House of Flame and Shadow by Sarah J Maas

While this was not my favorite installment of the series, there is still a lot of interesting things to talk about in this episode. Some come join me as we unpack the final book in the Crescent City Saga, House of Flame and Shadow. 

Chapters

• 1:20 Plot
• 11:38 Characters
• 22:36 Themes

Transcript

House of Flame and Shadow. Now, I've got to spill the tea – this book wasn't quite the grand finale I had imagined after the first two mind-blowing installments. But hey, we're still in for a rollercoaster of emotions.

I fell head over heels for Bryce and Hunt in Crescent City One. The modern setting, the mysterious horn, and those unforgettable side characters had me hooked. The endings of the first two books? Pure literary fireworks. But then came House of Flame and Shadow. It didn't quite reach the sky-high expectations I'd built up during my two-year wait. Don't get me wrong; there are some gems in there, but just not as many as I would have liked.

In this video, we're going to dissect the plot, dive into the characters, and unravel the themes of the book. Stick around, because even if it didn't blow my mind, there's still plenty to unpack and enjoy in this latest chapter of the Crescent City saga. Let's get into it!

The main conflict of this book is simple: annihilate the Asteri. There were a whole of lot sub plots, so I think the best way to break down the plot is by giving the shortest summary of the whole book that I can give in less the 5 minutes so here we go.

Bryce end the book in Prythian in the Rhys’s deep dark city. She is interrogated by Az, Rhys, and Armen. They get nothing out of her, so Bryce returns back to her cell. Bryce then follower her heart… and  escapes through the creepy door in the bottom of her jail cell and ends up in a some unknown tunnels under Prythian. There she meets up with Nesta and a hidden AZ. They run into a midgard worm and then bryce cuts herself to trap Az and nesta with the worm so that she can explore the caves by herself. Nesta uses the mask to defeat the worm and Az brings her back by reminding her of Casian, so cute. Then the three of them find a cave the housed Thea’s daughter…. Bryce gets a history lesson and decides from this that she hates all fae and that they don’t deserve any happiness. Then a secret door opens and they find the an asteri. Bryce uses the star sword and the truth sayer to help slow the asteri and then Nesta uses her creepy magic to kill the asteri. Then bryce gets juiced up, she steels truth sayer, and she goes to talk to her daddy. While she is there she learns that if she fuses the sword and dagger together that it creates a black hole, she also learns that Hunt and ruhn had escaped and she goes to find them.

Meanwhile, Lydia is trying to Ruhn and the team out of jail. They have been tortured by Pollux and with the Harpie being magically brought back to life, Lydia is now on a timeline to get them out before she is found out. Lydia teams up with Declan, whats his face, Ithan, and Tharion to get Ruhn and the gang out of jail. Ithan wants to save Tharion and he ends up having to fight Sigrid to get him out. Ithan kills sigird but saves tharion and Ketos goes with Declan to help save ruhn. Ithan was supposed to go with them but he ends up going to the house of flame and shadow to find a necromancer to save Sigrid. 

Hunt, Ruhn, and Baxian are rescued and they are on their way to the super secret submarine. On their way there they are found by the hellhound and Lydia goes to fight him. She almost gets away when she is shot. Tharion finds her and brings her back to the boat and all of them manage to escape. Ruhn is conflicted on how to feel about Lydia. He loves her but she has done so many bad things. Then Tharion, Baxian, and Hunt are summoned to the Ocean Queen and who appears but Bryce. Bryce tells the queen that they are going to Old Fae land that is shrouded by mist. Yes this feels very familiar to where the creepy cave was. 

Bryce and hunt are reunited and Bryce yells at hunt that he better be on her team or else. We learn that Lydia has two sons that have been raised by the worlds best dads. This, of course, changes the way Ruhn feels about Lydia, and Lydia is ok with it kind of. Meanwhile Ithan is working for Jesiba when Hypaxia shows up all but hurt because she has lost everything, Celestina, her covern, and everything. She now has to swear her life to the underking. 

