Reviews with content warning for Incest - House of Sky and Breath

** TW for discussions of sexual content, misogyny, violence, war, death, and incest **

*This is my personal opinion and is not meant for SJM to read. If you are a fan of the book, you will probably not enjoy this.*

5 months and 800 pages later, here we are.

The Crescent City series is, amongst other things, a narrative about power — who has it, how they’ve clawed their way to possess it, and the lengths they’ll go to keep it. The bad guys want to hoard it; the good guys want to share it with the downtrodden. Yet for a tome-sized adult fantasy book with complex worldbuilding and near-apocalyptic stakes, House of Sky and Breath does not make me feel these stakes. It does not give me the sense of gravitas that SJM seems to be striving for. Because despite their legendary powers, our main cast of characters are actually inept at everything they’re setting out to do.

Cormac, when explaining the plan to blow up the lab: this is a revolution. Our enemies are ruthless, bloodthirsty, and hellbent on total destruction. We have to break a few eggs to make an omelet.

Everyone: *surprised Pikachu face*

And yet somehow, even as they bumble their way through their 7-person DIY revolution, I am not worried for these characters. I am not on the edge of my seat, wondering how they’ll be able to get out of this latest kerfuffle. Because despite their incompetence, I know that they are in no true danger from facing the consequences of their actions, because they are so overpowered. When Ithan got his throat ripped out, I was so excited because I thought finally something is HAPPENING! But no, he made a miraculous recovery not even five pages later.

PART I – the little things

A. Characters constantly saying that they’re recovering from trauma =/= actually recovering from trauma. Especially if their technique for recovering from trauma is just a lot of sex. Where are the therapists in Crescent City?

B. “Agent Day” and “Agent Night.” I truly cannot.

C. When Cormac shows up to Bryce’s work, Bryce responds with this. “If you’re looking for ‘How Not to Be an Asshole,’ it’s shelved between ‘Bye Loser’ and ‘Get the Fuck Out.’” SICK BURN, Bryce! You really showed him! Whip out that middle school-level humor!

PART II – everyone is horny and I am tired

“But OP!” you say. “This is adult fantasy romance! Of course the characters are going to be horny!”

Very true. But my problem was not the fact that they were horny — it was how they were horny.

BRYCE AND HUNT

Oh God, this pairing. The scene that really sealed the deal for me was on page 38, where the two of them are sitting in the box seat with Bryce’s parents. Bryce is thinking about that (stupid) no-fucking rule that they’ve made for themselves. Hunt is smelling her arousal in the air (literally kill me). And then just as the lights go down for the performance to begin, Bryce’s star on her chest starts glowing. Bryce is embarrassed, her parents are concerned, people are staring and hollering at her.

What does Hunt do — does he block her from view with his wings? Does he offer her his suit jacket in a sweet little moment? NO. He paws at her breasts in what’s played as a flirty little scene — I will remind you, right in front of her fucking parents.

Where is the romance? Where is the buildup? Where is the love? There is nothing but horny between these two.

Also, the fact that everyone can smell their lust will never not be gross to me. I could have gone a thousand lifetimes without either Ruhn or the Autumn King commenting on how Bryce “smells,” how they can tell if she has or hasn’t done the deed with Hunt yet. Someone get me a fucking ice pick to go lobotomize myself with.

ITHAN

Ithan boils my blood. I have already previously mentioned that I was ready for him to die, and I stand by that. But it isn’t just my dislike for him as a character, it’s how SJM changed his narrative and motivations from the first book.

In Book 1, we see Ithan is destroyed after Connor’s death, blaming Bryce for his brother’s heartbreak, and only even begins to redeem himself at the very end when he helps Bryce and defies Sabine. Did I like him in the first book? No. Did I agree with the misplaced blame he put on Bryce? Also no. Did I at least think his motivations were interesting? Eh.

But SJM throws all that complexity away here in Book 2. Now that we’re in Ithan’s head, we suddenly learn that actually, Ithan has been in love with Bryce the entire time! Just like his brother! As if we haven’t already seen this gross, unnecessary plotline from Connor already!

It was creepy when Connor tried to “lay claim” to Bryce for two years despite her telling him no, and it’s creepy now for Ithan to be following in his brother’s footsteps. His grudge towards Bryce in Book 1 was already interesting character motivation!!! But now instead of that narrative of pushing past his resentment and healing his friendship with Bryce, we have this morose man-child “woe is me”-ing for the whole book. Pass, thanks.

THARION

My God, do I have a bone to pick with Tharion. He really encapsulates one of the bigger gripes I have with SJM’s writing overall, particularly her interpretation of feminism in her works.

Throughout the series, we see so many characters comment on Bryce’s body. They sexualize her, slut-shame her, completely undervalue her. A lot of the characters who make these comments are antagonists, and SJM uses their misogyny as a way to signal to the reader, “hey! This is a bad guy! They’re being gross to the main protagonist!”

