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A review by tanya_tate
House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas
Did not finish book.
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Book Stats
Stars: DNFED @ 374 pages aka 47% 1 Star
Start Date : 03/3/20
Ending Date: 6/21/20
Genre: "Adult" Urban Fantasy
Form: Audio book/ Physical Book
Page Count: 800 got damn long pages
Publishing Date: March 3rd 2020
Point of View: 3rd person
Setting: Futuristic Terrasen I Mean Crescent City ....
You can read it on my blog!
3 months
3 months to finally say " Fuck this shit."
SJM first array to the world of " Adult" fantasy to can be summed in 6 words
" Fucking boring ass predictable fuck shit"
Now this is going to be more of a rant than of a review of the almost 400 damn pages I read because even tho I went to school and know what reading comprehension is, I can't tell you what this fucking book was about. .
I remember when I was just 100 pages in and my friend asked me what I was reading and what it was about. I couldn't even tell him what it was about because at that time the plot didn't even wasn't even barely there.
Then early last week when I was ranting to my sister about it and how I was thinking about dnfed it, I was like 300 pages in and I still couldn't tell her what it was about.
Even tho I took notes on it like I was in one my History 101 class since I feel like SJM decided to become a professor to teach about the history of CC..
It usually takes me no longer than a month to get through a book if I'm not really feeling it but 3 months?? We have been dealing with Covid-19 pandemic that fucking long! I was 29 when I started this book and I'm now I'm fucking 30!
It supposed to be an murder mystery set in a urban world based off of Norse Mythology and Rome but at this point the Scooby Doo gang could have solved at least 10-20 cases around the time it took SJM to describe Bryce looking at Hunt's bare chest.. Even tho all she had to do is copy and paste when Feyre did it to Rhysand and when Aelin did it to Rowan...
The only thing that happens in like 200 pages is the death of the main character friend and then another murder two years after that murder so both of them can finally be investigated? Also throw in the fact an powerful artifact is missing? Then for the next 100 so pages two other murders and explosion in a club happen but everyone acting like it's not really a big deal per se? Reason why I say this because this book was going such at a snail pace at the pages I read and listen that it didn't feel like a murder mystery. There's a fucking murder on the loose, who killed two other people after the initial murders, blew up a night club, may have a priceless artifact and it's no sense of urgency to find out who the fuck this person is an why they are doing this? But we have time for Bryce to show off that she can shoot and damn gun at a shooting range and have sexual innuendos with Hunt shooting through the same hole that she did?? While giving bedroom eyes? Also have time to describe Hunt bare chest as well??
Agatha Christie is rolling over in her grave 100 times over. J.D Robb is shaking her damn head as well.
This book feel like file she had deep in her computer that was other secret outline for Throne of Glass which she blew the dust off and decided to put the world " Fuck" in it 485 times.
She made sure you couldn't find this one on the internet unlike you can find Queen of Glass..
Because seriously the characters almost match the same character beats as Throne of Glass.
A Throne of Earth and Blood
Bryce- Aelin: Both have this cocky swagger about them and have powers that haven't unlocked yet.
Hunt- Rowan- Both worked for an evil queen type character and evenly fall in love with the main heroine but first betray the main heroine a brief min. Also have a first love that was murdered.
Ruhn- Aedion: Prince/Warrior who has a lot on his plate when it comes to his destiny and is pretty much a cousin/ brother to the main heroine
Danika- Nehemiah: Best friend to the main character who got killed and give the main heroine her plot. Hands are not clean at all cause she hide some things from her bestie.
Isaiah-Chaol: Commending officers
Micah- Ewran: Want to obtain artifacts in order to open up to other worlds in order to bring an army through.
Sandriel- Meave: Evil queen characters who don't min killing off " relatives" to get what they want. Also have the main lover interest works for them for a while.
Conor-Sam: Trying to shoot their shot with the main character, got killed, and didn't even get a date with the main character. The fandom still crying over their deaths.