Bryce and the gang end up in Avellon  and then they get off the submarine and Tharion jumps off as well which is ill advised since everyone wants him dead. In old fae world the group has split up into 2 teams. Team caves and team library. However, before they can get to these places bryce has to deal with her awful uncle king of the court. She makes a deal that she can explore if she gives up the autumn kings journal. Also tharion proposes to Flynn's sister and they are now going to be married.

While the gang is exploring the caves below the Avellon. Lydia and Ruhn realize that they love each other. Bryce leads the group through the tunnels and they find the lair of sister number 2. Hunt and Bryce drink some crazy potion and go to hell. They talk to the princes and they make a plan. Then when they come from out the crazy dream and go to go back to old fae world they are attacked by the Autumn king and the Avellon king. Ruhn and lydia realize something is up and go to help find them. Bryce is fighting the kings with Hunt and Baxian when Bam. Bryce is on her back almost being murdered by the Autumn king. Then Ruhn comes out of nowhere and kills their dad. Then Bryce kills her uncle and they go to liberate the island. When the island is liberated is becomes beautiful and all of the old buildings get destroyed. Also there are flying horses… that are mentioned… and that is all. Oh I forgot to mention that Hunt learns that his dad is Demon and that he is literally a creation. But that doesn’t matter because it basically gets swept under the rug.

Ithan is trying to bring Sigrid back to life. They bring her back as a reaper zombie… gross. But hypaxia thinks she save her if they have thunderbird lighting so they make a course to old fae land. On their way the human world is attacked by the Asteri and they kill a mass amounts of people to make a point to Bryce. Then Hypaxia and Ithan travel to Avellon.

Then everyone ends up together back Avellon where Bryce is now Queen since there are no other heirs. Fury brings Jupiter and their mom in her sweet helicopter. Also hypaxia and Ithan show up and they are tasked with creating a cure for the parasite that the asteri put in the water. They take some of hunt’s lightning and then they are on their way.

Now everyone goes off on side quests to get ready for the final battle. Tharion goes with his fiance to the river Queen and that goes surprisingly well and she allows people to come seek refuge in her kingdom. Ruhn and Lydia go to recruit Isiah and can't find him but do learn that pollux has taken Lydia's sons… so she is anxious to get them back. Then we have our two most exciting story lines. Let's start with hypaxia and Ithan. Hypaxia miraculously finds the cure to the disease. She even remarks on how quickly she was able to find the cure but she had to use all the lighting so there is no way to save Sigrid. Then Ithan wants to talk to Connor so he and hypaxia go to talk to the under king. Connor isn't able to talk but he is trying to give something to Ithan. Then Ithan and the underking get in a fight and hypaxia kill the under king. With him dead hypaxia allows Connor to explain that they had made a god bullet and to get it to sharp shooter Bryce. 

Then the best part of this whole book… or at least it's my favorite part. Ithan goes to recruit the wolves for this war. He is a bit awkward with some of the wolves since he brings zombie Sigrid with him, but he gains access to the compound. Then the prime says that Ithan should be prime instead of Sabine. Sabine kills her father for saying something like that and then Ithan with his new awakened powers kills sabine while Sigrid feeds on the prime… not sure of that was necessary… But then Ithan becomes the prime but most of the wolves choose to get out of dodge instead of fighting with Bryce and Co, so he goes to the asteri city alone. Though he stops by to talk to hypoxia and she really wants to come but her urges her to stay and help people heal.

The last set up moment comes with Byrce and Hunt at the border between worlds. Bryce opens a portal back to the world of ACOTAR and Nesta is their with Cassian. Bryce convinces her to give her the mask and leaves her parents there as collateral and to keep them safe. Then Bryce opens the portal to Hel and The Princes are there as well as hel’s warriors and now the battle is ready to begin. 

