House of Earth and Blood

2nd read:
i wish i was as sweet and innocent as i was the first time i read this. not going to go into details of my feelings about the author but i've grown out of her books.... that's unfortunate


1st read:
5 stars
OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD

I LOVED THIS WITH MY WHOLE HEART

it's unfortunately slow for the first 200 pages but once things start happening it goes HARD. the slowness didn't change my rating at all because of how strong the ending was

 I absolutely adore Bryce and Hunt. The characters in general were all wonderfully written. This book did surprise me at every turn, though. House of Earth and Blood was nothing like I had anticipated. I cried, I laughed, and I had to put the book down in utter shock! It is basically a murder mystery set in a modern fantasy setting, which is something I've never read before. The magic system and political system were a little too complicated for me personally, but I was still able to understand what was going on even when I didn't understand small details.

5 ⭑
Ich liebe einfach alles an diesem Buch. Die Charaktere, das setting, der Plot und auch der Schreibstil ich bin einfach nur total überwältig. Habe echt nicht erwartet es so sehr zu lieben.

Es ist definitiv eins der besten Bücher die ich je gelesen haben und es hat mich so sehr berührt und zum weinen gebracht einfach alles perfekt ❤︎❤︎

This is my second time reading this book. It came out at the beginning of 2020, and I loved it then. This second time didn't make it any less. Maas has a way of reaching inside my chest and ripping my heart out. I swear I cry in every one of her books. If you've read her other series, you'll know she sticks to a lot of the same tropes, and this one isn't an exception. However, this is definitely one of the strongest friendships she's ever had. The relationship between Bryce and Danika is amazing. Even though there is a romance story, Danika is Bryce's person. It's so incredible to see this relationship.

The plot starts out kind of slow. Maas does a humongous info dump in the first 100-200 pages or so. But then after that, it picks up quickly and you won't want to put it down. I'm so excited and anxious for the next book in this series. I highly recommend to fantasy and/or romance fans.

I am a huge Sarah J. Maas fan, and this one was no different. I struggled a little in the first 100 or so pages, as this is a whole different era, set in modern day, and there was a lot of set up (that was 100% needed) for the plot of this book to actually get going.

 HOWEVER, once we understood the world we were in and the stakes of this world, it was fantastic. I love the themes of loss and how to not lose yourself in loss, I love the romance themes, learning to trust and over come past hardship and trauma, plus the over arching story is building to something I can already feel will be great (remembering this is book one in a minimum 3 book series) it is over 800 words and I devoured it all. 

Very excited for the rest of this series

4.75-5/5 stars

wow, this was crazy! especially those last 200 pages. i have so many feelings about this...i had a lot of fun while reading this but at the same time so much stuff annoyed me!
like, i loved the friendships, Ruhn, the cat that is not a cat and the setting of the book. but at the same time, i wasn't a fan of the romance for the majority of the book (i only got semi invested in like, page 700) and the overall plot didn't feel original, in fact, it felt like a mashup of TOG and ACOTAR which annoyed me.

still, i'm interested enough that i'll be picking up book 2!

Okay. I'm way too lazy to make the notes I took while reading into an actual coherent review so...I'mma just copy paste:
Oh my god I can't believe it's taken me two months to read the first 200 pages. I'm so bored and confused.
There are too many characters to follow so early.
Okay...here we go.
I would die for Syrinx.
I love mlp too Bryce.
I feel like Danika is bad...
Ahhhhh I love these otters.
And merman can get it.
Finally!!
Oooh couch scene...
Eww couch scene...
Tf Danika. Tf Hunt.
Okay Danika is good. Duh.
NOT SYRINX!!!
I hate sjm. Justice for Lehabah.

5★
i went into this knowing next to nothing, and what i was left with was nothing short of an emotional rollercoaster of tears, excitement, love and friendship. this was impossible to put down and i had to stop myself from reading a few times just to take a breather. i didn't know what to expect but i sure as hell was not disappointed

When I was younger I fell in love with fantasy books. I'd seek them out and become obsessed with the different characters and worlds. Over time I stopped reading so much fantasy and started reading more Thrillers and Horror books. This book reminded me why Fantasy is such a great genre and how it can pull you into a whole new world.

I devoured this book. Like, couldn't stop listening to it. Don't get me wrong, there are times that it dragged on and gave a bit too much information for my brain to comprehend. That did not deter me and it paid off. By the end, I felt I had a good grasp on the world, the creatures, the magic, and the characters. It's a rollercoaster as well. Time after time it seems it's getting the high point of the story. And then it comes down only to bring you to the next exciting part. It is a large book where a lot of things could have gotten lost, but I think the length did it justice.

