A review by steca2
House of Flame and Shadow by Sarah J. Maas

adventurous dark fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

This book was a little disappointing to be honest. If I didn’t love the characters so much, I’d probably rate it 3.5… My biggest complaints are some of the lore errors and the timelines. There were so many sudden POV shifts at first, it felt a little chaotic and was hard to hold my attention.  It felt like SJM didn’t remember her previous books and forgot things and instead of looking it up, she just ignored it.
First, the Avallen Murder Twins’ names are different in HOSAB and HOFAS. The whole healing magic lore was confusing too — like how did Baxian, Ruhn, and Hunt survive the torture that was described while Sabine died from similar injuries? And in CC1, the Fallen are all enslaved but now they’re all dead? And in HOSAB Celestina knew Hunt killed Sandriel but in HOFAS it was new news? And even in the same book the facts changed! At the end, Baxion says there are 2 dozen Pegasus and then in Bryce&Hunt’s bonus chapter, there are only 6.  And they have 9 nights mentioned specifically in the story but then Bryce says it’s been a week? I’m convinced SJM-universe has a different weeks/months designation than normal.
These should have been caught when proofreading… There was also a number of times that could have been an emotional gut punch that, instead of just letting the reader sit in it, SJM just kept everything moving along. Things that should have been heartbreaking were just glossed over, with lots of “Tells” not “Show.” It made me not super invested in the plot after a while. I feel like if she had an extra 6m to edit, it could have been a 5⭐️, perfect read but instead it’s a 4⭐️ (honestly maybe 3.5). Also, it’s not great when the best character development chapters are the bonus chapters. The timeline was also so wonky. They make references to sleeping, and next days, etc but at one point Bryce says it’s only been a week… but that’s inaccurate based on the number of sleeps and days they’ve had. I feel like that was definitely an editing error and should have said a month. 
Also this is a minor complaint but there was very little spice and the spice that was written wasn’t super spicy… it was like SJM heard all the faerieporn jokes and was like, well I’ll show them! 

Thinking more about this, I feel like there are a lot of plot holes and just things where SJM forgot her own lore? Like
why when Bryce killed  the asteri on Midgard, Hunt said they bled red blood but when Bryce and Nesta killed the asteri on prythian, it bled black blood? And for a tech savvy world like Midgard, how did no one see a parasite in the water/why was it so easy for Hypaxia to cure it? Why not use wyrdspells like they did in TOG?


I feel like this really should have been two books -- have it end
when everyone is reunited on the Depth Charger or even on Avallen (and maybe have Bryce immediately bring her mom and Randall to Prythian so they spent more than 2 days there...) and end it on the cliff hanger of the asteri bombing the Meadows.
I also really hated how one dimensional the Autumn King became when
he hunted Bryce and was about to kill her. Like where did all the morally grey hints go? I wish he went along to Avallen to find Bryce to help her and when the Avallen king went to kill her, he stepped in and fought him, dying in the process.