Climax: The battle in this book is pretty epic. Bryce kills one of the Asteri with her blades and it almost wipes her out. Then the princes of hel step in to fight the rest of the Asteri. Meanwhile Lydia and Ruhn are trying to find her boys. They are getting close when Ruhn shoots her to keep her out of the fight… Then Ruhn fights pollux and Tharion shows up to help Lydia. Tharion finds Ithan and Ithan gives Lydia some of the bacteria killing elixir. Lydia then heals and goes to kill pollux herself! So cool. She has a moment with her sons then her and some fire sprites go to burn the place down. A total nod to Aelin and such an epic move. After Ithan gives lydia the potion, he goes to find bryce and give her the god bullet. Bryce is fighting Rigelus and losing. Then Ithan gets her the god bullet, tells her the significance and makes himself scarce. Bryce was intending to use the god bullet on Rigelus but then remembers the container of first light and goes to attack that. Rigelus tells her that if she blows that up she will also blow up the entire planet. She chooses to shoot the container creating a sort of black hole that conveniently sucks in all of the Asteri first. Then with the last of her strength she summons another black hole that sucks her, the black whole and all of the Asteri inside. Unfortunately the black hole also sucks bryce in and she is holding on the something to keep her inside the black hole but losing oxygen and Rigelus is using her as an anchor to try to get back as well. Hunt finds Ithan and sees bryce in the black hole. He is told he can’t save her but he jumps into a mech and goes to end Rigelus and save bryce. He brings her bryce back but unfortunately she didn’t make it.

Now to the resolution. Now this next part was probably my second favorite part of the book. Jesiba looks at Apollion and asks him to transfer her “curse” onto bryce and give her time instead. This was such a beautiful moment and when we see Jesiba and bryce talking I was bawling my eyes out. I will talk more about this later. Then Bryce and the gang send The princes of Hel and their legions back to their world, and bryce goes back to Nesta to give her her mask. When Bryce takes her parents back Nesta and Ember having a sweet parting moment and then all is set right. At the very end we see Queen Bryce and the gang setting up their new world. Each leader is taking their new place and establishing their space. And we get a set up for book for Which I am assuming will be called House of Many Waters and Tharion’s new fiance disappears to find a long lost love and Tharion is reunited with Ari. 

So now that we reviewed the plot let's talk about character development. 

Characters:

Bryce: I have to start with Bryce because Maas did my girl dirty. Bryce was one of my favorite characters. She is a ball of sass and her one liners are priceless, but because of some undealt with trauma, Bryce takes all her anger out on the Fae. This feels like a step backwards in Bryce’s character development. Yes, she has always been a tough smart mouth, but in this book Bryce’s anger affects her ability to see things clearly. She also seems to take this out on Hunt. On their first reunion she tells him that she needs him to be on her team and doesn’t seem to take into account his feelings at all. Now, she does feel bad and apologizes for this later, but it’s only a half apology. I love a strong woman but she shouldn’t railroad over Hunt’s feelings like that. Now Bryce does eventually have a come to Jesus and realize that what she has been feeling is unfair to the fae. This is in part from her conversation with Sathia and in part from her own musings, but she does realize that not all of the Fae are bad and that she could make some real change as their leader. 

That being said, not all things that happen with Bryce annoyed me. I did think the way that Maas gives Bryce different powers and makes her into a total bad ass is very cool. I also think that it is important to talk about people and their trauma and see characters that are going through difficult emotions. I just wish that she would have hashed out Bryce’s feelings a bit more and gave them her revelation a bit time and significance. It is like she just flipped a switch and went from being very angry to being excited to change the fae a bit too quickly for my liking.

Bryce was a dynamic character in this book because she is able to deal with her trauma and grow. However I do feel like she went backwards and then ended up in the same place she started so it almost feels like she is static. What did you think about Bryce in this book? I know some people weren’t bothered by her in this book, and I need to know why. Let me know in the comments.

