A review by kamrynkoble
House of Flame and Shadow by Sarah J. Maas

adventurous mysterious tense 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

3.5

My overall emotion is just disappointment and dissatisfaction.

This was hardly a crossover. It was more like a Nesta and Azrael cameo. I love Nesta more than anything, and I did love the scenes with her, but I just . . . expected more. I’m still really disappointed that Bryce didn’t even meet Feyre, and they only mentioned her twice as Rhys’s mate. I think SJM’s interviews and marketing strategies drastically oversold this “crossover.” 

It just really didn’t feel like “enough” even though she had 850(!) pages to play with. Bryce and Hunt were so disappointing. Their “reunion” is CRIMINALLY awful. They just had no emotional charge or spark in this book. I felt super disconnected from Bryce constantly, and the bouncing around POVs did not help that. Her anti-fae BS also continually grew more and more annoying each time she met more fae who WEREN’T that way. It seemed extra aggressive in this compared to books 1 and 2, which I JUST read. 

I HATED the info dumping with Thea. I just didn’t care, at all, and it was presented in such an unappealing way. If I tried to read it, I skimmed. If I tried to listen to it, I’d zone out. And yes, I read all three formats (print, kindle, and audio) to slog through this one.

I never laughed out loud, and I was never even close to crying or even felt emotional at all. SJM is usually so good at nailing that ending which makes up for some greater issues, but the Asteri defeat was so anticlimactic. How many times can she kill and resurrect main characters? I wasn’t worried about Bryce at all. This was literally me: 🙄

My biggest complaint with all the CC books is how many characters are seemingly pointless. It’s like SJM introduces them for a greater purpose, but then just forgets about them or kills them off and it all feels like a waste. Danika is dangerously close to this, as she was effectively dead for 95% of this trilogy. Sigrid, Sophie and her brother, Sathia… Apparently if you get an S-name, you’re useless. And the dragon girl? There were just so many guns that were created, but never fired. She says this is the end of Bryce and Hunt, so I’m very curious to see where this goes next. This worldbuilding is infamously hard to get into, and this just felt like such a letdown. 

I read that SJM completely scrapped her first draft and rewrote this book in six weeks. If this is true, it makes a lot of sense. It’s just missing so much heart and follow through. I’d be very curious to hear why this happened and read the first draft. 

I originally gave this a 4 but writing this review, I’m going to have to take it down. What did I love?

Ruhn. Lidia. Oh my word. They were the shining stars (lol) of this book. I LOVED both of them and their relationship. Night and Day was one of my favorite (if not my most favorite) subplots of CC2, so it’s no surprise that I adored them. I’m still not sold on Ruhn shooting her (which, again, turned out to be COMPLETELY POINTLESS) but oh well. 

I wish we got a little more Hypaxia. Her relationship with Celestina also fizzled out in such a stupid way. It feels like that was just thrown in for shock value. Like so much else, SJM just threw us a bone with one sentence explaining what happened. 

Ugh. I’m just a little sad. I expected a lot more from this. I’ll be interested to see if my opinion changes as I stew. 
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