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A review by thevietvegan
House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas
adventurous
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
The first 60% of this book is rough. Info dumps galore, romance trope with a dose of traumatized heroine on her journey to self-actualization.
The plot itself isn't awful, I thought the blend of tech and fantasy was pretty cool.
I did, however, have a huge problem with the writing itself. I have no problem with swear words and explicit subjects, I'm used to that and SJM isn't a stranger to that. This book had swear words and extremely explicitly sexual language during several parts of this book for... no reason? Other than to signal just how sexy or bangable a character is. It was kind of exhausting, like, yes, I understand, you're all hot people who want to bang. Let's move on please.
There were several points during interactions between characters that used such random sexual language to simply state that someone's voice was low and sexy. Swear words peppered into exposition that completely halted the text to put emphasis on something totally not important. It was jarring and distracting. It wasn't so bad in the last 40% of the book but the first 60%. Oof. I haven't been this frustrated with a writing style in a while.
I think Bryce as an abrasive, extremely independent unexpected heroine was cool. Pretty familiar to Aelin and Feyre, but it's a trope I seem to like so ya ok. Same with Hunt. Hunt is a familiar trope of dark, broody character with a murderous past who has had to do some shit to find redemption, that redemption being love and/or friendship. I'm noticing a pattern in SJM's male characters and I liked Rowan, loved Rhys, but am finding the trope repetitive.
Will I continue reading this series? Eh... probably. I'm curious as to what Bryce and Hunt do with their freedom and powers. But this is easily my least favourite of SJM's books so far and I'm a little bummed about that.
The plot itself isn't awful, I thought the blend of tech and fantasy was pretty cool.
I did, however, have a huge problem with the writing itself. I have no problem with swear words and explicit subjects, I'm used to that and SJM isn't a stranger to that. This book had swear words and extremely explicitly sexual language during several parts of this book for... no reason? Other than to signal just how sexy or bangable a character is. It was kind of exhausting, like, yes, I understand, you're all hot people who want to bang. Let's move on please.
There were several points during interactions between characters that used such random sexual language to simply state that someone's voice was low and sexy. Swear words peppered into exposition that completely halted the text to put emphasis on something totally not important. It was jarring and distracting. It wasn't so bad in the last 40% of the book but the first 60%. Oof. I haven't been this frustrated with a writing style in a while.
I think Bryce as an abrasive, extremely independent unexpected heroine was cool. Pretty familiar to Aelin and Feyre, but it's a trope I seem to like so ya ok. Same with Hunt. Hunt is a familiar trope of dark, broody character with a murderous past who has had to do some shit to find redemption, that redemption being love and/or friendship. I'm noticing a pattern in SJM's male characters and I liked Rowan, loved Rhys, but am finding the trope repetitive.
Will I continue reading this series? Eh... probably. I'm curious as to what Bryce and Hunt do with their freedom and powers. But this is easily my least favourite of SJM's books so far and I'm a little bummed about that.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Gore, Grief, Medical content, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Racism, Sexual content, Slavery, and Violence
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide attempt