The next character I would like to discuss is hunt. Now once again I feel like Hunt is a stock character that only exists to be Bryce’s mate. Maas has given him this compelling backstory of pain and losing everything and it feels like bryce makes him shove these feelings under a rug. In this book he learns about his father and how he is a creation of his father and the prince of hell, and Maas doesn’t really give him time to come to his own feelings about this revelation. Instead, he gets told by Bryce and Baxian how to feel about it. They say it doesn’t matter who your parents are. You are a product of your thoughts and actions. Which is a great sentiment, but I would have loved to see hunt’s exploration of his feelings. Maybe we will get to see him deal with these thoughts in book 4, but I doubt it. All that being said, Hunt is an excellent partner to Bryce. He always stands up for her and is there to catch her when she falls. His love for her is admirable. 

My favorite Bryce and Hunt moment is when Bryce is fighting the Stag king and someone asks Hunt if he is going to help and he says no she’s got this. Now I couldn’t find the direct quote for this so I could have made it up, but that moment made me smile. Hunt trusts Bryce and knows her power. I love that Hunt is someone who let’s Bryce be who she is and does not try to change her or bring her down. To me hunt is a static character. He isn't really given the opportunity to grow.

Now let’s talk about Tharion. I am surprised by how many people are not Tharion fans. I love him. Now he was a bit annoying at the beginning of this book. He gets caught up his own head, and he is not able to see clearly from his own self depreciation. Brooding male does seem to be SJM’s of men dealing with their own emotions and choices but I do love that she can laugh at herself. Here is a quick example..

“You could, uh, talk to her,” Flynn said from beside Ruhn, shutting yet another useless drawer full of catalog cards. “I can literally feel you brooding.” “I’m not brooding.” “You’re brooding,” Declan said from Ruhn’s other side. “You’re brooding,” Ruhn said, nodding to Dec’s taut face.”

Now back to Tharion. We are going to skip talking about him until he meets Sathia in Avellon. Him saving Sathia from her fate of being married to one of those terrible Fae males is what gets tharion out of his funk. He sees an opportunity to save someone like him from a mistake that he made. I also think that these two make a good pair. I hope that he gets her back in House of many waters, but we will see. 

Now what I noticed about Tharions story, that I hadn’t noticed before is that there are so many powerful women after him. The Viper Queen, The River Queen, Jesiba, The Ocean queen, Sabine. Wow that is so many powerful women. I will talk more about this later on, but I don’t know how I missed this in the other two books. I love the discussion between Tharion and the River queen. I think that this is important for his character growth because we are able to see that Tharion is able to gain the River Queens respect back. She sees how he helped Sithia and how he is able to put others before himself. His humility and acts of valor help to save the humans in the area which is a great redemption arc for him.

Ithan is another character that people don’t love and I don’t understand it. I love Holstrom and his moral compass. He stands up for the people in his life and he doesn’t run from a challenge. Now, like Tharion, Ithan has his brooding chapters when he is dealing with the fall out of freeing Tharion and killing Sigrid. However, I didn’t find his actions annoying. He was trying to save his friend and do what is right. Maybe deep down he was ignoring a higher calling or he felt like he wasn’t a worthy leader of the wolves, but I am glad that he finally came to the conclusion that he could be a strong leader. He also gets ice power which reminds me of Rowan from the throne of glass series. I couldn’t help but smile when that connection was made. Ithan does seem to be a bit lost still, and I hope that we get to see him more in book 4. I think that he will be a great leader.

Nesta: I wanted to quickly discuss nesta’s part in the book. I think that Nesta is the perfect character to deal with Bryce because of their shared experience. Both know what is like to be human and to loathe the fae. Both have incredible powers with dark backgrounds. And both women don't take crap from anyone. I loved the interaction between these two and could see them becoming friends under different circumstances. I also loved the interaction between ember and Nesta. losing her mother at such a young age was difficult for Nesta, and if anyone could understand her it would be ember. She is already the mother of a headstrong powerful woman and she must have insights that could help Nesta. I did think the addition of Nesta really helped to elevate this novel.

