Rating: 4 out of 5
As the final book of the Crescent City trilogy, “House of Flame and Shadow” is an action-packed, 700-page finale to the series. Set in the world of Midgard, Sarah J. Maas’s impeccable world-building skills create a fantasy world that transports you to a land of magic.
Centered around Bryce Quinlan, a half-human half-fae, the book starts off right at the cliff-hanger at the end of the previous book. “House of Flame and Shadow” follows Bryce who has traveled to a different world and the aftermath of what happens to the other characters.
This story is shown through the eyes of various characters: Bryce Quinlan, Bryce’s lover Hunt Athalar, Bryce’s half-brother Rhun Dannan, Tharion Ketos, and Ithan.
In line with the other two parts of this trilogy, this book was very long with too many plot twists. However, because it has so many narrators throughout the book, it seems much shorter than it is, but it could have been condensed.
In typical Maas fashion, the book switches between these multiple points of view.
The plotline can get a bit confusing to follow with such abrupt switches between the different characters’ stories, but they are all interwoven with one another.
The books are connected to Maas’s previous series, “A Court of Thorns and Roses.” It is helpful but definitely not necessary to read the previous books to know the full context of what is happening in this book and the characters from the other series.
“House of Flame and Shadow” did not cultivate the unique personalities that Maas had created for her characters in the previous books. It seems that Maas uses this book to recreate her popular series so that it would sell better, rather than trying to really develop the characters as their own people.
Maas tried to replicate Bryce with the personality of Aelin, a character from her “Throne of Glass” series. Bryce’s snarky and lighthearted character was replaced with a calculated and fierce personality without any clear character arc or transition to make her this way.
Reading the previous two books in the Crescent City trilogy is essential to reading this book but the world that Maas creates within this trilogy is truly astonishing.
Her ability to place easter eggs at the beginning of the series that give clues to what happens at the end of the series shows her attention to detail and amazing plot-building ability. I truly enjoyed this story for how well-established the plot is, but it felt like Maas was trying to mimic the characters from her other books.