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A review by briochebun
House of Flame and Shadow by Sarah J. Maas
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
୨୧ House of Flame and Shadow ୨୧
╰┈➤ [4 out of 5 ☆’s.]
❝𝐈 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝—𝐨𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫.❞
ʚɞ ⁺˖ ⸝⸝
HOFAS was a book that I had been anticipating for quite some time. I added it to my TBR back in 2020 — around the time that HOEAB was released — so you could say that this book has been a long time coming for me! With that being said, I do think that it’s unfair to rate this book based off of whether or not one’s theories came true, so I did not rate with that in mind. However, I will be discussing some theory-adjacent things in my review (these are things that I think were set up in previous novels, but were not touched upon in HOFAS).
I believe that HOFAS was a semi-satisfying conclusion to SJM’s Crescent City series! The big villains were defeated and some of the main cast have found their forever partners, but it is apparent that there are more stories left to tell in this world. There were a lot of things that were left open — much to my dismay, but I understand the reasoning behind doing so — and I do wish that there was an insert of some sort included at the end of the book that indicated that there were more books to come.
ʚɞ ⁺˖ ⸝⸝
When I finished HOSAB I was so excited to see the IC interact with Bryce, but the chapters that we spent in Prythian in HOFAS ended up being my least favorite chapters to read.
I was not a fan of the way that Bryce was conducting herself in the beginning of this book. I understand that she was struggling emotionally — being forced to leave your loved ones and your world behind has to be terrifying and I acknowledge and empathize with that — but her actions and decisions were frustrating for me to read.
I understand that Bryce needed to find out how to defeat the Asteri in order to free her loved ones from their clutches, but freeing Vesperus in order to get those answers? Why would Vesperus offer up information about how to end her fellow Asteri?
I also wasn’t a fan of the way that Bryce treated Hunt in this book. I understand her need to have her partner on the same page as her (it’s important to have that support during stressful times) but there were moments where Bryce would act as though the time that she spent in Prythian was comparable to Hunt + Ruhn + Baxian’s time in the dungeons — and while I don’t want to minimize what she went through — that just wasn’t the case in my opinion. I understand that she was never sure of the ACOTAR characters’ intentions / what they would do to her, but a good chunk of the things that happened to her in Prythian were the result of her own actions.
ʚɞ ⁺˖ ⸝⸝
Sarah mentioned in an interview that she ended up rewriting HOFAS & I do think that one of the things that she changed when rewriting this book was the way that the ACOTAR characters interacted with Bryce.
In an old interview for HOSAB Sarah mentioned that Nyx would “definitely feature” in HOFAS and that we would see the IC being “very protective” over him. However, with the way that things ended up going in the published version of HOFAS, I cannot see Bryce and Nyx even being in the same vicinity.
I wholeheartedly respect Sarah’s choices as an author (this is her story and she should be able to tell it the way that she wants to) but there is a part of me that is curious about what the first version of the book was like and whether or not the IC and Bryce were more friendly with one another in those initial HOFAS drafts.
ʚɞ ⁺˖ ⸝⸝
I know that this might be an unpopular opinion, but Ithan and Tharion’s chapters were my absolute favorites to read in this book!
Ithan has been one of my favorite characters since HOEAB, so seeing his progression throughout the series has been incredible to witness. I am so proud of the person that he’s become and I can’t wait to (hopefully) see more of his story in the future!
Tharion’s chapters were serving ✨internal angst✨ and I ate them up! I admittedly could have gone without the arranged marriage to Sathia trope though (considering his past with that sort of thing 😅).
ʚɞ ⁺˖ ⸝⸝
I admit that I was expecting the Gods / Goddesses to play more of a role in HOFAS — since they seemed to be built up a bit in HOSAB — so I was disappointed when we didn’t get an explanation as to why Hunt seems to have an uncanny resemblance to Thurr? Perhaps this is something that will be explored more in a potential Twilight of the Gods series (fingers crossed)?
Sigrid’s death was also something that shocked me. I expected her to have a much larger role in this book, so I was at a loss for words when she died. I was also surprised that Sofie wasn’t the one that was reanimated (since I thought that was the direction that Sarah was setting up in HOSAB).
I do think that I might have found HOFAS to be a more satisfying conclusion to Hunt + Bryce’s main storyline if it would have been split into two books instead of one.
