Review: House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas

Wow, what a mixed bag.

The good

• An interesting fantasy world that takes place in the modern world, but includes werewolves, angels, fairies, vampires, and all sorts of other mythical beings.

• Some emotional, moving scenes of deep friendship, love, and sacrifice.

• An intriguing mystery.

• A few funny moments of banter and romance.

The not so good

• Some parts of the story feel deeply juvenile: corny dialog, lame humor, etc. I suppose that’s not too out of place for a young adult book.

• Some parts of the story are straight up pornographic. It starts with sexual innuendo jokes, which is fine, but then escalates to several fully-written-out sex scenes. That felt out fairly out of place for a young adult book.

• Some scenes are genuinely dramatic and moving; some cross the fine line and go straight into cheesy.

• The action scenes are fairly lame.

• The mystery starts out good, and even has a wonderful twist part-way through… But then all that is thrown away in favor of a much more generic solution. Felt like a waste.

Overall

I’m torn on whether to keep reading this series/author. There are some real strengths here; but some seriously cringey weaknesses too. I’m probably not the target audience for these books.

Rating: 3 stars