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A review by perkyanda
House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas
emotional
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Not great but definitely surprisingly enjoyable. I don’t read as lot of urban fantasy or things focusing on magic/tech mixed worlds, so this was definitely outside of my norm. This is my favorite of the maas books I’ve read so far, which isn’t hard since i Disney like ACOTAR or TOG. The start of this was slow and tedious and annoying, but once we got to the mystery it was fun. The tension was better than the over the top romances in the other books. I really liked that the platonic almost romance friendship between Bryce and Danika was such a driving feature, because those stupid enmeshed college friendships that practically replace dating have an outsized role in development sometimes (was literally reminiscing with a college friend over text the other night about my enmeshed friendship within our small group)
The big identity reveal was incredibly predictable, as was the hypaxia reveal. I didn’t figure out the horn reveal which is damn shocking to me, so mad props.
I liked the acknowledgment in this book that gay people exist and that like half the major supporting characters were gay. Helps make up for the major cis heteronormativity of the other two series.
Fave character was probably Ruhn. Though i refuse to believe that even a 75 year old who looks 23 would still act like a 23 year old. The maturity and development stall out and the multi hundred year relationship age gaps still really irritate me.
The big identity reveal was incredibly predictable, as was the hypaxia reveal. I didn’t figure out the horn reveal which is damn shocking to me, so mad props.
I liked the acknowledgment in this book that gay people exist and that like half the major supporting characters were gay. Helps make up for the major cis heteronormativity of the other two series.
Fave character was probably Ruhn. Though i refuse to believe that even a 75 year old who looks 23 would still act like a 23 year old. The maturity and development stall out and the multi hundred year relationship age gaps still really irritate me.