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boyname's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content and Violence
Moderate: Child abuse, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Blood, and Body horror
Minor: Drug use, Slavery, and War
emmak2121's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
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? Yes
4.75
There’s childhood trauma mentions throughout the book such as child abuse. There’s also mentions of abuse between the hind too just be wary and this is quite a spicy book too x
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, Gaslighting, Drug use, Genocide, Murder, Sexual content, Death, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Torture, Violence, and War
n_odonnell's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and War
Minor: Child abuse
sierrabowers's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
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? It's complicated
4.5
This book was even better than House of Earth and Blood! Definitely had to push through to get to the good parts but like any SJM book, the last 100 pages HAD ME HOOKED and made the entire plot building up to it WORTH EVERY PAGE. I CANNOT WAIT to read CC3 in January!!!!!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Infertility, Physical abuse, War, Abandonment, Alcohol, Blood, Child death, Classism, Colonisation, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Torture, Infidelity, Murder, Sexual content, Violence, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Sexual assault, and Slavery
eabecker05's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
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
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Violence, and War
Moderate: Slavery, Death, Torture, and Child abuse
Minor: Addiction and Bullying
sarahyjackson's review against another edition
adventurous
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? It's complicated
5.0
A reread that was at times unbearably agonizing knowing the end.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual assault, Death, War, Gun violence, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Child abuse
kenziereads11's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
5.0
Great second book to the series! I fell more in love with all the character and have so so many questions about the world. I really loved the twists. Many times I would be reading and audibly gasp at what was happening. The ending!!!!! Read ACOTAR series before this series.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death
Minor: Child abuse
anjasshelf's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
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
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Sexism, Death, Grief, Sexual content, Violence, Child abuse, War, Gun violence, Sexual assault, Torture, Classism, Colonisation, Gore, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, Alcohol, Confinement, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Kidnapping, Domestic abuse, Racism, and Slavery
frantically's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Growing up is learning that it's okay to rate SJM books less than 5 stars.
Okay, so this book was long and so full of plot and I'm sure I've already forgotten all of it but let's try this:
THE CHARACTERS:
I absolutely loved the cast in this sequel and while the first book was very much a "Bryce and Hunt" novel, this time the big amount of characters we got introduced to in the first book all got their moments to shine and either already had good storylines or we got hints to exciting ones in the future (Ithan, I'm looking at you).
In my opinion, this is the first time SJM has managed to write true morally grey characters (and not just misunderstood bad boys), mainly with Corman and Tharion, who make wild choices, whose purpose isn't solely to make this a better world. Same goes for so many of the female characters, my favourites being Lidia and Celestina. They have their own difficult past and present situations to work with and can't just accept anything that Bryce plans for them.
Bryce really isn't a perfect angel either — she makes really dumb choices in this book but they're also very human choices. She's just getting into this whole Chosen One thing and she really struggles with it and its consequences at times. But as I said, her choices are all understandable (to some degree), you can tell that she only means the best but sometimes we all fuck up and that's portrayed really well here.
Shoutout to Hunt here, who's always portrayed as this big alphahole, but man actually thinks from time to time and questions what Bryce and him are doing. Men in this fantasy thinking over their relationship? In this economy? More likely than you think.
Going against all expectations (mainly my own), I've chosen to break my streak of my favourite character in SJM books always being the bisexual blonde cousin. I really tried to love Cormac as much as I love Mor and Aedion but 1.) I don't love him that much (or at all) and 2.) Ruhn. That's all. But I have hopes of at least keeping the bisexual streak going, we've still got books left, after all.
THE PLOT:
Unpopular opinion but making the human rebellion with very understandable goals and wishes out to be the bad guys alongside the Asteri (who are just straight up villains) is a really dumb idea.
I already didn't understand why we were against this rebellion in the first book because, yes, a lot of our cast is non-human but Bryce at least is half-human and has human parents, and, as a fellow human, I find it hard to get invested in a plot that makes the oppressed humans out to be the bad ones.
Especially Pippa is such a cheap, two-dimensional character and I really had to suspend my beliefs and focus on the actually enjoyable parts of the book (mainly the characters) to accept all these plot points.
We do have some nice world building and it is something completely different to what SJM has done before and it's a nice mix of sci-fi and fantasy plots. We get a bit of a crossover with another series of hers and loads of hints towards ACOTAR and TOG and it was so fun reading those!
I'm thrilled to see how those more fantasy-ish plotlines will develop, so even if I didn't really like the rebellion plot, there were still other nice storylines.
