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House of Earth and Blood (Crescent City, #1)

Sarah J. Maas

Start date: February 1, 2022

Finish date: February 28, 2022

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What Members Thought

Mar 11, 2020 Dr. Andy rated it it was amazing

Shelves: audio-narrators-i-love, bookclub-read, read-2020, rad-reads-2020

Wow. This was something else. What a wild ride.

House of Earth & Blood is the new beginning to Sarah J Maas's Crescent City series and it packs a punch. This novel also marks Maas's official jump into the adult fantasy world. In HoEaB, we follow Bryce Quinlan, a half-human half-fae girl who had her world obliterated when her best friends were horribly murdered. Two years later, the archangel who rules Crescent City demands Bryce find the murderer along with Hunt Athalar, a fallen angel who serve Wow. This was something else. What a wild ride.

House of Earth & Blood is the new beginning to Sarah J Maas's Crescent City series and it packs a punch. This novel also marks Maas's official jump into the adult fantasy world. In HoEaB, we follow Bryce Quinlan, a half-human half-fae girl who had her world obliterated when her best friends were horribly murdered. Two years later, the archangel who rules Crescent City demands Bryce find the murderer along with Hunt Athalar, a fallen angel who serves as Micah's slave in his aerial legion and as his personal assassin.

A lot of people have mentioned that there is constant info-dumping through the book. But for me, I never had that vibe. I constantly wanted to know more about this complicated world and the characters' lives in it. Each character has such a complex personality and backstory it made for a really compelling read. While, there were several characters who had minor similarities to other characters Maas has written, this was a brand new world for me.

The plot is this simmering mystery that never seems to give Bryce or Hunt a break. It does give them ample time to annoy the hell out of each other, which they do. This was the slow burn of my dreams. I loved how stupid and silly they could be with each other and the pictures they would snap of each other, oh my god MY HEART. At first, I didn't think I'd love them, but oh how I did.

Bryce's friendship and love of her best friend, Danika Fendyr, permeates the story. Everything Bryce has done and does can be linked to Danika and how much she loves her. I really loved Bryce for how much she cared about Danika. I think there needs to be more friendships like this in all fantasy series. And more of the friendship between Bryce and Lehabah, because I am SOBBING.

There are so many characters in this story and I have no idea how to pick a favorite. All of the relationships that are built, broken and repaired throughout this story melted my heart and none more than Bryce and Ruhn's relationship. Bryce is the illegitimate daughter of the autumn King and has such a complicated history with her half-brother Ruhn. They pretend their cousins to everyone else. But oh my god, this sibling relationship made me so happy. I wanted them to work out their issues and face them so badly. I was not disappointed by the end and I better get to see some happy Ruhn and Bryce scenes in the future!!

Overall, this was phenomenal. I can't wait for the next installment and I need ALL the fanart right now! ...more

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Feb 13, 2022 Priya rated it it was amazing

Shelves: read_in_2022, read-in-2024

Enjoyed this book equally the second time around.

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Aug 05, 2020 Madeleine rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites

I honestly think this is one of the best things that Maas has written. It blindsided me a little bit because I wasn't expecting this to be so good, but here we are.

First of all, the characters are amazing. Each of them I feel like has a reasonable amount of depth to them, enough that they feel complicated, but they're straightforward enough that they're easy to follow. What's really, really fascinating is their relationships with each other. They way Bryce perceives Ruhn, Hunt. The way both of I honestly think this is one of the best things that Maas has written. It blindsided me a little bit because I wasn't expecting this to be so good, but here we are.

First of all, the characters are amazing. Each of them I feel like has a reasonable amount of depth to them, enough that they feel complicated, but they're straightforward enough that they're easy to follow. What's really, really fascinating is their relationships with each other. They way Bryce perceives Ruhn, Hunt. The way both of them think of her, of each other. They each have a few puzzle pieces missing from their perception because so many things go unsaid between them all for so long, because they make assumptions, because there are things about the others that are simply to complicated to understand. Reading all of that, seeing how perception differed from intent...it was just amazing. And it's not just between these three--it's with everybody who ever gets the mic. The interpersonal conflict playing out across these pages is definitely the B plot to the investigation, to the action, but it's never, never sidelined, and it's breathtaking.

