“Hard to enjoy being free, if you’re dead.”
“I can think of no better reason to yield my life.”
The Crescent City series opens with the first book, House of Earth and Blood. Throughout this we follow our half human, half fae main character Bryce Quinlan as she leaves behind her party girl lifestyle after her friends are brutally murdered. When the murders begin again two years later, with the accused behidn bars, Bryce is drawn into the investigation. As a key witness Bryce is pulled in alongside the infamous angel Hunt Athlalar, to track down answers and get to the bottom of the mystery.
I want to start with a warning, I cannot remember the last time I cried so much at a book. This book was incredible, and towards the end it felt as if my heart was slowly being pulled out of my chest. The way that Maas wrote a certain scene was completely and utterly heart wrenching and beautiful, and it was probably one of the only scenes I have ever managed to fully paint a vivid picture of in my mind. I just adored the writing, and even now months later while I’m writing this review I can feel myself itching to read it again because it was just so beautifully crafted and put together.
The pace throughout the book was odd, the first 100 or so pages I found slow and difficult to get into, but once I surpassed that it was really fast moving and I loved it. The pace really made you feel as though you were in on the investigation with Bryce and Hunt, and the twists and turns only aided this. Some of the book I did find predictable but then there were some truly shocking moments that I didn’t see coming and I felt like I was constantly on my toes which I loved. The way that Maas slowly teases out plot points I loved, having never read her work before it was a total surprise to me.
I enjoyed the world building, and as with any fantasy it was incredibly difficult to wrap my head around at the start but towards the middle of the book I started to understand it, and as it came more directly into the plot I really started to get it. I found it was perfectly done throughout the first book to leave you with questions and then find the answers and unravel those threads of questions in book 2, where we really start to get behind some of the main questions. So it is really satisfying as we start to get those answers and learn more about the politics of the world and how it all comes together.
I loved the characters too, Bryce although slightly annoying at the beginning (I found her to be a mix of I’m not like the other girls and I’m an edgy badass) definitely grew on me throughout the book. Her interactions with other characters were also great particularly with Lehabah (a fire sprite guarding the books at Bryce’s workplace) who is one of my other favourite characters but also with Hunt and Ruhn. I think that the relationships that Maas wrote were really good, showcasing her ability to write and convey emotions through, at times quite difficult relationships.They landed on some stereotypical tropes but the characters did have depth to them, something that was only further explored in book 2, House of Sky and Breath.
I definitely felt emotionally invested in the world by the end of the first book, and well and truly gripped, which made the wait until HOSAB came out all the more a struggle, and I couldn’t focus on any other books in between the time it took to finish and wait for the second to arrive! I think Maas does well to give such an immersive feel to her writing, really leaving you wanting more and feeling so deeply connected to the characters. I was really impressed, and after finishing HOSAB immediately went to my shelf and dusted off the ACOTAR books that have sat there unread on my tbr for almost a year to pick them up. I just couldn’t get enough of the writing, because although it isn’t as beautiful and flowery as I usually love, it was addictive and I couldn’t stop thinking about it.
The novels explore themes such as freedom really well, as we find Bryce a girl with relative freedom, around characters such as Lehabah and Hunt who are both slaves and how those relationships develop throughout the novel, as well as how those characters are motivated. I also really enjoyed the exploration of family, both found and blood and how those relationships impact on Bryce. Understanding the characters was essential to exploring the themes as you can clearly see their motivations for fighting, for doing what they consider right down to the relationships they form with one another. And this is only further developed in the second book as we meet new characters and the stakes get higher.
So if you’re a Maas newbie and intimidated by the sheer amount of love she gets online, I would recommend picking up her books. I really enjoyed the Crescent City books and found them to be a good introduction to her writing style, also because they’re definitely adult as opposed to ACOTAR which starts as YA and quickly moves firmly into the adult category. But the writing still has that quick and addictive quality that I find common among YA books. Ultimately, I loved it and cannot wait for the next installment and almost regret reading both just because I know I’ll have to wait ages for the next one!
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