THE REP:
I can't even be bothered with the SJM antis anymore because I know they'll complain no matter what she puts into her books or not. There's so much LGBT+ rep in this and also a lot of those couples have one or two characters that are POC. It isn't made into a big deal, there aren't any cringe coming out scenes, it's honestly so refreshing and nice to see and we finally get our sapphic witches rep. So please, just give her a chance, she's really come a long way since TOG and there's no reason to still keep hating on her when we're not criticising other authors of the era like Kiera Cass.
CONCL:
I rarely read long-ass fantasy novels anymore but I'm so glad I continued reading this series! It was way easier to get into it than it was with the first book and I really enjoyed the novel.
Of course, the last chapter was amazing (post-credit scene vibes) and I hope it won't take me another three years to get to the next book.
Okay, so this book was long and so full of plot and I'm sure I've already forgotten all of it but let's try this:
THE CHARACTERS:
I absolutely loved the cast in this sequel and while the first book was very much a "Bryce and Hunt" novel, this time the big amount of characters we got introduced to in the first book all got their moments to shine and either already had good storylines or we got hints to exciting ones in the future (Ithan, I'm looking at you).
In my opinion, this is the first time SJM has managed to write true morally grey characters (and not just misunderstood bad boys), mainly with Corman and Tharion, who make wild choices, whose purpose isn't solely to make this a better world. Same goes for so many of the female characters, my favourites being Lidia and Celestina. They have their own difficult past and present situations to work with and can't just accept anything that Bryce plans for them.
Bryce really isn't a perfect angel either — she makes really dumb choices in this book but they're also very human choices. She's just getting into this whole Chosen One thing and she really struggles with it and its consequences at times. But as I said, her choices are all understandable (to some degree), you can tell that she only means the best but sometimes we all fuck up and that's portrayed really well here.
Shoutout to Hunt here, who's always portrayed as this big alphahole, but man actually thinks from time to time and questions what Bryce and him are doing. Men in this fantasy thinking over their relationship? In this economy? More likely than you think.
Going against all expectations (mainly my own), I've chosen to break my streak of my favourite character in SJM books always being the bisexual blonde cousin. I really tried to love Cormac as much as I love Mor and Aedion but 1.) I don't love him that much (or at all) and 2.) Ruhn. That's all. But I have hopes of at least keeping the bisexual streak going, we've still got books left, after all.
THE PLOT:
Unpopular opinion but making the human rebellion with very understandable goals and wishes out to be the bad guys alongside the Asteri (who are just straight up villains) is a really dumb idea.
I already didn't understand why we were against this rebellion in the first book because, yes, a lot of our cast is non-human but Bryce at least is half-human and has human parents, and, as a fellow human, I find it hard to get invested in a plot that makes the oppressed humans out to be the bad ones.
Especially Pippa is such a cheap, two-dimensional character and I really had to suspend my beliefs and focus on the actually enjoyable parts of the book (mainly the characters) to accept all these plot points.
We do have some nice world building and it is something completely different to what SJM has done before and it's a nice mix of sci-fi and fantasy plots. We get a bit of a crossover with another series of hers and loads of hints towards ACOTAR and TOG and it was so fun reading those!
I'm thrilled to see how those more fantasy-ish plotlines will develop, so even if I didn't really like the rebellion plot, there were still other nice storylines.
THE REP:
I can't even be bothered with the SJM antis anymore because I know they'll complain no matter what she puts into her books or not. There's so much LGBT+ rep in this and also a lot of those couples have one or two characters that are POC. It isn't made into a big deal, there aren't any cringe coming out scenes, it's honestly so refreshing and nice to see and we finally get our sapphic witches rep. So please, just give her a chance, she's really come a long way since TOG and there's no reason to still keep hating on her when we're not criticising other authors of the era like Kiera Cass.
CONCL:
I rarely read long-ass fantasy novels anymore but I'm so glad I continued reading this series! It was way easier to get into it than it was with the first book and I really enjoyed the novel.
Of course, the last chapter was amazing (post-credit scene vibes) and I hope it won't take me another three years to get to the next book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Sexual content, Slavery, Child abuse, Physical abuse, and Violence
Moderate: Grief and War
Minor: Xenophobia and Torture
meredith_williams_'s review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
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? Yes
4.5
The second installment of Crescent City was just as fun as the first! I loved that the author continued the mystery plot line from the first book. The cast of characters and the world building are excellent and the ending was such an exciting plot twist that has me especially excited for the next book!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Sexual content, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Death, and Kidnapping
Moderate: Blood, Child abuse, Grief, and Torture
Minor: Rape