Pollux-Carin: The ones who do the " evil queen" work.
Like I said Throne of Glass in a Urban Setting..
Then you got a couple side characters that gets a little bit of page time but still not enough..
Lele was the best side character there was in this book tho..
Like Juniper who would be interesting since she supposed to be a black character and a ballerina and a friend of Bryce but the fact she's a faun.
You know Mr. Tumnus Character in the Chronicles of Narnia..
So the only black character in the book is part animal.. It's a step up from the only black character to be killed to farther the plot along but I digress.
Also I find out thanks to the wiki that she's also supposed to be in a relationship with Fury... Which also a side character and friend of Bryce
Which is funny because I wrote a status post about the fact SJM was probably was going to make the side characters LBGTQ Rep and not main characters..
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I just remember as I write this that Isiah supposed to be gay but is also a side character so that proves my point...
But ok SJM! I see you with your Black Lives Matter and Pride IG post.....
At this point, we should just forget about her trying to write diversity. If she wants to write a 200,000 word smut fanfic where her two white heterosexual main characters bang everywhere in the damn house just let her do so. I don't have to buy it but what she can do is help promote other authors who can write diversity.
This is Sarah J Maas 14th published book if you count Catwoman book in this even though those where not her characters.
She has two other highly successful book series under her belt which one was is consider Young Adult and the other is New Adult.
Like I said earlier this was her first array into the Adult world which so many YA authors are making that drive from YA to Adult
Just because you say the word " Fuck" over 400 times does not make a book " Adult"..
It's like a new baby learning a new word and people think they can quote Shakespeare now....
Just because your put sex , drugs, and violence in your book doesn't make a book " Adult" either.
It's doesn't' make any sense to make this book 800 pages with the same shit she did with the other two series.
Just because you can write 800 pages doesn't mean you have to write 800 pages. Especially if the book you are writing 800 pages IS THE FIRST IN THE SERIES!
Kingdom of Ash being 1,000 pages?
Make sense since it was last book in the series and she was wrapping even thing up. ( Even tho she could have shed maybe 100- 150 pages off)
This being 800 pages?
No sense at all because majority of the book is info dumps and it's just the beginning.
Just because you are writing an Adult novel doesn't mean your word count have to be higher because they are plenty 300 to 400 page adult books out there.
Her editor should have told her " No Honey! Yes your fans are going to read it because you can write a 100,000 word smut fanfic and they eat that shit up but if you are trying to get other people who haven't read your work to read this you need to cut this down."
There is no fucking payoff if you wade through 300 to 600 pages to get to the final 200 pages that everything jumps.
I have seen so many reviews saying " Oh push through to the last 200 pages when it gets good."
Fuck that shit. The only reason why I pushed through because my sister bought the book for me as a birthday present.
We shouldn't have to wait that long to see something good happening. Especially if a person who is reading book have a short attention span and this maybe their first SJM book they are read.
This book was made for her fans in mind that will waddle through this but that is not me anymore.
It took me less than two mins last night to look on the wiki and look up the book summary which was the final deciding factor for me. I'm not about to spend another 350 pages to the end and waste more time on it.
The reason why I liked SJM in the beginning because her books didn't feel predictable in sense of her doing predictable tropes in other books but now. She's a victim of her own tropes that she created in her books so now she has become predictable as hell.
So she not Sarah Janet Maas anymore but Sarah Predictable Maas.
So I think my marriage with SJM is almost over now. I'm going to read Nesta book but if that one not interesting I'm leaving her for good.
If you want a Adult/PNR book that is murder mystery with a good plot with interesting characters with some of smut go read Firelight, the first book in the Darkest London Series by Kristen Callihan. It's a Beauty and the Beast/East of the Sun and West of the Moon retelling set in Victorian Steampunk London which the page count is about 387 pages so it's half of CC.
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