A review by emilytrnr
House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful 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? It's complicated

4.0

tl;dr it gets much better after the cop/murder investigation is over, and in true SJM fashion, she twisted me around like a corkscrew in the last 200ish pages. Still not convinced I like the modern-tech fantasy world.

I wasn’t sure about this at first. I started last October and couldn’t get past the first few pages. In the wake of TOG it just felt empty. I grew to really like the characters, and was able to be more surprised by plot points in this book than her other series because there are fewer spoilers floating around. I think the romantic tension was executed near-perfectly. One thing I thought I was missing from this book compared to others
were meaningful friendships, but I was proven wrong in the end. I’m obsessed that Bryce and Hunt got vengeance. I assumed she’d have power after all, but not like that.
I didn’t love that the first 60% or so was a magical murder mystery. Thrillers just don’t do it for me as much. But the last 40% really picked up steam for me and got me to fall for the characters, world, and story more. That said, I could go without the cell phones, emails, laptops, “magi screens,” etc. - although I do understand in the end how they impacted the story.

SJM does it again!
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