Prasetya Nababan

House of Earth and Blood (Crescent City)

Book by Sarah J. Maas

DETAILS

Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing; Reprint edition (March 2, 2021) Language : English Paperback : 816 pages ISBN-10 : 1635577020 ISBN-13 : 978-1635577020 Item Weight : 1.4 pounds Dimensions : 5.65 x 2.15 x 8.25 inches Best Sellers Rank: #1,981 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #82 in Romantic Fantasy (Books) #94 in Paranormal & Urban Fantasy (Books) #112 in Epic Fantasy (Books) , A #1 New York Times bestseller! Sarah J. Maas's bestselling Crescent City series begins with House of Earth and Blood, which follows the story of half-Fae and half-human Bryce Quinlan as she seeks revenge in a contemporary fantasy world of magic, danger, and searing romance. Bryce Quinlan had the perfect life-working hard all day and partying all night-until a demon murdered her closest friends, leaving her bereft, wounded, and alone. When the accused is behind bars but the crimes start up again, Bryce finds herself at the heart of the investigation. She'll do whatever it takes to avenge their deaths. Hunt Athalar is a notorious Fallen angel, now enslaved to the Archangels he once attempted to overthrow. His brutal skills and incredible strength have been set to one purpose-to assassinate his boss's enemies, no questions asked. But with a demon wreaking havoc in the city, he's offered an irresistible deal: help Bryce find the murderer, and his freedom will be within reach. As Bryce and Hunt dig deep into Crescent City's underbelly, they discover a dark power that threatens everything and everyone they hold dear, and they find, in each other, a blazing passion-one that could set them both free, if they'd only let it. With unforgettable characters, sizzling romance, and page-turning suspense, this richly inventive new fantasy series by #1 New York Times bestselling author Sarah J. Maas delves into the heartache of loss, the price of freedom-and the power of love. Read more