Now let’s explore Ruhn. For me Ruhn and Lydia made this book.Their stories were far more compelling to me than Bryce and Hunt, but I have always been on team Ruhn so I might be a bit bias. In this book Ruhn is dealing with the knowledge that the woman that he loves is The Hind. Lydia has done some terrible things, and he is not sure that he can forgive her. Then he learns that Lydia has two sons and he decides to forgive her of all her wrong doing. Lydia does point out that this does seem to be the reason that he accepts her actions, but leaves it at that. Ruhn and Lydia dance around each other mostly by avoiding each other until they get to Avellon. Then they finally have a heart to heart and find love. I am glad that they found their way to each other.

Ruhn’s other big moment in this book is when he saves Bryce by killing his father. This was a big moment for Ruhn and again it was kind of swept under the rug. Lydia does ask him how he feels about it but that is that. I am sure he wouldn’t have much guilt for killing his father because he was a terrible father to Ruhn but I do think that was a missed opportunity for character development. It was an epic moment for him to save his sister, but ultimately I felt like it was a missed opportunity.

Now is the time to talk about the strangest moment in the whole book. When Ruhn shoots Lydia. Why? I do not feel like this is in Ruhn’s character. While he is protective, he has worked so hard to bring up bryce and help her grow. It seems out of character for him to to just lydia to keep her out of the fight. It did lead to Lydia getting her powers back, which was amazing, but I don’t feel like it was necessary for him to shoot her. I feel like he has more trust in Lydia and her skills than that. Now I understand that he cares for her and knows that she would die to get her sons back, but that is no excuse; and those how know Ruhn tend to agree with me that this moment was strange for his character. Let me know in the comments what you thought about this moment. I would love to hear your thoughts about it.

For me Ruhn was another static character. He did open his heart to lydia and grow up but I don’t think that he changed much. He didn’t question his core values or do much introspection. I would have liked to see more from him just like Hunt. 

Now to the moment we have all been waiting for. The best character in this whole novel. Lydia! Since learning that Lydia is Day I have been a fan of Lydia. Even before we knew she was on team rebellion, I thought she was powerful and strong, but her being part of the rebellion was just icing on the cake. In this book Lydia only proves her worth. I love her added backstory. It gives Lydia more heart. The awkward moments with her sons and their adopted fathers was one of my favorite scenes of the book. Now this could be because I was adopted myself, so I could imagine how they would feel to learn who their mother was, but I think this whole topic was well handled and realistic. I also loved the nod to Throne of Glass with Brannon named after an ancient ancestor. I do not foresee a Throne of Glass and Crescent City collab but it is fun to see the pieces of these worlds blend together. 

Lydia is an important character throughout the novel. Her presence seems to instill fear in the King of Avellon and her and Bryce and her seem to be fast friends. I am glad that the Ocean Queen gives Lydia a reason to stay with Bryce and Ruhn, but I wonder if she would have stayed without her ordering her to. 

Now I do love Lydia’s mama bear moment at the end of the novel was awesome. Though I do wonder how Pollux got his hands on her boys. Did the Ocean Queen just hand them over? That would surprise me with all that Lydia has done for her, but also not so surprising. I am sure that she would give over two kids to save the rest of her people harm was a sacrifice worth making. 

Lydia’s transformation with Hypaxia’s cure was epic. We could see the many nods to throne of glass and Lydia having fire power was amazing! Her fight with Pollux and then finding the fire sprites and burning it all down. Perfect moment. 

Now there are some character I am sad we didn’t see more of. I am always sad that we do not get to see more of Ember. She is obviously an amazing women, and we get to see that since she helped Nesta with the short amount of time she was with her, but she is a side character that I would love to meet. I was also sad that we didn’t get to see more about Fury. Maybe she will get her own side novel. That is something I would be excited to read! However, I do love the way the side characters turned into main characters in this book. I know many people were annoyed with Tharion and Ithan, but I was not one of them. I am sure we will get to hear from characters we have come to love such as Fury, Declan. Flynn, Juniper, Fury, and Ari more in the next book. 