There was soo much going on that it felt as though the Asteri almost took a backseat and weren’t really fighting back at all, even though they’re the main villains of the series, so their ending wasn’t that satisfying for me to read about.
I also wish that some of the more heinous characters like Pollux suffered some more before they died. His death was too clean / fast for my taste (considering everything that he put the other characters through throughout the course of the series).
I was also not a fan of the Celestina redemption arc. The attack on the Meadows was the last straw for her? Not any of the other horrendous acts that the Asteri committed throughout this series? Not them torturing Hunt (someone that she supposedly cared so much for since she was Shahar’s friend)? I’m not a fan. I adore Hypaxia & I do think that she deserves someone much better than Celestina.
I am also disappointed that the Ophion rebels were all supposedly wiped off of the map by the Asteri. I thought that their characters were complex. They were fighting for the right cause, but some of them (the lightfall unit) implemented horrible methods to ensure that their goals were met. Not being able to dive deeper into their stories / see more of the rebels that weren’t a part of lightfall was a bit disheartening.
ʚɞ ⁺˖ ⸝⸝
Regarding aspects of HOFAS that I did enjoy (I did give this book a four star rating after all) I quite liked the overall writing style of the book. It felt a bit reminiscent to TOG in some ways (which I loved)! Ithan + Tharion + Hypaxia were also bright spots in this book for me! I adore those three. <3
ʚɞ ⁺˖ ⸝⸝
Here are some questions that I still have upon finishing HOFAS that I hope are answered in future CC novels:
• What is Fury? What house is she a part of? Who did she primarily work for?
• What happened to the 1,000 Mystics underneath the Asteri’s palace? Are all of them dead since the Eternal Palace sort of exploded?
• Is there no larger significance of Cthona’s Embrace?
• Will Syrinx’s powers be explored more in the future?
• Why is the Viper Queen so untouchable? How did she come into power?
• What will become of Sigrid?
• Who were the heads of the Ophion operation? Were they just not significant enough to mention / play a part in this story?
• What happened to the other two Mystics?
I am excited to see if we will get answers to any of those questions in the future! :)
╰┈➤ [4 out of 5 ☆’s.]
❝𝐈 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝—𝐨𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫.❞
ʚɞ ⁺˖ ⸝⸝
HOFAS was a book that I had been anticipating for quite some time. I added it to my TBR back in 2020 — around the time that HOEAB was released — so you could say that this book has been a long time coming for me! With that being said, I do think that it’s unfair to rate this book based off of whether or not one’s theories came true, so I did not rate with that in mind. However, I will be discussing some theory-adjacent things in my review (these are things that I think were set up in previous novels, but were not touched upon in HOFAS).
I believe that HOFAS was a semi-satisfying conclusion to SJM’s Crescent City series! The big villains were defeated and some of the main cast have found their forever partners, but it is apparent that there are more stories left to tell in this world. There were a lot of things that were left open — much to my dismay, but I understand the reasoning behind doing so — and I do wish that there was an insert of some sort included at the end of the book that indicated that there were more books to come.
ʚɞ ⁺˖ ⸝⸝
When I finished HOSAB I was so excited to see the IC interact with Bryce, but the chapters that we spent in Prythian in HOFAS ended up being my least favorite chapters to read.
I was not a fan of the way that Bryce was conducting herself in the beginning of this book. I understand that she was struggling emotionally — being forced to leave your loved ones and your world behind has to be terrifying and I acknowledge and empathize with that — but her actions and decisions were frustrating for me to read.
I understand that Bryce needed to find out how to defeat the Asteri in order to free her loved ones from their clutches, but freeing Vesperus in order to get those answers? Why would Vesperus offer up information about how to end her fellow Asteri?
I also wasn’t a fan of the way that Bryce treated Hunt in this book. I understand her need to have her partner on the same page as her (it’s important to have that support during stressful times) but there were moments where Bryce would act as though the time that she spent in Prythian was comparable to Hunt + Ruhn + Baxian’s time in the dungeons — and while I don’t want to minimize what she went through — that just wasn’t the case in my opinion. I understand that she was never sure of the ACOTAR characters’ intentions / what they would do to her, but a good chunk of the things that happened to her in Prythian were the result of her own actions.