REVIEW

All righty, let me start by saying, *SPOILERS.* Let me also start by saying, I've read SJMs' books before, and like probably half the population, I liked her ACOTAR series. I don't mind SJM in general, (she can be a bit too graphic for me at times but whatever) but I honestly wasn't planning on reading this book. Not because of anything in particular, I just wasn't drawn to it, you know? But a friend of mine told me that it was sooo good and all this so I decided, okay, I guess I'll give it a shot. So here are my thoughts and why this is 3 stars. Let's goooooOOO 1) Info dumping/world"building" Okay, here's where the title of my review comes in. If SJM wasn't SJM, I doubt she could get away with how she info dumped in the first several chapters of this book and have very few people take issue with it. I honestly believe that since she's an established, popular author, SJM was able to skirt by with the text book/Wikipedia description of this new world that was very, very dense to read and quite difficult not to skim over with glazed eyes. I mean, we know in writing it's show and not tell. We know that in establishing a world, it's like a ball of yarn unraveling; Information coming to light gradually through action, dialogue, events, etc. But this... phew. I was honestly surprised at SJM and the way she revealed--no, dumped--information about the world on the readers. Like it was a LOT and I STILL have no idea what's what and who's who, and I finished the book. Every other paragraph, every other sentence, was PAUSE. Allow me to explain in great but also confusing detail about why this world is the way it is, who runs it, why, how, where, when, and also, let me give you a quick history lesson about it all that will not clear anything up. (As a writer my head is exploding with just the thought of creating an outline for this world). It really pulled me out of the story countless amounts of times and was honestly super annoying. If this was SJMs' first book, I'm sure her editors or beta readers or whoever would have been like girl....this is word vomit and you need to disperse this information throughout the book instead of ALL AT ONCE. I felt like I was reading a text book during the first few chapters. It was a chore to get through. If I had picked this up in a bookstore and read the first three pages it was going right back on the shelf. Peace out 2) Pacing You know what I noticed immediately? Bryce, our wonderful, great and awesome main character (sarcasm, though, she was all right, but we'll get to that), really had no goal for several chapters. I'm pretty sure your character has to have a goal or an objective within the first few pages....? Something they want, even if it's just to get to work on time. Refer to the title of this review for something else you can get away with when you're a popular author: Your MC can aimlessly wander around while you focus on your history book worldbuilding & everyone's okay with it because you've sold millions of books so whatevs. You can argue that Bryce did have a goal in the beginning, and that was to find the horn for Jesiba. But Bryce didn't even care and made probably a .02 effort to actually search, and so I don't think that counts since your character's goal is something they truly want. For instance, Bryce's GOAL was to catch the murderer and that didn't come in until very later on. I don't know, I guess it can be summed up as Bryce was very passive rather than active for a very long while before actually getting a goal and objective and something we could root for her on and want her to succeed in. Also-- side note-- this book was WAY too long. Let me say, I have NO problem with lengthy books. I actually love them, because more pages means more adventure. I don't believe in limiting word counts when the book has something important to say and when it all gears toward the plot. But there were a lot of unnecessary things here or just events that could have been sped up or cut out altogether. (Bryce's date with her ex? That scene was for what? To give us info on Redner industries? To show us why she dumped him? (is that how Redner was spelt? oh well lol)) But here we go. This is just something else you can fly under the radar with when you're SJM: SLOW. PACING. A part of me gets it. This whole thing (the plot) was supposed to be gradual. It was like in real life, where nothing is instantaneous and things just kind of happen over the course of months/weeks/years. But this isn't a documentary, you know? Like, I get that SJM needed to show us Bryce and Danika's relationship and their dynamic and all, but I honestly feel like the first several chapters dragged on and on. The whole book sort of did until (SPOILER) near the end when Micah revealed he was a true psycho and then things went from (literally) 0-100000000000. And I mean ZERO because before this we were stuck at The Summit along with all the other bored shifters/animals/angels/aquamans/witches/whatever other creatures SJM made. And I was as bored as Hunt and Rhun. (Ruhn?) It was just a lot but also nothing at all. I will hand it to SJM-- she kept Hunt and Bryce moving once they were put on the case by Micah because THEN they had objectives in every chapter. THEN we got active and not passive characters. But it just took too long to get there. And the runaround with the horn and that whole case was a bit of a web that could have been shortened tremendously. This book kind of reminded me of an author who had multiple favorite scenes that the book could have done without, but she ignored her editor and didn't want to get rid of them because she simply liked the scenes even when they could have been snip snipped. 