Themes: 

The Power of Women:

The women in this series are a force. I am not sure how I missed that there were so many powerful women in the past two books, but it was very clear in this novel. We have the Ocean Queen, The Viper Queen, The River Queen, Sabine the almost Prime werewolf, Jesiba, Hypaxia, and Celestina. That is so many women in power. In comparison to Maas's other novels, the portrayal of women's strength in this book is both impactful and incredibly cool. I understand why there weren’t as many powerful women in her other series since they were set in an older time period where women were not as respected, so it is fun to see a more modern setting with so many powerful female characters.I also love that even though these leaders are women they are not perfect. All of the people in this world have been corrupted and manipulated by the Asteri. I am excited to see the changes in the leadership after the leadership is gone. 

Also we would be remiss if we did not discuss the power that Bryce gains in this book. Bryce gains a whole lot of power when she goes to Prythian. Then more power in Avellon. Then more power when she gets the knife from Nesta. She is one powerful lady. Not this is not unique for female heroins in the SJM universe, but I do love that Bryce uses her power for good and she doesn’t let all of that power corrupt her. I also love how the men in her life empower her instead of fear her. Both Hunt and Ruhn are unquestionably team Bryce. 

One of my favorite quotes that deals with with topic is when bryce says

“I’m sick and tired of people using girl as an insult.”

This is what Bryce says to the Stag King when he and the Autumn king come to fight. I thought it was such a powerful moment. Bryce’s sassy attitude and modern sentiment make her the perfect new Queen of the Fae after she literally takes down the patriarchy. There is no statement more powerful than that.

Sacrifice:

The next topic I would like to discuss is sacrifice. Always in war there has to be sacrifices, on one side or the other. Now in this book it does feel a bit one sided, but many humans die before Bryce beats the Asteri, but no main characters die… with one exception Jesiba. 

Let’s talk about Jesiba’s sacrifice for Bryce. I loved this moment because it was so touching. Jesiba is willing to give up her life to save Bryce after Bryce sacrifices her life. Does it take away from the power of Bryce’s sacrifice? Maybe, but it was still a beautiful moment. Bryce didn’t think that Jesiba really cared for her, but Jesiba took Bryce in. She gave her a place after her friend died, and I am sure she had ulterior motives for being around Bryce but she does give her that pendant to keep her safe. Jesiba was almost like a big sister to Bryce and her sacrifice to her was beautiful. 

We should also note Hunt’s continual sacrifice for Bryce. Hunt has already given up his whole life for rebellion, and he has to put aside his own feelings to fight for what is right. It must be difficult to do this after losing everyone, yet he is willing to do so. This admirable sacrifice is something that should not be overlooked.

Lastly in the category of sacrifice we have Lydia. Being a mother is always a sacrifice, but being willing to give your children to give them a much better life is a difficult sacrifice. Ultimately, it was the best choice for Lydia’s boys, but then she had to continue to pay for that sacrifice. She had to make sure that her boys were safe, so she had to work for the Ocean Queen to make sure no one knew who they were. She sacrifices her soul for her son’s safety. This selfless sacrifice was beautiful. 

I think the take away for all of these sacrifices is that we sacrifice everything for the people we love.

Found Family:

Although Ruhn and Bryce and related, the rest of their rag tag band of miscreants. I love how they become each other’s family. I love this quote from Bryce:

Okay, let’s do a head count. If you’re disowned, disgraced, or both, raise your hand.” Tharion, Baxian, Lidia, Hunt, and Ruhn raised their hands.

I am excited to see the continuation of this little family in more books. 

I rated this book 4 out of 5 stars. Were there things I didn’t love about this book, yes, but it was still an excellent read. Maas’s ability to weave stories together and create worlds is incredible. And her relationship building and her ability to make relatable characters is unmatched. I think that the pacing of this novel was perfect. There was a balance between action, plot, and romance that is perfect for the ending of an epic trilogy. 

I hope you have enjoyed this episode of according to your English teacher. I would love it if you left this video a thumbs up and left a comment about how much you loved or how much you disagree with what I said. Your engagement with this video helps us to reach more people.