Reviews with content warning for Cannibalism - House of Flame and Shadow

Loved the book, I wish the ACOTAR characters had a bit more time in the books but I’m glad that Nesta was the main character in the crossover. I felt that everything kind of got summed up really nicely. Lidia probably turned out to be my favorite character, and the hint she’s related to Brannon, and therefore Aelin was wild. I do want to know what happened with Sathia and where Ariadne was considering she appears at the end and that’s the last of that chapter.

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josxphinchen's review

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dark funny tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

0.25

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novel_nibbles's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.5

Unfortunately I didn’t enjoy House of Flame and Shadow as much as I had anticipated. I think the main reason was I just couldn’t connect with MC Bryce is the same way I had in the previous books and I wasn’t really interested in her romance with Hunt. I was invested enough in the story to finish the book but I have to admit to listening to the audiobook at 1.5 (something I’ve never done before) to just get through it!

Despite my disappointments SJM is still an auto buy author

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savshanae's review

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

I have never been so disappointed by an SJM book and it’s RUINING me. If it was any other author, I probably would have DNF’d this book. So many words for so little to happen, the end left me shaking my head, and don’t even get me started on the lack of character consistency!
As one of my friends put it, “it feels like she flew too close to the sun” and I wouldn’t be sad to see this book dropped into the ocean forever.

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sam_gartley91's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

Loved it! And really anything SJM does. But it was really whiplashy with multiple pov in the same chapter. And that Bryce seemed to be doing some of the work off page at times so she knew things the audience didn’t. She did that last book too and it wasn’t my fav. It wasn’t like that the audience was learning with her. It bugged me a bit. The fantasy meets sci-fi was interesting and I don’t think I’ve seen that before. There are still some characters that I would love to learn more about. Like what is fury?!! So I’m curious where if anywhere SjM is going next with this series world. The cross over wasn’t exactly what I expected good at times and a little let down at others. I really just wanted them all to be friends!! Which maybe in the future they will/could get there. But overall SjM did seem to tie everything up in a bow. Now it’s for the world to reset itself up. Overall loved it but wish it was difffernt at times.

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annabithebook's review against another edition

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adventurous informative tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.75

The thought that kept coming to me throughout was “how did this get past alpha/beta readers??” Followed quickly by “I cannot believe that if I hadn’t just invested my soul into 17 previous books to get to this point, I would have DNF’d it.” 😳

I am so disappointed in how many things I disliked in the series. Let’s make a spoiler-free list in no particular order:

1. Open plot points from HOSAB were just effectively dismissed and no actual meaningful resolution occurred.
2. Where the fuck was Fury and why was she not a bigger part of this?
3. 75 perspective changes inside of a single chapter with no indicator (especially bad in the audiobook format) this made an already 30 hour book take literal HOURS of extra time rewinding and listening again to try and figure out who did what and when it changed.
4. Dumbass characters making reckless stupid decisions.
Sub point here: it really felt like in the early stages of TOG where people are young and reckless and immature but instead of them having the time and lived experiences over 8 books to grow and mature into the better version of themselves (which was 👌🏻) the entire “arc” occurs crammed into one book and feels thin/baseless/disingenuous.
5. I never thought I’d say an 800+ page book should have spread things out more but it should have been two separate books (á la Eos & ToD). There were just too many ambitious plot lines/characters/stories competing for page time and so instead of trimming some to fully flesh out the ones you keep or splitting into two books, they’re all sort of chaotic and rushed which makes the story feel disjointed and inauthentic.
6. Kind of related to 5, but SJM is famous for her character growth and well balanced storylines with beautiful relationships, but she just didn’t give herself the space to do that with this novel or really CC as a whole.
7. The crossover infodump.
8. SJMs famous “why didn’t you just tell her that in the first place.”
9. SO MUCH HEAD ST@BB1NG
10. Hunt/Bryce seem like a couple who should really just break up…. 😬
11. Bryce in general (weakest SJM FMC in terms of how well they’re written as leads).
12. Other main cast characters who aren’t even in this book.
13. Characters who only appear when SJM needs them for a plot function so they feel like tools and not people.
14. Questionable science “oh yeah, let’s just hold the _____ ____ open!” 😒
15. The rumbly in Baxian’s tummy that only hands can satisfy.

Now. A much shorter but MAY CONTAIN VAGUE SPOILERS list of what I loved:

1. Ruhn/Lidia - they got snubbed like Lorcan/Elide from more page time
2. Jessiba
3. The sprites
4. The message of unity
5. Patricide
6. ……it’s not a good sign that I ran out at 5 things?

Honestly, my thumbs are tired but if you want a more comprehensive and, frankly, hilarious review that is literally all the thoughts in my head too, here is another amazing GR reviewer’s thoughts: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4553540457

TLDR; didn’t DNF because I was stubborn but it tried to be too many things at once and so instead it was successful at nearly nothing. Very disappointed 😢 1.75⭐️

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sabickerstaffe's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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winterwoodbooks's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book had me ugly crying so hard I couldn't read anymore.

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