Spoilery Book Reviews

A House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J Maas

Back of the book

Bryce Quinlan loves her life. Every night is a party, and Bryce is going to savour all the pleasure Lunathion – also known as Crescent City – has to offer. But when a brutal murder shakes the very foundations of the city, Bryce's world comes crashing down.

Two years later, Bryce still haunts the city's most notorious nightclubs – but seeking only oblivion now. Then the murderer attacks again. And when an infamous Fallen angel, Hunt Athalar, is assigned to watch her every footstep, Bryce knows she can't forget any longer.

As Bryce and Hunt fight to unravel the mystery and their own dark pasts, the threads they tug ripple through the underbelly of the city, across warring continents and down to the deepest levels of Hel, where things that have been sleeping for millenia are beginning to stir...

My thoughts.

Buckle up because SJM books come with a lot of controversy, and I have a lot to say about this one.

The writing.

Firstly, I have read her other two series, enjoyed them, and noted their problems. I knew what I was getting myself into, but going from reading some fantastically written books (see my last two reviews), into SJM's writing style was jarring. It is possible to write a sassy, young and blasé character, without being blasé about your word choices. I found a lot of horrible sentences that I couldn't un-notice and often pulled me out of the story. All of the information for the world building, and character motivations was written on the page with no subtlety. The world building was a giant info-dump that I still didn't fully understand by the end of the novel and how the character felt was always told instead of shown. Perhaps this is part of her popularity power, in that I never had to think that behaviour x and y means that our main character feels lonely. Everything was explicitly written on the page, terribly.

"What was the code? The code, the code, the cooooode..." p59, attempts at writing a drunk character, by indeed being drunk while writing.

"His eyes flickered. Whatever the fuck that meant." P223, the reader also doesn't know what this means, perhaps write it better? Was the second sentence a note from the editor that got inserted into the final manuscript? Just two of the many sentences that were awful. SJM believes that writing a book for adults means dropping f-bombs, discussing drugs and sex, but the tone is still juvenile. High school English teachers told me to not start sentences with and. And no one has ever told SJM this little writing advice. If they have, she gleefully ignores it. Perhaps her brand of writing is that she refuses to improve her writing. Or to just pump out books very quickly.

The sex scene(s).

Or course I knew Hunt and Bryce were going to bang, it was only a matter of when. I still don't think it should be that difficult to maintain a professional working relationship with someone without ripping off their pants. The timing of BOTH scenes was bad. Firstly, when Hunt freshly had his wings cut off, I kept waiting for the mention of the incredible pain he was surely in. Despite this terribly timed sex scene, I did like the novelty of her getting off, leaving him hanging. That was a little bit fun, albeit VERY selfish on Bryce's behalf completely forgetting Hunt was in incredible pain. How do you get so sex addled you forget something like that? The second sex scene was also mercifully cut short. Right after saving the world when there are still dead bodies laying in the street is not the right time to take your pants off.

The plot.

The second half of the book was fast paced, impactful and interesting. I didn't love that Hunt's betrayal was overshadowed by the world ending. The whole city getting invaded by demons and him nearly dying to save Bryce from dying took the main stage and Hunt was forgiven instantly because they had bigger problems. I wished his betrayal had been a problem they worked through as a couple instead of a blip on the radar compared to other events that transpired.

I liked the concept that love is the most powerful magic of all. That despite all the real magics that exist out there, love can still break the known boundaries of magic in their universe. I love friend love, which makes me less mad about the prologue chapters setting a scene just to kill someone off, because Danika does continue to be a main player even dead. I am more judgemental towards love being the reason of staying alive while depressed. Bryce calls Danika out on that, doing the Ascent just for some guy... but holding on to something is better than holding on to nothing...

I liked all the shocking twists. The storyline that Danika was not the girl Bryce knew, she kept secrets, knew bad people, and was addicted to synth which caused the death of her pack and herself was amazing. The possibility of Bryce and Hunt breaking up due to lies between was similarly exciting. What I didn't like was the further layers of truth that negated all those shocking twists. I wanted to be shocked, and I was, but temporarily, which detracts from the power and value of those shocks. Of course I want Danika to be a good character but leading a reader towards one conclusion then ripping it away is beautiful – in a horrible way - to read about. Alas, good people stayed good and bad people stayed bad.

A murder-mystery tale was not what I was expecting from SJM (although everything else was standard) and I really enjoyed the plot. I also feel this novel tried harder to build a foreign fantasy world, although that might just be my perception and unfamiliarity versus my familiarity with the other book series.

Main character.

For once I thought we had a main character that was basic. Not the best of the best or a big fucking deal... but then the ending is revealed. Bryce does the Drop and now she's high ranking in power, her identity reveals her ranking as a princess and she has the Starborn power. I know a character has to grow during a story but I'm a little disappointed at Bryce being very powerful.

To conclude, SJM's writing style is consistently juvenile, the sex scenes are poorly timed, albeit not too numerous. The plot is engaging despite the major twists being cheapened by being proven untrue later. The breakup lasting no time at all because the world was being destroyed was also cheap. If you enjoy other SJM novels there's no reason to not enjoy this one as well.

TL:DR

SJM tries on murder mystery, keeps the sex scenes to a minimum and pretends to have plot twists but each character is good or bad and not a mix of both. The sentences are poor, the plot surprisingly good.