The actual plot of this book is also incredible. It's got a vibe going somewhere of if, like...Vampire Diaries met Bones?? I guess?? Like, the vibe between Bryce and Hunt is definitely 100K slowburn enemies to lovers in a buddy cop series (which is why I picked those two shows to compare this to--they're the closest anything existing, that I've seen, gets--but there really isn't a fair comparison anywhere). The investigation twists and turns and every answer that comes before the end reveal feels both gut-wrenchingly plausible and yet too easy to be true. All in all: SO. MANY. TWISTS. SO MANY SURPRISES. Some of them, granted, were a little easier to guess than others. (view spoiler) But some of them had my throat getting tight at the flat betrayal that I DID NOT see coming.

The length of the book belies it's pacing though. This is not an edge-of-your-seat book. It's fucking long, and it's twisty, but it's not heart-pounding. This is the book equivalent of a full TV season. 22 episodes, each 45 minutes long. Maybe closer to an hour since, let's be honest, with all of the drugs and partying and mentions of sex, this is absolutely and HBO show. It took me a while to read this book because of how this book was paced and I am not and never have been a binger. Developments come at a realistically slow pace, but those developments also bring nice time for character development and world building. Maas has previously started with same casts--three main characters, minimal supporting characters. I don't care to count, but while this whopper has the expected three main characters, there's also a slew of side characters to keep track of, all of them significant.

On the note of how this compares to her other work, I want to add a caveat. While I do think this is some of Maas' best work, I'm disinclined to say it's one of the best works of urban fantasy ever. And, in comparing it to Maas' canon of works, I will admit that she borrows a bit from her other two series her, and I'm not just talking easter eggs (and there are some easter eggs). Certain character traits, phrasings, relationship dynamics that have popped up in her other works all exist here. To be perfectly clear, however, I do not think this detracts from the overall work. In fact, I think Maas makes it work for her. There are absolutely similarities, but for the most part, Maas is twisting them into a new story. She's formulaic (all your predictions about Bryce's power are probably 100% correct), but a lot of genre writers are formulaic. Yes, she always writes overpowered women main characters. And the boys are always a little bit broody with massive soft side. What. A. Crime. She also manages to write an incredible subplot about female friendship and supporting other women, and with those broody men, she always lays a good bit down about the importance of guys who are openly emotional, affectionate, and guzzle a gallon of respect women juice daily. Yes, all of her characters are impossibly attractive. I'm not saying that I don't have a little bit of beef with her on this, as well as her characters' obsession with sex (it's like Maas' has never heard of asexual people before, which, given our society, might actually be true), but she's also a romance writer, and not a really innovative one at that. I'm disappointed, but I'm not surprised.

The important thing is, I think she's starting to become aware of her overused tropes, and trying to work on the areas where she knows she's weak as a writer. I think there's hope for her writing more diverse casts. The body count in this one was heavy on the white people, and two SIGNIFICANT characters are lowkey in a lesbian relationship, revealed through a declaration of love from the scary, badass one. I also think (so much that I'm holding my breath and honestly hoping) that Bryce and Hunt will stay together in book two. No more sinking ships and sailing new ones for Maas here. Bryce and Hunt meet at the level of emotional damage that her other big ships did, and they help each other work past it in a meaningful way. I can't see her renigging on that. Also, she pokes a lot of fun at "alphaholes" and domineering male characters. There's a big emphasis on this book in guys learning to let women guide their own lives and make their own choices, and women learning that it's okay sometimes to let a guy into their life and be a little bossy because that's how friends are.

It was just...So. Good. And after that cliffhanger end, I want the next book as soon as possible, because, like so much else going on in this book, even when it seems like everything has been made clear, there's always another layer, a little something more we're not seeing just yet. ...more

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Jan 29, 2024 Mucia rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fantasy

The craziest thing was how I predicted some of the reveals and yet was completely shocked the last 200 pages in true SJM fashion. The wild ride that she always manages to take you on those last pages is *chefs kisses*🥰

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