Yet despite beating us over the head with this moral, apparently the same rules don’t apply for the male protagonists. And Tharion is the prime example of this.

I swear, nearly everything this man says to or about Bryce is explicit. He calls her “Legs.” He constantly brings up the idea of fooling around with her. He jokes to Ithan that he and Bryce have a deal that he gets to sniff her panties.

How am I supposed to root for this "friendship?" How am I supposed to like this character that is drooling over Bryce in the same way that all the weird sexually-motivated antagonists are? But oh, he’s a hot ginger merman, so apparently it’s all okay. So many of the men in these books, even Bryce's own friends, only ever see her as a sexual object to be commented on.

Bryce, honey, you need better friends. This group is way too weird for you. Honestly, the real reason that Declan’s the MVP of the group isn’t because he’s a tech whiz — it’s because he’s pretty much the only guy not trying to hump Bryce’s leg.

CORMAC (RIP)

I will admit, I was incredibly relieved to see how Cormac’s plotline played out — if only because at first SJM set the bar on the floor. I’ll take pretty much anything over Jace Wayland 2.0:

“You're my *cousin*," he said finally. "My *cousin*, my blood, my family. I should want to protect you" — he laughed soundlessly without any humor — "to protect you from the sort of boys who want to do with you exactly what I want to do.”

There was no real reason that Bryce and Cormac needed to be related. “But it was because he could lay claim to her as her cousin!” I don’t care. “It shows how backwards and misogynistic the Fae society is!” I don’t care. The Autumn King simply could have negotiated an arranged engagement between Bryce and a well-connected Fae royal — which is exactly what he already does. Just take out any mention of Cormac being a cousin at all, and you keep the entire (unnecessary) plotline! Ta-da!

Anyways, soon we find out that he isn’t even a threat to Bryce and Hunt’s relationship after all, because he’s a good guy who was actually in love with Sophie (undoubtedly the best ship of this book). Also, he at least knew how to manage a rebellion. RIP king 🕊️ 🪦

PART III – THE BANE OF MY EXISTENCE, THE REASON I HAVE EVEN WRITTEN THIS REVIEW

5 months later and I am still beside myself with this writing choice.

I’ve seen a lot of people complain about the little investigation plotline that Bryce and Hunt had in Book 1, and I will actually come out and defend it: that was my favorite part of that book. Something was happening! I was intrigued by this gruesome monster! I enjoyed the murder mystery!

So when I started reading all the stuff about Sophie (RIP) and her brother, and how our main characters had to track down this kid before the enemies did, I was excited! And when it was revealed that Sophie had lied and Emile never had any powers in the first place, I was both shook and intrigued. What a sweet, final parting gift from Sophie, protecting her brother from beyond the grave, desperately trying to ensure a chance at safety for him even after her death.

So no, that wasn’t my problem. My problem was that we spent several hundred pages on a wild goose chase, for NO FUCKING REASON. Why? Because Bryce ALREADY FOUND HIM OFF-PAGE.

I am still so mad about this. What a waste of time, to spend so many chapters in AN EIGHT HUNDRED PAGE BOOK looking for a missing person that the main character has ALREADY FOUND!!!

I don’t care how much of a #girlboss Bryce is, you cannot tell me that she beat out the top-notch technology people were using to track Emile, or the tracking wolves. Obviously the whole point of this was so Bryce could have her surprise reveal and all the characters could clap and say “wow Bryce, you are so brilliant, everyone always underestimates you.” Yes, true. But did it have to be resolved LIKE THIS????????

When did she find the time to do this? Did she just slip out of the apartment one night, waltz over to the Meat Market, and find Emile on the first try? When it has taken everyone else AGES to find Emile’s trail? And WHEN in the narrative did this actually happen?!!!???!! I DEMAND AN ANSWER, SJM!!!!!!

If anyone has figured out where tf this happens in the narrative, PLEASE TELL ME BECAUSE IT IS DRIVING ME UP A WALL!!!!!!!

TLDR; 2 stars because this became so convoluted it was entertaining. Apparently this series is partially inspired by reality TV? Let me tell you, SJM hit the nail on the head there. Anyways, this book has haunted me since February, hopefully now that I’ve word vomited I will finally know peace.

Content Warnings

prairieraven's review against another edition

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adventurous slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

It's slow to read for the first 2/3 of the book, it starts twisting and turning after that and the end leaves the reader a bit bewildered and anxious about the next book. Not her best, good. Hoping that the rest of the series improves. Still excessive use of the word F--- which is fine but it's like a word just discovered by a child and is somehow used at least once a page.

Severe lack of diversity.

Content Warnings

hapalyn's review against another edition

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dark funny mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

Content Warnings

kayladaila's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark tense 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

3.5

Content Warnings

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