The end of the road: House of Flame and Shadow
A review of the last Crescent City novel by Sarah J. Maas
The main quote that followed this series was always: “Through love, all is possible.”
The reality is, that through the hype of social media anything is possible, even this book.
There are certain authors you have a love/hate relationship with, and for me its Sarah J. Maas. After finishing her last Crescent City novel, House of Flame and Shadow, I realised that I am at the end of the road with her books.
A brick of a book. 834 pages long.
And such a waste of time, space and paper.
House of Flame and Shadow
Bryce Quinlan never expected to see a world other than Midgard, but now that she has, all she wants is to get back. Everything she loves is in Midgard: her family, her friends, her mate. Stranded in a strange new world, she’s going to need all her wits about her to get home again. And that’s no easy feat when she has no idea who to trust.
Hunt Athalar has found himself in some deep holes in his life, but this one might be the deepest of all. After a few brief months with everything he ever wanted, he’s in the Asteri’s dungeons again, stripped of his freedom and without a clue as to Bryce’s fate. He’s desperate to help her, but until he can escape the Asteri’s leash, his hands are quite literally tied.
To say that I am disappointed would be an understatement. I truly did hope for this last book to be good. After the ending of House of Sky and Breath, I was so annoyed, because the book itself had been more of an meh, reading experience, but the ending was rather good. I truly hoped that she could pull if off. Instead with this book, Maas has demonstrated to me for the last time, that she is indeed not a good writer and her style of writing is no longer my cup of tea.
Do not get me wrong. She is decent, for sure. I have had my moments with her books, and I have truly enjoyed a few of them. But looking back at my reviews and my thoughts on them, I have been very forgiving, due to the fact that I had enjoyed certain parts, even when the rest of the book does not hold up. I have finally come to the end of the road and acknowledging that she is just not the fantasy author social media has hyped her up to be.
When nothing sticks
Reading House of Flame and Shadow felt like a chore, I was debating daily if I wanted to continue and decided to push through - exactly why, I do not know. Maybe I was hoping for a good end, even if the majority of the book was bad. She had after all pulled it off with other books in other series.
Alas, it did not work out. I could and should’ve just DNF the book at the very beginning. Usually there is always one or two redeeming factors in a book, that somehow manages to keep me engaged in the plot, in this one, it was the fact that I was so annoyed throughout most of it that kept engaged. The main things that really had me annoyed where three things:
the massive amount of lore drop
too many main characters
too many plot lines
Throughout the book, it really felt like Maas had pretty much written down all the ideas she had and see what would stick. There are just too many plot lines, too much lore dump and characters - to the point that even the plot holes started becoming bigger and bigger by the page. The worst of it all, was the realisation that this is the last book of a trilogy, and nothing of what was introduced in the very beginning is here at the end.
Even the very cheesy line “Through love, all is possible” had no basis at the very end. It lacked everything that would have made this trilogy a good one. High stakes, good plot lines and strong characters. Crescent City really did have potential, it really did - I enjoyed the first one, House of Earth and Blood, despite its weaker moments, because it was entertaining and it did have a bigger story at play - and well, I enjoyed our two main protagonists in it, Bryce and Hunt.
In House of Flame and Shadow, all that is gone. The only thing that is left to really look at, is Maas and her writing. For me, epic fantasy, usually comes with a lot of lore, and it is a lot of information to keep track off, to plant seeds, that your reader can pick up on throughout the series. It is something that I truly enjoy, and so many amazing authors have done such a good job with. The lore or history, has shaped the world we are in, it is not always right at the front, but it lies at the very core of the story being told. Its there, like a red thread that is carefully revealed as the story unfolds.
For me, epic fantasy, usually comes with a lot of lore, and it is a lot of information to keep track off, to plant seeds, that your reader can pick up on throughout the series.
Unfortunately, that was not the case here. What happened in House of Flame and Shadow, was a massive lore dump. Like pages and pages of where Bryce and Hunt and her allies are just told the entire history of the Midgard. Of everything that has played in the background. I had issues with the way if was done, with the way they learn it - but the major issue was the fact it was just dumped on us.
There is was no time given to digest it properly, to dissect it, to understand it and see how they could use it in this major battle that is coming. It was just dumped onto us and then stressed that all of it was super important - but why? How? I had so many questions throughout this part, it was so hard to keep track of everything, to see the long lines - to understand. And then, only to discover a couple of hundred pages later that it all kinda forgotten, that it does not really matter after all. It was frustrating to say the least. It honestly felt like, Maas herself, had forgotten everything she introduced into the series from the very beginning. Things did not make sense or were suddenly contradicting each other.
