307 reviews for:

The House of Always

Jenn Lyons

4.2 AVERAGE

bright_night's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous dark 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: Yes

madzie's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

indy_rose's review against another edition

2.75

adventurous emotional slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

booksblabbering's review against another edition

4.25

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This is book four. By now, you must realise I am enjoying this series, and you know whether you like it or not. This is by far my favourite.

“This is the King of Demons killing everyone we care about, the world ending, and your soul getting devoured."

"And let's not forget the King of Demons is Janel's ex, in this scenario," Teraeth offered.

The way this book is set-up, we see the story from a variety of timelines from a range of characters all forced together. It’s supposed to make them hate each other, but can it be used to bring them together? 

“And let's look at your friends, shall we? Murderers and terrorists.Traitors. More than one assassin. What a fine group of upstanding people.”

“Your "love" is nothing but slavery. Your “friendship" is nothing but an exchange

of obligations. You can't show me a single example from these people where their love isn't anything more than an excuse to pardon hurting each other.”

Yes, okay, it sounds cliche, but it works perfectly. This is an intimate exploration of all of our characters, studying their ambiguous moralities, their shaded pasts, and their deepest feelings. It was phenomenal. 

Whilst other author may struggle juggling the many catchers, their perspectives, history, grievances, and personalities; Lyons handles this challenge deftly, weaving fragments to create a whole as everything is built up in a psychological battle between Khirin and Vol Korath. 

dykish's review against another edition

3.25

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny inspiring sad slow-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

owlizabeth's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous challenging 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: Yes

jyb's review against another edition

5.0

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That ending and reveal-

I need to eat this book.

jennnewt's review against another edition

5.0

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I enjoyed the various perspectives of the characters. I wish we heard more from Thurvishar, as he kinda slips under the radar often it seems. But this was a great nonlinear book with multiple viewpoints and plenty of twists (some of which I was able to figure out before the reveal, and others that were completely unexpected). Can't wait to dive in to the final book of the series!

emfiander's review against another edition

3.75

adventurous slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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You know when you're watching a TV show that's focused on one or two main characters, and then randomly they throw in a whole episode dedicated to a side character? This books was kind of like that. It's cool in theory to flesh out the story and add depth to the characters, but ultimately, you're not really getting any development on the plot you're actually invested in. And, frankly, there's a reason some characters aren't the leads—they're just not compelling enough to carry a whole series.

This book is FINE. As in each book in this series so far, there are SO MANY ideas crammed into it, and absolutely none of them get any time to breathe. In some books in this series (The Ruin of Kings and The Memory of Souls, in my opinion), that adds to the fun and the charm. In this one, it just kept getting in the way of the storytelling. I liked it better than The Name of All Things, but it still ranks very solidly third, so far, and my interest in reading the next book is based more on the series as a whole than on this particular installment.

andromeda_1998's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes