Well I did it! I finished all 951 pages of House of Flame and Shadow by Sarah J Maas. House of Flame and Shadow (HOFAS) is the 3rd book in the Crescent City series and was highly anticipated for me. In the past I have considered Crescent City to be my 2nd fave Sarah J Maas series (behind ACOTAR); however, this book may have bumped it below TOG. My 3 initial reactions to the third Crescent City book are:
While Crescent City was originally supposed to be a trilogy, I believe with all of SJM’s success, her publisher wanted to extend the series. So now the book is going to have a 4th book! However, given that she still has to finish the ACOTAR series, it’s likely going to be a few years before we see the 4th book. But for when that day comes, I using this post to be a relatively thorough recap of HOFAS if you need a refresher before book 4. I really struggled the first 100 pages of HOFAS because I couldn’t remember ANYTHING from House of Sky and Breath since it had been over a year since reading that 2nd book. So having a good refresher of the previous book events is helpful!
There is a LOT of jumping of perspective in this book, so I will do my best to try and give a summary in a way that makes sense and consolidate without jumping around a ton.
The book begins in The Crystal Palace (the Asteri headquarters) with a conversation between the Asteri, Rigelus (the head of the Asteri), the Autumn King (Einar Danaan/Bryce’s father), Pollux (aka The Hammer), and Lidia (aka The Hind). If you recall from book #2, it ends with Bryce Quinlan ending up in Prythian (the realm in the ACOTAR series), specifically the Night Court. The Asteri is looking for Bryce and is using thousands of mystics that are in the catacombs of the palace to find her. We also learn in this part of the book that the rebel organization, Ophion, had really failed their mission because while they had destroyed the mech-suit and lab in Ydra (occurred in book #2), in secret Rigelus had crafted a army of even better tech suits and moved them close to the Crystal Palace. The ones in Ydra had simply been a distraction for Ophion. Lidia and Pollux head into the dungeons where Hunt Athalar (Bryce’s mate/husband), Ruhn Danaan (Bryce’s Brother), and Baxian (aka The Helhound) are being tortured. Hunt and Baxian have had their wings cut off with saws by Pollux.
If you might recall from Book #2, Lidia works for the Asteri but is a double agent and passes information on to the rebels under the name of Agent Daybright. Ruhn has mind reading abilities and used those abilities, plus a comm-crystal, to communicate with Agent Daybright/Lidia/”The Hind” to get information. They build a romantic connection, but Ruhn is unaware of Daybright’s true identity until later in the book when Lidia kills The Harpy (a fellow Asteri agent) in order to save Ruhn. Killing The Harpy is framed to be done by Bryce so that Lidia can keep her cover as a loyal Asteri agent, but Ruhn has a hard time grappling with loving Agent Daybright, but her true identity being someone who works for the Asteri who they are actively trying to overthrow. So now in House of Flame and Shadow, Lidia has an especially hard time seeing Ruhn (who she seems to have romantic feelings for) being tortured but has to remain apathetic as a agent of the Asteri. He refuses to talk to her through their mind connection though.
Honestly, not a whole lot happens in the parts with Ruhn, Baxian, and Hunt trapped in the prison, other than gore, them being tortured, and Hunt gets re-inked with a crown on his head. However, there is this interesting interaction where Price Aidas from Hel visits Hunt:
“To do what?” Hunt ground out.
“What you were born to do- to accomplish the task for which your father brought you into existence,” Apollion said before fading into nothing, leaving Aidas standing alone before the prisoners.
Shock reared up in Hunt, dampened by the weight of an old, unbidden hurt. “I have no father.”
Aidas’s expression was sad as he stepped out of the shadows. ” You spent too long asking the wrong questions.”
…
“The black crown once again circling your brow is not a new torment from the Asteri. It has existed for millennia.”
Page 122, House of Flame and Shadow
While this is happening, over in the Night Court and Velaris (ACOTAR universe), Bryce is being interrogated by Rhysand, Azriel, and Amren. Bryce gets down into a tunnel system below the Night Court and is found by Azriel and Nesta. They traverse the tunnels together and eventually get to a room where there is (what I imagined to be), a hologram of Silene– a ruler. Through Silene’s “hologram”, you learn that learn that long ago, the Asteri had tried to infiltrate different universes and entered Prythian/ACOTAR universe, but had been defeated– there they were known as the Daglan. During the time they ruled in the ACOTAR universe, Queen Theia was a servant to them and learned all about their instruments of conquest (The Dread Trove): the Mask, the Harp, the Crown, and the Horn. They used the Asteri/Daglan’s own weapons against them and destroyed them. The High King and Queen Theia took over, but Theia kept the island in which she had been a servant for herself and entombed the Asteri who she had served there. Theia gave birth to Helena and Silene. Theia became a bit power hungry and remembered that the Daglan had mentioned other worlds they had conquered, so she wielded the Horn and Harp to open a door to conquer other lands. She opened up a portal to Midgard (the planet that Crescent City takes place) where the Asteri were waiting, but claimed to be Fae like them and were welcoming and friendly. Midgard was already populated heavily by humans, so they enslaved humans and overtook their cities. Then a portal opened and shape-shifters entered Midgard who answered to the Asteri. Theia began to suspect that the “Fae” who existed on Midgard did not have good intentions and learned that they were not Fae, but actually parasites feeding off of the magic of others (Asteri). They learned that the Asteri had infected the water in Midgard to warp magic and require a coming-of-age ritual for all magical creatures in Midgard. When the ritual is done, a blast of magic is released and contained to feed the Asteri (this is known as The Drop you might recall from the previous books). They studied the star map that the Daglan had left behind and found another world that the Asteri had noted had overthrown them– Hel. Price Aidas of Hel and Theia actually became mates and Hel sent armies to try and help them overthrow the Asteri in Midgard, but they ultimately were unsuccessful. Silene was able to escape back to their homeland of Prythian with the Harp and the Truth-Teller dagger. Silene left the hologram has a record of what happened and she also left her power embedded in the room. When Bryce realizes she is her ancestor and the power embedded in the room is partially her inheritance [although honestly?… not really?], she takes it– this is big because she previously could only use her powers when she was “charged up” by another’s magic, now she doesn’t seem to require that. She quickly steals Truth-Teller from Azriel and steals back her Starsword and uses the Horn on her back to return home to Midgard.