ʚɞ ⁺˖ ⸝⸝
Sarah mentioned in an interview that she ended up rewriting HOFAS & I do think that one of the things that she changed when rewriting this book was the way that the ACOTAR characters interacted with Bryce.
In an old interview for HOSAB Sarah mentioned that Nyx would “definitely feature” in HOFAS and that we would see the IC being “very protective” over him. However, with the way that things ended up going in the published version of HOFAS, I cannot see Bryce and Nyx even being in the same vicinity.
I wholeheartedly respect Sarah’s choices as an author (this is her story and she should be able to tell it the way that she wants to) but there is a part of me that is curious about what the first version of the book was like and whether or not the IC and Bryce were more friendly with one another in those initial HOFAS drafts.
ʚɞ ⁺˖ ⸝⸝
I know that this might be an unpopular opinion, but Ithan and Tharion’s chapters were my absolute favorites to read in this book!
Ithan has been one of my favorite characters since HOEAB, so seeing his progression throughout the series has been incredible to witness. I am so proud of the person that he’s become and I can’t wait to (hopefully) see more of his story in the future!
Tharion’s chapters were serving ✨internal angst✨ and I ate them up! I admittedly could have gone without the arranged marriage to Sathia trope though (considering his past with that sort of thing 😅).
ʚɞ ⁺˖ ⸝⸝
I admit that I was expecting the Gods / Goddesses to play more of a role in HOFAS — since they seemed to be built up a bit in HOSAB — so I was disappointed when we didn’t get an explanation as to why Hunt seems to have an uncanny resemblance to Thurr? Perhaps this is something that will be explored more in a potential Twilight of the Gods series (fingers crossed)?
Sigrid’s death was also something that shocked me. I expected her to have a much larger role in this book, so I was at a loss for words when she died. I was also surprised that Sofie wasn’t the one that was reanimated (since I thought that was the direction that Sarah was setting up in HOSAB).
I do think that I might have found HOFAS to be a more satisfying conclusion to Hunt + Bryce’s main storyline if it would have been split into two books instead of one.
There was soo much going on that it felt as though the Asteri almost took a backseat and weren’t really fighting back at all, even though they’re the main villains of the series, so their ending wasn’t that satisfying for me to read about.
I also wish that some of the more heinous characters like Pollux suffered some more before they died. His death was too clean / fast for my taste (considering everything that he put the other characters through throughout the course of the series).
I was also not a fan of the Celestina redemption arc. The attack on the Meadows was the last straw for her? Not any of the other horrendous acts that the Asteri committed throughout this series? Not them torturing Hunt (someone that she supposedly cared so much for since she was Shahar’s friend)? I’m not a fan. I adore Hypaxia & I do think that she deserves someone much better than Celestina.
I am also disappointed that the Ophion rebels were all supposedly wiped off of the map by the Asteri. I thought that their characters were complex. They were fighting for the right cause, but some of them (the lightfall unit) implemented horrible methods to ensure that their goals were met. Not being able to dive deeper into their stories / see more of the rebels that weren’t a part of lightfall was a bit disheartening.
ʚɞ ⁺˖ ⸝⸝
Regarding aspects of HOFAS that I did enjoy (I did give this book a four star rating after all) I quite liked the overall writing style of the book. It felt a bit reminiscent to TOG in some ways (which I loved)! Ithan + Tharion + Hypaxia were also bright spots in this book for me! I adore those three. <3
ʚɞ ⁺˖ ⸝⸝
Here are some questions that I still have upon finishing HOFAS that I hope are answered in future CC novels:
• What is Fury? What house is she a part of? Who did she primarily work for?
• What happened to the 1,000 Mystics underneath the Asteri’s palace? Are all of them dead since the Eternal Palace sort of exploded?
• Is there no larger significance of Cthona’s Embrace?
• Will Syrinx’s powers be explored more in the future?
• Why is the Viper Queen so untouchable? How did she come into power?
• What will become of Sigrid?
• Who were the heads of the Ophion operation? Were they just not significant enough to mention / play a part in this story?
• What happened to the other two Mystics?
I am excited to see if we will get answers to any of those questions in the future! :)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Torture, War, Death, and Violence
Moderate: Slavery, Sexual content, and Sexual harassment