A review by nikkihill22
House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas

emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

like most books by this author, it made for an entertaining read. I don't think SJM includes very much true depth to her stories, her world building leaves too much to be desired for that. It's like she mixes and mashes various mythologies without thinking about how they could or should intersect, and she has the same issue when it comes to technology being included in a magical world. There's a lot of potential for interesting world building but none that she follows through on.
Where she does shine though, is writing characters and their interpersonal relationships. I won't say that was perfect in these books either, although i do think it was a lot  better than the ACOTAR series. I didn't expect to be as emotionally involved as i was throughout the climax of the story. Which is maybe a knock against the overall quality of the book that i didn't even realize i cared until it was too late. 
The pacing of the book was a little slow for me, it's mainly following one macguffin to another and another and another in the hopes of finding a criminal. Although i do think SJM does a decent job of explaining all that when we finally learn what's really been going on, i think most of it she just wanted the story to go to certain settings or explore certain relationships and found a convenient explanation for why the criminal really led them to go those places after the fact.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, and Death

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Sexual content

Minor: Racism and Racial slurs

SJM spent way too long making very sure that her readers know that Danika and Bryce were not in love with each other, while constantly making them the centers of each others' universes. She includes a little more/better representation in this book than she does in ACOTAR via Fury and Juniper being mates, and doesn't seem to include any outright homophobia culturally, but her own does still show. Even that relationship is barely touched upon, and she's just trying too hard to make sure her main characters are still guaranteed to be cis-het, and frankly it's just a little tiring. let Bryce and Danika be bi and in love, coward. She also does a little better about including people of various races/skin tone, but not enough that i could call this a racially diverse book. again, she takes a lot of mythologies and then doesn't seem to do much with them in creating a diverse-feeling world, which is disappointing to me.