A review by kjjohnson
House Name, by Michelle West
5.0
4.5
I thought this was a great book overall, and a big improvement over the first two in the series. Part of this may be that it had more POV sections from characters I liked or found interesting, and fewer from those I found boring.
I am still really attached to Jewel, and I think one of the things I enjoy most about her was that while she does have a special gift, she’s not the only one who does, and it isn’t of itself the reason that people collect around her. That’s her loyalty and sense of duty and responsibility to the people she cares about, and her willingness to go to bat for them at any cost. I enjoyed her being mentored, particularly by the Terafin, and learning and discussing more how to be a leader and how complicated the world and potential actions are, while remaining herself.
The pacing was a lot better, although I still find West’s prose unnecessarily wordy and occasionally repetitive (and why all the em dashes?). A lot of this book was very tense and foreboding, and her descriptions of the tortured voices rising from the ground and there being nothing anyone could do about them, for weeks, was haunting. I also loved the sections where Finch and Teller went to work for different areas of the House and learned and carved little places for themselves - I found it both endearing and interesting, and a great way to expand the world.
It was an interesting choice to have Jewel sit out almost the entirety of the final conflict between Allasakar and our group of heroes, but I think it was a good one. She isn’t a fighter and doesn’t have great magical power, so it makes sense that she wouldn’t be there. It also shows her character growth, as one of the things she’s consistently hated most has been people she cares about being in danger while she is unable to do anything about it; she accepted that she couldn’t here and that people have different roles and can’t do everything themselves.
The fight was good and tense, and left intriguing plot threads, but I think I liked even more the epilogue-ish ending. It was unexpectedly funny, for one, and I thought the den throwing a party that included all of their old friends who helped them when they were nobodies was a great choice to tie everything together.
I still don’t understand the purpose of Jester in the story, and chuckled a little when the Terafin was giving him the House name and was basically ‘I don’t really know what you do but you make your friends laugh, so that’s something’. I also thought it was a little cheesy that almost everyone her den interacted with ended up liking them, but you know what? They’re good people and I like them too, so I don’t mind.
All in all, I enjoyed this book a lot, primarily for the characters but also for the tension and world, and look forward to reading the Sun Sword series, which apparently comes next chronologically.
I thought this was a great book overall, and a big improvement over the first two in the series. Part of this may be that it had more POV sections from characters I liked or found interesting, and fewer from those I found boring.
I am still really attached to Jewel, and I think one of the things I enjoy most about her was that while she does have a special gift, she’s not the only one who does, and it isn’t of itself the reason that people collect around her. That’s her loyalty and sense of duty and responsibility to the people she cares about, and her willingness to go to bat for them at any cost. I enjoyed her being mentored, particularly by the Terafin, and learning and discussing more how to be a leader and how complicated the world and potential actions are, while remaining herself.
The pacing was a lot better, although I still find West’s prose unnecessarily wordy and occasionally repetitive (and why all the em dashes?). A lot of this book was very tense and foreboding, and her descriptions of the tortured voices rising from the ground and there being nothing anyone could do about them, for weeks, was haunting. I also loved the sections where Finch and Teller went to work for different areas of the House and learned and carved little places for themselves - I found it both endearing and interesting, and a great way to expand the world.
It was an interesting choice to have Jewel sit out almost the entirety of the final conflict between Allasakar and our group of heroes, but I think it was a good one. She isn’t a fighter and doesn’t have great magical power, so it makes sense that she wouldn’t be there. It also shows her character growth, as one of the things she’s consistently hated most has been people she cares about being in danger while she is unable to do anything about it; she accepted that she couldn’t here and that people have different roles and can’t do everything themselves.
The fight was good and tense, and left intriguing plot threads, but I think I liked even more the epilogue-ish ending. It was unexpectedly funny, for one, and I thought the den throwing a party that included all of their old friends who helped them when they were nobodies was a great choice to tie everything together.
I still don’t understand the purpose of Jester in the story, and chuckled a little when the Terafin was giving him the House name and was basically ‘I don’t really know what you do but you make your friends laugh, so that’s something’. I also thought it was a little cheesy that almost everyone her den interacted with ended up liking them, but you know what? They’re good people and I like them too, so I don’t mind.
All in all, I enjoyed this book a lot, primarily for the characters but also for the tension and world, and look forward to reading the Sun Sword series, which apparently comes next chronologically.