Overall, a 10/10 for reminding me what it's like to get so engrossed in a world that is nothing like your own and falling in love with characters that you'll never get to meet. I haven't been excited for a new release like I am about the next one in this series for a long time.

Sarah. You can not use existing words and give them a new meaning just because it happens to suit you. You have quite a lot of influence among young fantasy readers, and I fear that I will be hearing a lot of people talking about Vanir as if it was a synonym to sidhe, and other words you have used. It seems to me that you didn't even bother checking if the words already existed and had a meaning.

And the names... sigh

And the complete mess of mythologies and cultures and... eh.

I would love to like Sarah J. Maas, but I don't.

I have such a complicated relationship with SJM where I'm like, this is always so epic and sprawling and nonsense and all the stuff I generally don't like in fantasy, and I can never keep the characters straight or remember any plot points, but I'm also always just like



So I was excited to get my hands on her first urban fantasy book, hoping it would cut down on some of the fantasy nonsense, and.....it somehow all just felt more strange and more surreal than her pure fantasy? Like this is a world where the internet is unironically called “the inter-web”?? and allegedly snarky, world-weary characters have a whole conversation about “mer murders” without ever pointing out the hilarity of “mer murder”??? Is....Sarah J. Maas an Earth creature??? I would not be shocked to learn that she is of another realm.

Also it's weird that some concepts here seem to be from Norse mythology (Vanir, Hel, etc) but then also fucking whatever SJM is horny for (angels, Fae, vampyrs, etc). As in her traditional fantasy books, there's a bunch of weirdness about alpha males and slavery and like, whatever. You could write a dissertation about the problematic horniness of SJM. Probably someone has.

But I'm still gonna keep reading her books bc the trash is somehow so compelling to me!!!



–

upon re-reading this for the podcat I mean IDK if I stand by the 3 star rating I originally gave it but whatever. i have devoted so many hours of my life to this woman's nonsense.

https://www.frowl.org/worstbestsellers/episode-250-house-of-earth-and-blood/

Wow this was a wild ride.

Props to the author for killing off a bunch of characters at the beginning (I honestly thought they were going to get resurrected, since there was a decent amount of time dedicated to them).

Then there's the usual “wow this guy is scary and bad but this quirky girl doesn't care!” And then they fall in love etc.

Tbh felt like the plot twist where Hunt was caught buying drugs came out of nowhere and it all went downhill fast from there. Not sure why Bryce was like “I'm going to do something smart” and then proceeds to try and beg to exchange his life for hers (how is that in any way smart, that is SO DUMB).

And then the final battle, it was like everyone was sitting around watching on a Zoom call as she fought Micah by herself? Like what? The battle was actually kind of cool but that really ruined it.

And then the classic “wow she actually had powers and is like the most powerful person ever!! The chosen one!!”. The end.

Really dumb, but I guess Sarah J Maas is kind of like a trashy guilty pleasure at this point lol.

DNF page 57. I was really excited to read a Maas book since she's so popular and this is her first adult book, but she's like a little kid who first hears a cuss word and wants be cool by repeating it over and over again. I swear I read “fuck” or “gods-damned” multiple times per page. My language is by no means clean but if you have to cuss a lot in your music or writing then that just shows lack of originality and skill.

2024 reread:
I was going to skip this book because I wanted to rush to cc3 and read it upon its release. However, I don't remember enough details of HOSAB, because I rushed through it upon its release, which made me pick it up. When I started re-reading cc2 I decided I couldn't continue without cc1. Hunt and Bryce are my favorite SJM couple and I just couldn't go on without rereading the book where they become friends, help each other heal and then fell in love.

I love so many things in this book! It's far from perfect and Bryce annoys me to no end, but it's also a roller coaster of emotions and I'm all for it.

I love how Bryce and Hunt are grieving, how wonderfully well written their emotions are and how their friendship helps them find the path back to life.

I love how they fight for each other, but most importantly, how they accept each other completely, enough to forgive.

I see you, Quinlan, he silently conveyed to her. And I like all of it. Right back at you, her half smile seemed to say.

It's a beautiful love story and I can't wait to see their HEA.

P.S - I'm going to continue being offline to avoid any possible spoilers. See you all soon.