Reviews tagging 'Colonisation'

House of Flame and Shadow by Sarah J. Maas

52 reviews

shellind75's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring tense fast-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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Torture, Colonisation, Sexual assault, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Sexism, Confinement, Murder, Domestic abuse, Excrement, Slavery, Gore, Grief, Gaslighting, War, Gun violence, and Sexual content

elthechameleon's review

adventurous dark slow-paced

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

3.5

This was messy. I really hope this isn’t the end of the stories from Midgard because all of this felt far too rushed. It would have made much more sense if this was the penultimate book because everything felt far too easy, almost like a character collecting all the awards before easily conquering a final boss in an OG platformer video game. 

There were no stakes. 

I loved the way the book ended and started, but a lot of plotlines didn’t need to exist or continue, and the characters made some choices throughout the journey that felt really at odds with who I thought they were. It feels like SJM wanted a clear exit from Lunathion and easily transition back to ACOTAR, which is sad because I had really started to love it.

Also, why have a crossover at all if it’s so small and doesn’t actually lead to them teaming up in any meaningful way?

I wanted and hoped for better with this book. I felt like I read 16 books in the Maasverse only to be let down by odd choices, fast pacing, weird focus on troubled characters (Ithan), and inappropriate flirting during fight scenes (Ruhn). 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Colonisation, Gore, and Violence

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

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

ronnieex's review

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious reflective 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death, Violence, Classism, and War

Moderate: Bullying, Slavery, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Colonisation, Child death, Physical abuse, and Genocide

Minor: Sexual content

carolinemerlinevans's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny 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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Torture, Slavery, Child death, Excrement, War, Drug use, Blood, Sexual violence, Violence, Death, Mass/school shootings, Addiction, and Suicidal thoughts

njlbo1's review

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring tense

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Violence, and Torture

Moderate: Cursing, Blood, Colonisation, Classism, Sexual content, Misogyny, Death, Kidnapping, and Slavery

booksalacarte's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective tense medium-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? Yes

4.25

First read- 4.25⭐️ 3🌶️

Adult High Fantasy

Multi POV

Fantasy Romance

Magic

Found family

Journey

Secrets

War

Rebellion

Tech/sci-fi elements

Tw: torture on page, language, 

This was a Crescent City book. It wasn’t an ACOTAR or TOG book. It was crescent city through and through with the quick POV shifts and 

This large cast of characters has always been the messiest. They are completely flawed and full of contradictions and harder to completely stand behind. There wasn’t a lot of self reflection for anyone in the cast. There were a lot of really brash decisions, even from seasoned warriors and politicians, that I rolled my eyes at. There just wasn’t the character growth that I had hoped to see… if anything, some of the characters, a main character even, seemed to get worse… some character growth and revelations that were foreshadowed in the other two books seemed to have been completely tossed out the window. 

The plot was A LOT… and all over the place. There were moments of world-building that was just gigantic info dumps. There were times where we went into sci-fi elements. Many things were concluded and tied up prettily. I’m having a hard time thinking of how this is going to be extended into any more books… 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Murder, Violence, War, Excrement, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, Blood, Body horror, Death, Cursing, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Misogyny, Sexual content, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, and Vomit

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

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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

liss_reads's review

adventurous medium-paced

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

1.0

Don’t bother. SJM is really just collecting her check. 

The manuscript was clearly rushed out the door by the publisher - occasionally lacking appropriate punctuation or even finishing a sentence in one case. Could have used more revision. How could ALL of the events that took place in this way too long book have happened over the course of one week??

Bryce is a the antithesis of the character she was built out to be in the first two books, and the mimicked those she claimed to rally against. The other characters are fighting for air time somehow in such a long book. Lidia is best supporting actress. 

Two extra irritating things: 
- the entire book is written like a tv show- short scenes with constant location changes - but there are no visual indicators. Not even a chapter change to swap locations and characters. Just a double line break between paragraphs and we’re jumping one world to another. 
- the most irksome sentences in these books are “it was all he could do” WHAT WAS ALL HE COULD DO?? 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Body horror, Gore, War, and Torture

Moderate: Blood, Death, Gun violence, Misogyny, and Colonisation