House of Flame and Shadow by Sarah J Maas
- May 18, 2024
- 3 min read
Updated: Mar 3
The most recent installment in Sarah J Maas' Crescent City series, this wraps up the fight that Bryce and Hunt started in House of Earth and Blood. There will be a fourth novel in the series, but I believe it will continue with a new couple as the main characters. If you're looking for a summary of this book, or any of the previous novels in the series, check out our summary of the Crescent City series. This novel deals with torture, gun violence, violence that is not gun violence, gore, colonization, death, war, slavery, murder, abandonment, blood, fire, injury detail, classism, and kidnapping.
We pick up only moments after the end of House of Sky and Breath, with Bryce landing in some unknown land where she doesn't understand the language. Bryce is on a quest to learn as much about the Asteri as she can so that she can topple them once and for all, and in doing so she finally learns the truth about the history of the Starborn and the Vanir on Midgard. Hunt, on the other hand, is just trying to survive his second time in the Asteri dungeons, and this time he's brought friends. We watch as all of our favorite characters finally start to live up to their potential and start to heal the wounds of an entire world.
This book could have just as well been called House of Guilt and Self-Loathing, a good quarter of it was spent with various characters hating themselves and the choices they've made that have led them to where they currently are. It was time consuming and really made parts of the book drag. I did really enjoy seeing the different points of view, this follows the example set in the second book and we see quite a bit of Ithan, Tharion, and Ruhn, and we meet a few new characters that I think have some real potential. I did enjoy seeing the trajectory of some of the characters, namely Hypaxia and Ithan, but I wish the team had invested in a quality therapist early in the book.
I'm giving House of Flame and Shadow by Sarah J Maas 3.75 out of 5 stars. It served as a nice ending to what Bryce was trying to do and I loved seeing where the various characters ended up at the end of the book. I was often irritated by the stupid choices some of the characters made and I did think the book leaned to heavily into feelings of guilt over some consequences of character's choices, ironically those were not the choices I was frustrated with. Overall, I enjoyed the story and it was easy to understand. So often, I feel that books that have a large battle get confusing and hard to track, that was not the case here. However, this was least favorite of the Crescent City series. Spice level was 1.5 out of 5.
For more from Sarah J Maas, take a look at her website at https://sarahjmaas.com/
Pairs well with a roast chicken and saying the hard things, in case you don't get any more chances.
If you would like a summary of the novels in the Crescent City series, click here.
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