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A review by betweentheshelves
House of Flame and Shadow by Sarah J. Maas
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Honestly, I gave this an extra star purely because they do research (or should I say "research," I don't feel like a lot of research actually happens) in a library with a card catalog. That made my little librarian heart happy. But Sarah J. Maas is at the point where I don't think she gets a lot of editing in her books, and it honestly shows. Not editing in the sense of the grammar, etc. Editing in the sense that there were a lot of unnecessary plot lines and characters in this book that didn't need to be there. Thus, this book could have been a lot shorter.
Anyway, the crossover between series was hyped up for this book, and less happened with that than I expected. It was a way to do a lot of world-building info dumping, and parts of the world still didn't make sense to me. If you look at the nitty-gritty, there's a lot about Bryce's world that doesn't add up, and when you add ACOTAR in the mix? I think this whole thing just needed to be overall fleshed out more.
Maas does excel in creating interesting characters, even if there were A LOT of them in this book. They don't all need their own points of view! There was so much point of view switching that it was hard to follow, especially in the audiobook. I think this was to create/build tension, but it didn't work that way for me most of the time.
Also, I can't get over the comment about underwear being too small for Hunt. Pretty sure it doesn't work like that?? "They had no underwear big enough for me on the ship." I literally cannot. I feel like those kinds of details are things that editors would take out.
There isn't as much spice in this book as the last one (which was fine with me). Mostly because Bryce is running around with a star shining out of her chest (which I know is like a serious thing, but it's funny image for me every single time I think about it).
There is going to be another book in this series, but I guess not for a while because she is working on the next ACOTAR book. Whether or not that will include characters from this book remains to be seen. Whether or not I will continue reading these also remains to be seen.
SJM's prose is accessible, and her fantasy style works for those that are intimidated by more complex, denser fantasy worlds. She may not be the queen of overall fantasy, but she's definitely queen of fantasy romance. And I don't think she's going to get de-throned any time soon.
Anyway, the crossover between series was hyped up for this book, and less happened with that than I expected. It was a way to do a lot of world-building info dumping, and parts of the world still didn't make sense to me. If you look at the nitty-gritty, there's a lot about Bryce's world that doesn't add up, and when you add ACOTAR in the mix? I think this whole thing just needed to be overall fleshed out more.
Maas does excel in creating interesting characters, even if there were A LOT of them in this book. They don't all need their own points of view! There was so much point of view switching that it was hard to follow, especially in the audiobook. I think this was to create/build tension, but it didn't work that way for me most of the time.
Also, I can't get over the comment about underwear being too small for Hunt. Pretty sure it doesn't work like that?? "They had no underwear big enough for me on the ship." I literally cannot. I feel like those kinds of details are things that editors would take out.
There isn't as much spice in this book as the last one (which was fine with me). Mostly because Bryce is running around with a star shining out of her chest (which I know is like a serious thing, but it's funny image for me every single time I think about it).
There is going to be another book in this series, but I guess not for a while because she is working on the next ACOTAR book. Whether or not that will include characters from this book remains to be seen. Whether or not I will continue reading these also remains to be seen.
SJM's prose is accessible, and her fantasy style works for those that are intimidated by more complex, denser fantasy worlds. She may not be the queen of overall fantasy, but she's definitely queen of fantasy romance. And I don't think she's going to get de-throned any time soon.
Content Warnings
Graphic: War, Torture, and Violence
Moderate: Misogyny, Slavery, and Sexual content
Minor: Sexual assault