Review by doomfaery - House of Flame and Shadow

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doomfaery 's review for:

House of Flame and Shadow by Sarah J. Maas

3.5

adventurous tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Fortunately, CC #3 is way more action packed than CC #2. There are some parts that drag on a little but overall the story is pretty fast paced.

This book would make an excellent ending to the CC universe. The biggest of the bad guys have been taken care of, the main plot point is finished, there really isn't much else to go on. But I know SJM can't help but beat a dead horse and suck the joy and integrity out of any series she does, so I fully expect more to come in the series, likely from the POV of a much less interesting couple, with lukewarm romance and a watered down plot. Ya know, like the Cassian/Nesta book.

I've said it before: SJM is a clumsy writer, unworthy of the downright worship people throw at her. She can't help but stray from her characterisation, until the entire cast all speak and act the same. I wish she'd give it a rest with the Stephanie Meyer-est mate thing, and instead focus on developing her cast more and fleshing out plot ideas.

The backbone of CC is good, that's the thing. The world building is excellent. The plot points aren't even terrible. But instead of focusing on how to develop all that and truly make it shine, she focuses instead on unrealistic sex scenes (magic aside, no woman comes that fast from a penis alone, sorry), and which main character to kill off and then revive at the last minute.

Seriously, if you know her tricks, then very little in these novels will surprise you, because she does the same shit over and over and over. Eventually you stop worrying about the fates of the main cast, because you know she's going to heal them and imbue them with insanely OP magical powers. Lady needs to take a writing class and really practice.

She's not a bad writer, just a clumsy and downright lazy one. Someone needs to tell her that making it up as you go along only works in action movies and shouldn't be applied to writing novels.

Content Warnings