A review by doubletherazzle
House of Sky and Breath by Sarah J. Maas

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
No star rating yet because I’m indecisive and still processing, and this long rambling review is my external processing.

TLDR: lots of plot, cliffhanger, interesting  world building, but characters and relationships seemed to lack the depth that I’ve come to expect and love from SJM’s writing. Minor spoilers below, but all marked.

I freaked out at the ending (obviously), although I’m not really sure how to feel about it after the initial shock. I’m having a hard time trying to understand how the twist will play into the plots going forward. Concerns aside, I love the world building. I wasn’t sure I would like the urban fantasy setting of this series, but I was really surprised at how much I enjoyed the diversity of the setting. 

This series does seem to follow a pattern
of ‘get attached to this new character JK TRAGEDY’
and in CC1 it was a great plot twist.  In this one it felt more… predictable and not as important to the plot as I feel like I should’ve been. I read in a few days, so I feel I like I didn’t notice the shift from primary plot point A, to what became the main plot for the second half of the book. I’m starting to feel like this should’ve been two books for all the plot developments, which come at the cost of losing to some in-depth character showcasing and some loose ends floating around. 

Hunt and Bryce seemed rushed at points. I missed you the emotional depth in CC1 - seeing Hunt grapple with his own violence, Bryce trying to get through grief and growing up… both character seemed more flat now that sex is apparently their biggest relationship marker. I normally am a sucker for
the mate-trope, but I felt surprised by the reveal of it here. Not because I didn’t expect it, but it just seemed very casual, and their relationship didn’t seem like it had that gravity yet.
I felt like I needed more of a slow burn, or at least more exploration of them getting to know each other. 

In the same vein, I was craving much more from
braxian
for character development and hunt to deal with the feelings and conflicts
braxians presence brings,
and I never got it. Instead, we got quick-fire plot and character development
in one scene and all defined by Danika.
There could’ve been so much more (which was hinted at, but never capitalized on). 

I liked the bit of insight into the politics of the the various courts of power, but they’re all pretty much the same, and probably the only aspect of the world building that I feel needs to be amped (all people in power=bad and manipulative, and all major players feel trapped by their home courts). I do, however, appreciate the attempt at a grittier reality of war, ignorance (“there is no war in ba sing se”), extremism on both sides, and that this series isn’t blindly copying  the “dreamers” motif from ACOTAR. But, I don’t feel that these ethical quandaries are actually something the characters are grappling with (except Ruhn and maybe Ithan), and I’m still wondering how
Cormac ended up involved in rebellion
and I want to like Tharion, but he’s kinda an idiot? and somehow hypaxia’s fascinating story is only briefly brought to light here and there. 

Will of course read the next one, and will probably have to re-read these before then, because I had already forgotten plot points in the two months between reading CC1 and CC2, but ACOTAR 1-4 remains my favorite series from SJM. 
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