Spoilery Book Reviews

House of Sky and Breath by Sarah J Maas

Back of the book

Bryce Quinlan and Hunt Athalar have made a pact. As they process the events of the spring, they will keep things platonic until Winter Solstice. But can the two resist, when the crackling tension between them is enough to set the whole of the Crescent City aflame?

For they are not out of danger yet. Dragged into a rebel movement, Bryce, Hunt and their friends are unwittingly pitted against the terrifying Asteri – beings whose notice must be avoided at all costs. But as Bryce and Hunt learn more about the rebel cause, they face a choice: stay silent while others are oppressed, or fight. And they've never been very good at staying silent.

My thoughts.

(warning: for each successive book in the series the reviews are shorter and more haphazard oops)

I forgive SJM for all her faults due to the surprise ending that HAS ME SCREAMING. I'm so glad I managed to never find out spoilers so if you haven't read this series do yourself a favour and DON'T READ THIS REVIEW. With that out the way, I am overjoyed about the crossover and am going to jump into reading the next book instantly. I am so excited by all the possibilities the next book has.

Now for criticisms: I want to talk about names – there are too many of them for every character. Hunt Athalar. Orion. Umbra Mortis. Alphahole. The shadow of death. Athie.

Bryce Adelaide Quinlan. Quinlan. Starborn Princess. Bryce Danaan. Legs.

I'm not sure if that was all of them. I also find it weird that they use their last names more than their first names. Especially in bed, or any sexy context. IRL, last names in bed are only hot if it's a power play kink. General sex and general use of your last name? Kinda weird, especially since this society is supposed to be modern, considering the phones and other technology. If this were a society set in a different era perhaps referring to people by last names could be a believable quirk.

Most of this story was one of our (many) main characters finding out some important, super secret information. The source tells them to keep this to themselves at all costs. So this person immediately tells a MINIMUM of two other people. The secrets were not kept very secret at all and everything "secret" was known to at least ten characters (informant, Bryce, Hunt, Declan, Flynn, Ruhn, Tharion, Baxian, Hypaxia, Ithan). It would have been more interesting and created greater tensions if each character had a different subset of information, to reveal the whole truth for the ending, but this was not how this novel played out.

There was a large cast of characters that all felt they were trying to have 'main' storylines and it felt messy. It felt this novel was a collection of small sub stories that weren't tied together strongly with a main plot: the plot felt weaker than the first book. The main plot reveal of the Asteri feeding off the magical beings was awesome, and finally explaining the universe travels. The particular universe Bryce travels to also makes the entire books worth it.

The other thing to scream about in this book: Sarah J Maas used the word clit. I thought this day would never come and that it was now part of her brand to specifically avoid the word clit, alas I have been proven wrong and happily so. I have no qualms about the sex scenes in this book and I'm glad they didn't actually wait until the winter solstice.

In conclusion, this novels' weak points were following too many characters, each storyline being shallow and every "secret" being widely known (ergo, not very secret). I still enjoyed this book, the tone of writing bothered me less and I was over the moon to read the word clit. The ending blew every other thought I had out of my mind so all I can think about is what Rhysand will do next. 😉

TL:DR

No secret is truly a secret and there are more characters than Maas can handle writing about. The ending is her saving grace and only hope.