Pregnancy, Cursing, Death, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Blood, Death of parent, and Confinement

sam_gartley91's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful 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? No

3.75

Loved it! And really anything SJM does. But it was really whiplashy with multiple pov in the same chapter. And that Bryce seemed to be doing some of the work off page at times so she knew things the audience didn’t. She did that last book too and it wasn’t my fav. It wasn’t like that the audience was learning with her. It bugged me a bit. The fantasy meets sci-fi was interesting and I don’t think I’ve seen that before. There are still some characters that I would love to learn more about. Like what is fury?!! So I’m curious where if anywhere SjM is going next with this series world. The cross over wasn’t exactly what I expected good at times and a little let down at others. I really just wanted them all to be friends!! Which maybe in the future they will/could get there. But overall SjM did seem to tie everything up in a bow. Now it’s for the world to reset itself up. Overall loved it but wish it was difffernt at times.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Grief, Torture, Violence, Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Death, Gun violence, Classism, and War

Moderate: Police brutality, Cursing, Misogyny, Slavery, Kidnapping, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Excrement and Abandonment

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 😂

🖤
 

---

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⭐️

---

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