Information that is presented as crucial for the characters and their play in this, is suddenly left out. With no apparent reason or explanations - then why would they go through all that trouble to get it? When the plot itself is not interesting to me, I start noticing all these things, that I might have overlooked if I was engaged in the story itself.
The amount of lore was another issue as well, it is not introduced in a well-paced manner, but rather just dumped on you. It is almost like being hit with a history book and expected to remember it all right away.
The main protagonists of the series was always Bryce and then Hunt, but over the course of three books more characters have been introduced. There is nothing wrong in having a multiple POVs - but this is also something that needs to be done right. More than ever I wished she had separated her chapters with titles or made some sort of distinction that she was now changing POV. Because there were multiple situations were the POV would change at extremely bad timing - that just left you a bit baffled. I understand the wish of wanting to build up tension, but the way it was done here, did not work at all.
I do know that in Maas books, everyone finds their mate, everyone has steamy sex and they all badasses that growl to make sure you know they do not like you. It comes with the kind of fantasy she writes, and I have had my moments where its been nothing but fun to have a character to do that. However, by the end of this book I was so done with so-called “alfa” males, growling, snarky comments - that I just wished some of them had, at least, had a little of character development.
The Hunt I truly liked and enjoyed in House of Earth and Blood was barely recognisable, Bryce, who is supposed to be a strong female lead - was more annoying than helpful, and there were no visible character growth there. Especially in regards with the role she has now, the prophecy and all.
Not to mention all the other characters.
There were too many, too many different love stories to follow, too many names to keep track of and characters that truly did not feel important enough to have so much space in the end game. My biggest pet peeve here was Sigrid, a character that to this day I am still confused on why she was introduced at all, as Ithans storyline could have been so much better without all of that distraction, that in the end did not lead anywhere. And lets not forget about the characters introduced in the previous books, who would have been good allies to have, but now suddenly are gone - or are only brought back for a 30 second interaction.
We are in the endgame now, yet, the high stakes can be pushed away for some steamy sex - just because. Urd, have mercy on me. It was just…tiresome. I do not need high stakes in every thing I read, but when a book is using it as a trope - I do expect it to be delivered. By the end of this book it felt like I had been reading a soap opera rather than the ending of what could have been an epic fantasy series.
In Maas books, everyone finds their mate, everyone has steamy sex and they all badasses that growl to make sure you know they do not like you.
Closely tied up with the characters were the plot lines, as with the characters, there were simply too many plot lines as well. Most of them are just page fillers, that for some reason were included.
Amongst the many love stories, only a few felt real, and even the ones introduced in previous books started to fade away. In House of Flame and Shadow, everything is thrown out there, to make it an epic ending of a long series. However, it does not deliver on any of these points. Most of the plots introduced in this last book are very rushed, short, they are not allowed time to grow and really settle, but rather showed on to you - to force you to feel something.
In her writing, at least her earlier writing, what usually got me was the fact that Maas knew how to introduce plot lines that would engage me emotionally - on some level at least. I would feel for the character, things that were major in the first book, like Hunt, being freed from his status as slave, was now, just thrown out. Like it had not meant anything in the build up towards the end. The very connection between Bryce and Hunt was also dimmed, pushed aside for what felt like a bigger plot line, but that never delivered.
The high stakes, that should have had me at the very edge of my seat, where never there. She tried, but it did not stick - probably due to all the other plot lines she threw in there. What baffles me the most with this book, is how badly written it is. Where was the editor? Someone should have pointed out that Maas was trying to chase too many different rainbows at the end, and the way to go, would have been to focus on fewer and let them sink in with the reader. None of the touching moments, who earlier probably would have had me very wrapped up into the story where close to moving me. It was all just an annoying read, and waste of time.
In my first review, on goodreads I stated that it did not even deserve the one star it got. Disappointment does not even begin to cover this horrible brick of a book, and now, a couple of days later, I am still very much in the same spot. I cannot and will not recommend Sarah J. Maas to anyone. Not anymore.
The main quote that followed this series was always: Through love, all is possible. The reality is, that through the hype of social media anything is possible, even this book - I am convinced that had she not been such a popular and hyped author, this book would have never been published.
Until next time,
happy reading! ✨