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A review by doomfaery
House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Somehow this book manages to be way, way better than anything in ACOTAR, even though she was writing them around the same time, wasn't she? Honestly, my mind is boggled by how much better this book is than anything in the aforementioned series.
I'm not wild on mixing so many mythologies into one, but the world building was pretty strong here. Excellent urban fiction/fantasy. There is a focus on romance, but not as much smut.
There are a couple of the usual J. Maas standbys: hella power given in a time of great need, female bad guys, love that brings people back from depression, inanimate objects with great power, a big ordeal in front of a crowd. There are also a couple of her usual pitfalls, but not many. Honestly, even the characterisation is better. Characters have their own habits, quirks, vocabulary. Some pitfalls remain: her ambiguous and powerful females all have similar personalities and sleek, black, bobs for some reason lol. She clearly likes archetypes and is still working on breaking that habit.
All in all, I genuinely enjoyed this. J. Maas learned to hurt people and utilize that pain for the good of the story, an unfortunate habit she had not broken for ACOTAR. Some of the twists even genuinely surprised me.
Not sure what to expect from the 3 sequels, as I think this would have done exceptionally well as a stand alone, but I'm eager to find out.
I'm not wild on mixing so many mythologies into one, but the world building was pretty strong here. Excellent urban fiction/fantasy. There is a focus on romance, but not as much smut.
There are a couple of the usual J. Maas standbys: hella power given in a time of great need, female bad guys, love that brings people back from depression, inanimate objects with great power, a big ordeal in front of a crowd. There are also a couple of her usual pitfalls, but not many. Honestly, even the characterisation is better. Characters have their own habits, quirks, vocabulary. Some pitfalls remain: her ambiguous and powerful females all have similar personalities and sleek, black, bobs for some reason lol. She clearly likes archetypes and is still working on breaking that habit.
All in all, I genuinely enjoyed this. J. Maas learned to hurt people and utilize that pain for the good of the story, an unfortunate habit she had not broken for ACOTAR. Some of the twists even genuinely surprised me.
Not sure what to expect from the 3 sequels, as I think this would have done exceptionally well as a stand alone, but I'm eager to find out.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Sexual content, and Violence