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A review by sarahmsklar8
House of Flame and Shadow by Sarah J. Maas
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
4.0
Age of reviewer at time of reading: 36
I am going to have to come back and update a review once I have time to process everything, but as of right now it's rounded up to 4 stars.
First and foremost, this book was written by Sarah J. Maas. This was not a Wattpad fan-fic that contained all of booktok's "iron clad" theories. This book was part of the CRESCENT CITY series; not ACOTAR, nor TOG. The writing style is consistent with the CC series.
I think once the dust settles and people re-read HOFAS they are going to fall in love with it, but right now they are spiraling from their own standards. Maybe the marketing of this installment was not on point, maybe consumers felt mislead, but at the end of the day this was written exactly how the author intended it to be.
For the faithful SJM fans, we know she has repeatedly said she is working at least 2-3 books ahead. With that, I think House of Flame and Shadow will be to Crescent City what Tower of Dawn is to Throne of Glass.
We get a lot of information, in a tell don't show format which a lot of readers don't like. In this case I think it is authentic to the story. We reached the breaking point in a 15,000 year old reign/war. It makes sense that people will just TELL Bryce the histories rather than her just stumble upon the answer.
We get a glimpse of a couple of characters from another series, but they are guest spots here, not the leads. While I expected a bigger impact, I'm quite happy with how it was executed. I love Crescent City for what it is, who the characters are, and I love the characters from the other series right where they belong too- in their own world.
Now for the hate readers are giving the characters... (Spoilers here)
1. "Bryce is mean" - Bryce absorb a ridiculous amount of power in a very short period of time. She is half fae-half human. The amount of power she is containing might be overwhelming her. Was she more short with Hunt than we have seen in the past? Yeah. But don't we all have moments where we snap at our partners and take things out on them when we are under a ton of stress? This was so authentically human.
2. "Bryce treated Hunt like he was just there to serve her" - well guys... Did.... Did you read the book? He was literally created by Hel for exactly that. Maybe, like mentioned above, with all the power Bryce has absorbed it is consuming her to act with her brain, seeing "tasks", over her heart, seeing "people". We get this with her dynamic with Hunt, snapping at Lidia about her sons, and with leaving Cooper and only sending Ember and Randall as collateral.
3. "Ithan and Tharion were annoying and a waste of space in the book" - Maybe I'm a sucker for Ithan, but I absolutely loved the dopey comedic relief that Ithan and Tharion brought. These guys messed up everything they touched. For the life of them (and everyone else) they just couldn't seem to get anything right. And you know what that makes them? Relatable. The events of this book took about 2 weeks. That's it. Of course they aren't going to have this revolutionary character growth. They haven't had the time for it. But they have an enormous amount of heart. No matter what move they made, they both always had other people in mind. Plus, I think their POVs are laying the groundwork for the next CC book, which should be House of Many Waters.
Now for some of the things I didn't love...
1. The pacing.
I am going to have to come back and update a review once I have time to process everything, but as of right now it's rounded up to 4 stars.
First and foremost, this book was written by Sarah J. Maas. This was not a Wattpad fan-fic that contained all of booktok's "iron clad" theories. This book was part of the CRESCENT CITY series; not ACOTAR, nor TOG. The writing style is consistent with the CC series.
I think once the dust settles and people re-read HOFAS they are going to fall in love with it, but right now they are spiraling from their own standards. Maybe the marketing of this installment was not on point, maybe consumers felt mislead, but at the end of the day this was written exactly how the author intended it to be.
For the faithful SJM fans, we know she has repeatedly said she is working at least 2-3 books ahead. With that, I think House of Flame and Shadow will be to Crescent City what Tower of Dawn is to Throne of Glass.
We get a lot of information, in a tell don't show format which a lot of readers don't like. In this case I think it is authentic to the story. We reached the breaking point in a 15,000 year old reign/war. It makes sense that people will just TELL Bryce the histories rather than her just stumble upon the answer.
We get a glimpse of a couple of characters from another series, but they are guest spots here, not the leads. While I expected a bigger impact, I'm quite happy with how it was executed. I love Crescent City for what it is, who the characters are, and I love the characters from the other series right where they belong too- in their own world.
Now for the hate readers are giving the characters... (Spoilers here)
1. "Bryce is mean" - Bryce absorb a ridiculous amount of power in a very short period of time. She is half fae-half human. The amount of power she is containing might be overwhelming her. Was she more short with Hunt than we have seen in the past? Yeah. But don't we all have moments where we snap at our partners and take things out on them when we are under a ton of stress? This was so authentically human.
2. "Bryce treated Hunt like he was just there to serve her" - well guys... Did.... Did you read the book? He was literally created by Hel for exactly that. Maybe, like mentioned above, with all the power Bryce has absorbed it is consuming her to act with her brain, seeing "tasks", over her heart, seeing "people". We get this with her dynamic with Hunt, snapping at Lidia about her sons, and with leaving Cooper and only sending Ember and Randall as collateral.
3. "Ithan and Tharion were annoying and a waste of space in the book" - Maybe I'm a sucker for Ithan, but I absolutely loved the dopey comedic relief that Ithan and Tharion brought. These guys messed up everything they touched. For the life of them (and everyone else) they just couldn't seem to get anything right. And you know what that makes them? Relatable. The events of this book took about 2 weeks. That's it. Of course they aren't going to have this revolutionary character growth. They haven't had the time for it. But they have an enormous amount of heart. No matter what move they made, they both always had other people in mind. Plus, I think their POVs are laying the groundwork for the next CC book, which should be House of Many Waters.
Now for some of the things I didn't love...
1. The pacing.
It was all over the place. The beginning scene with Bryce traveling the caves was just too long. It could have been condense and held the same impact.
2. The fate of the "Big Bad"'s
The fate of ome of the Big Bad looming villains just didn't have a huge impact. It was so quick and left a really "meh" impression.
3. The house jumping
Why is this so easy to do? The fact that so many characters in this group have defected or swapped houses really diluted any significance of it. It made everything feel like an easy nice little wrap up bow. Ms. Maas don't play that way, so it feels off. (Although I do love how it adds to Tharion's quirks).
4. The overall feeling of Meh.
Ok, SJM can write a battle/high action scene like no one else, but HOFAS felt like we were just winnowing from one action battle to the next. It was a lot of go go go and not a lot of heart. We didn't get to feel anything.
5. What happened to Flynn's sister?
I don't believe she just went off on her own accord. That was just way too glossed over.
There is, of course, so much more to talk about but entirely not enough space to do so here. Ultimately, this book was ok on first read. I'm hoping once the frenzy wears down that the re-read will bring to light the beauty in SJM's writing.