3) Characters I saw some reviews saying these characters were cut and paste from SJMs' previous books, one review in particular calling Hunt a mix of Azriel and Cassian and honestly, very true. I won't harp on SJM for giving us another love interest with wings because that could just be what she loves, and you know, write what you love and whatnot. And Hunt was at least a different breed than Rhys, so I give her a pass on that one. (Also you guys, if the LI doesn't have wings, how else are we supposed to get the excuse for further contact by the protagonist being carried into the skies while leaning against the muscled chest of her soon-to-be-lover?) I honestly didn't mind the characters, I just had a hard time differentiating between them all. You can't tell me Rhun and Hunt aren't the same exact person. They spoke the same, were overprotective of Bryce the same, etc. If they swapped places no one would notice. Bryce and Danika were even similar in a lott of ways. I did like Bryce-- I really didn't have any issues with her except for her forced feminism, but everyone else sort of blurred together. (Side note, the 'I'm so hot and I know it and everyone (EVERYONE) also thinks I'm hot' protagonist trope is stale. Can we just get an unconventionally attractive unique looking protag for once in these upmarket books like sheesh--) What I think SJM could have done is differentiated her characters in dialogue/thought. They ALL swore. (Swearing in a book is whatever but this got old very fast and lost effectiveness almost immediately). Let's say if at least one character didn't swear, there's a distinct difference right there. Like, Lehabah. Putting aside the fire sprite thing, if she were a human in this book, she would have been distinct just because the way she spoke and acted was different from literally everyone else, who said and did more or less of the same things. *SPOILER* (Lehabah's death-scene was heartbreaking but well-written, so I'll give SJM that). 4) Romance I'll keep this short-- I really liked Hunt and Bryce together. I saw some people saying it was insta-love, but I think it was very slow burn and I thought their progression was well executed. My annoyance came with the overly done sexual tension. We. Get. It. Hunt is hot, Bryce is hot, they want to do terrible things to each other, let's move on. But no, we had to be subjected to (especially Hunt's) constant dirty thoughts. Just make them kiss already and skip all the...taking matters into own hands and toe-curling skin pebbling kind of thing. Like, please. We get it. & their moments would have been a lot sweeter and had much more meaning, I feel (like the shower scene where Bryce cleaned Hunt up) had they been just that--short and sweet. But it's not like expected SJM to suddenly go all PG13 on the romance after her last few books, sooooo. Moving right along. 5) "Zootopia" LOL The Zootopia references I saw to describe the amount of creatures in this book was hilarious. But also spot on. I love fantasy-- it's my favorite genre ever. And I love it because there are no rules and you can make up whatever the heck you want. But this felt a littleeee excessive. It reminded me of a fantasy I drafted where I dumped every creature under the sun in the book just because I wanted to, but I trimmed 96% of them out by draft 2. By the time we got to the Mer, I was just skimming over the aquatic life descriptions. And the Nokk (Nook?) creature in the library was just another "huh?" I skipped over whatever his deal was too. But I get that creature had to be there because it played a role in the random escalation at the end. Which brings me to my final point: 6) 0-1000000 in record speed We all know every book has a climax that's built up to throughout the chapters. But I needed glasses to see the buildup to this climax because everything exploded in no time. Now, the last few chapters were actually my favorite because we finally had ACTION. And it was the only time I truly enjoyed the book (also because I was finally nearing the end lol). But the cliché 0 to hero was a taddd annoying. SJM dropped crumbs here and there about Bryce that she wasn't super ordinary, like blinding the Oracle and such. But everything at the end and who she was felt unrealistic, and not in a sense that this is fantasy but just...rushed? And a littttle random. Things just escalated to new heights after literally nothing happening for hundreds upon hundreds of pages. It's like someone woke SJM from her fever-dream typing frenzy and was like, you need to end this book soon. And you also need to get some action going while you're at it. Because before everything went down, before Micah revealed his psychotic behavior and the demons were released, I know everyone (readers, I'm looking at you) were BORED at the Summit. (WHY did we have to read the details of everyone arriving at the Summit and what they were wearing? WHO cares?) Add this to what you can get away with when you're a famous author-- pointless chapters. Miscellaneous closing thoughts: --The mind-speak between Ruhn (Rhun?) and Hunt was a COP OUT and no one can convince me otherwise. This is what annoys me, when an author makes up something on a whim just to give themselves an out. "How can I make Hunt communicate with someone across the room while he's in shackles? OH mind-speak!" with no prelude or hint beforehand. No. --The cutting of Hunt's wings-- predictable. Why is it when authors have angels, they think they need us to read through their wings being severed? I felt like it was a cop out for Hunt and Bryce not to go all the way on her couch so that Sara can dangle their "unfinished business" around for more buildup and tension that I've honestly had enough of. --Blowing up the club felt unnecessary and a way to add action to lagging chapters. Just me? -- I get that Hunt's hands were tied (literally) when everything with Bryce was going down while he was at the Summit, but literally having to read him just standing there staring at the screen and doing nothing for a few chapters was sort of annoying. -- The Jelly Jubilee thing and whatever those toys were was humorous and added another layer to Bryce but also was one of the many things that could have been cut. That's just me being picky, though. SJM did do a good job of layering and adding twists, and overall, this book is okay. It's not a BAD book, just too slow. Way too slow. A tad confusing (all I really know is this world is on a planet called Midgard. Midgrad... or whatever) and a little eye-rolly but not awful. I won't read anything else from this series though lol. It just wasn't gripping enough and there's honestly too much going on. I just think SJM got away with a lot of things a debut author (or a lesser-known author) could never. There were lots of things here that I think an editor or publisher would grimace at or make major changes to for the sake of clarity and conciseness and just the sake of interest for the reader. & SJM is surrounded by the 'hype' complex where her other works are so well-liked that everyone feels like they HAVE to love whatever else she puts out because otherwise I don't know why this book is so raved about. But hey, this is what being a popular author can do for you. (P.S, don't get me wrong, SJM deserves her success. This is just a result of what all that success can allow you to get away with). Also, fellow writers out there, imagine writing a query letter for this. LOL.

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