Crescent City- House of Earth and Blood

House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

S.J.Maas
Crescent City
This is a review of the most recent novel published by the author S.J. Maas.
This most recent work by Sarah J. Maas has received many mixed reviews by the readers of her work. This is not unusual as one thing that Maas does quite well is spin and weave a tale completely different from the ones before it.
Often times an author writes one genre of books in a certain vein and doesn’t veer too far off from the established path. However; Maas has never been one of those authors. Her Throne of Glass series, her first published work, garnered her a following of readers that clamored for more. Maas was already plotting her next series A Court of Thorns and Roses and many readers, like myself, were stalking that first novel online at Goodreads like hounds on a sent. If you are like me and you’ve read both of these series you know that they share only surface commonalities. Both series feature the Fae and Humans and that’s about where the similarities end. Many readers of the Throne of Glass series are not fans of A Court of Thorns and Roses and the reverse is also true. Why this dissonance of readers between series? That’s easy enough to answer when you look at the stories themselves. Each series explores a very different type of heroine. The struggles and themes and yes even the plots are not the same story. Often when a reader says to an author “we want more books” what they are really saying is “We want more books like this one” and Maas does not write the same story over and over again. Each series stands alone and apart from the one before it because each main female lead is a different character with different personality traits, different strengths and weaknesses. As a reader none of us reads the same book. The story and the characters are filtered through our own life experiences and our own prejudices. This more than anything accounts for much of the dissonance between fans of Maas’s work. If Aelin is your female lead of choice you’re going to need more convincing to get along with Feyre and if Feyre is your female lead of choice you’re probably not going to like Aelin very much Thus to truly appreciate Crescent City the reader must put behind them the series before and come to the new one fresh. This is difficult for many readers to do and thus you have the dissonance between readers. Cresent City’s main female lead is not exempt from this either as Bryce is a unique and different female lead. She exhibits many of the same character traits of both Aelin and Feyre with new and deeper layers that set her apart from the previous two. This is to be expected as Crescent City is not YA but Adult genre.
Crescent City the new book in her new world is a true delight and joy to those who love to read Epic Fantasy. In a seamless weaving of storytelling Maas has woven not just a world building, epic fantasy story but she’s given us, what is possibly, the first ever Post-Apocalyptic, Epic Urban Fantasy story in existence. If that doesn’t excite you then this newest world of hers is probably not for you.
Crescent City The House of Earth and Blood begins with a party and ends with a bloodbath as all the finest Urban Fantasy does. Where Crescent City diverges from most Urban Fantasy is the very rich and layered world building that is most often seen only in Epic Fantasy. Maas does a masterful job of weaving the world building elements of Crescent City into the story elements themselves. This is a work that requires the reader to be fully and actively engaged in the world building and characters from the very beginning. These world building elements play a crucial role in the later developments that occur throughout the story. Simply put if you don’t pay attention from the first page to the last you will miss out on much of the stories layers. As a seasoned reader of many different genres of literature I can say with humility that I myself missed some major foreshadowing moments in the first few chapters and lived to regret it. I’m here to tell you that you MUST pay attention as no words or situations are wasted in this book. Every element of the world building in Crescent City drives the story and the character reveals forward.
Crescent City is a work of art to those readers who love world building and slow burn relationship building. Nothing happens quickly in this book and as many of us Maas readers know she is notorious for blowing holes in her own ships and that happens often in this massive piece of work. Expect to have your heart broken, rebuilt, broken again and rebuilt again. Take nothing for granted in this newest piece of work and expect to have your mind blown again and again throughout this epic piece of work.
Crescent City is not a book for readers expecting down and dirty fast story reveals. It’s not a piece of work for those who want to “just get to the point” it’s a piece of work for those who prefer a slower paced story with more detail and rich character building and world building. This is a tapestry of work not a two dimensional painting and just as you appreciate the different technique and skill required to weave a tapestry or paint a Picasso you must also appreciate the different technique involved between writing a YA fantasy and an Epic Fantasy. Each is beautiful in its own artistic sphere and should be appreciated in its own right. This is true for Crescent City as well. Come to this world with no prejudices or expectations of her past works, enjoy the House of Earth and Blood and Bryce’s story for the epic, post-apocalyptic, urban fantasy that it is and you will experience an epic story line with a rich and varied world.



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