“When knife and sword are reunited, so shall our people be”
House of Earth and Blood (Chapter 50), referring to both the Starsword and its twin Truth-Teller (Azriel’s knife from ACOTAR).
We also get the perspective of Tharion, Ithan, Flynn, Sigrid, and Declan. Tharion has defected from the River Queen and basically panicked and went running to the Meat Market and pledged loyalty to the Viper Queen. Flynn, Ithan, Declan go to the Meat Market to try to rescue Tharion. And if you recall from book 2, Sigrid was discovered to be a Alpha wolf and the Fendyr heir but had been trapped for years by the Astronomer and used as a mystic before Ithan rescued her. Sigrid’s father had at once been the Prime Apparent of the wolves until his sister, Sabine, had challenged him and won. Instead of killing him, she sent him into exile where Sigrid had been born and eventually sold to the astronomer. Lidia/The Hind visits them in the meat market and confesses that she is a double agent and that she has a plan to get Baxian, Ruhn, and Hunt out of the crystal palace. She needs them to help by hacking the cameras in the crystal palace when she plans to execute her plan and gives them her plan of how she will get them out and that they will all escape to the Depth Charger (the city boat owned by the Ocean Queen). Meanwhile, the Viper Queen makes a deal with Ithan that if he battles someone of her choosing and wins, she will let Tharion free. He agrees, but then when he gets to the fight, he learns that she has chosen for him to fight Sigrid. He wasn’t going to kill her in the battle, but unintentionally kills her, buying Tharion’s freedom. Tharion, Flynn, and Declan leave the meat market (but also blow it up before they leave) and hack the cameras to allow Lidia to rescue their friends. Lidia gets Baxian, Ruhn, and Hunt out of the prison and escapes them all to the Depth Charger.
And Hunt knew he’s treasure this moment forever: the moment when Lidia Cervos pulled out her gun and fired it right between the Hawk’s eyes.
Page 345, House of Flame and Shadow
When Bryce opens up a portal back to Midgard, she chooses to specifically go to the home of the Autumn King (her dad). She fools him into thinking she accidentally ends up there so she can learn what he knows about the Starsword, Truth-Teller, and the Dread Trove. She learns from him that a lot of answers she needs is in Avallen. She then entraps him and teleports onto the Depth Charger to be reunited with Hunt, Ruhn, and the rest of the gang. On the Depth Charger, you learn that Lidia/The Hind has two sons who now live on the depth charger and that Lidia serves the Ocean Queen. Lidia had to leave her sons and to be adopted by a mer couple in order to do the secret missions for the Ocean Queen.
The Depth Charger takes them to Avallen where they pick up yet another person, Sathia (Flynn’s sister) who had traveled to Avallen to receive asylum from the Asteri. Avallen is surrounded by mists that are apparently impenetrable by the Asteri, however King Morven of Avallen (the stag King) won’t let Sathia stay unless she marries one of the Lords of Avallen. She refuses and he threatens to make her leave since unwed women have no power or use for him, until Bryce and squad come and Tharion make a proposal to marry her (they have never met) and basically take responsibility for her. Additionally, Bryce forces Morven’s hand and he allows them to look into the Avallen archives and go explore the Cave of Prince’s where they are hoping to find some answers of how to beat the Asteri. Tharion, Sathia, Hunt, and Bryce explore the caves while Declan, Flynn, Ruhn, and Lidia plan to look through the archives. While in the caves, they run into Morven and Autumn King (who escaped the basement where Bryce left him) who have kidnapped Declan and Flynn without Ruhn and Lidia noticing. They escape and make it to the end-point of the caves where they put some pieces together that the caves are made of black salt and that drinking the water in them can let them communicate with Hel. Bryce and Hunt do so and talk with the Princes of Hel and learn that Theia’s magic was hidden somewhere, just like Silene had done. Bryce needs all of Theia’s power in order to unite the Starsword and Truth Teller to open up a portal to nowhere and defeat the Asteri. They also learn that Hel is willing to back them up with armies to defeat Asteri when they are ready. They also learn that the crown that is back on Hunt should technically not be able to contain Hunt’s power since he was “made” by Hel’s princes as a way to “fuel up” an heir of Theia to defeat the Asteri should they come along in the future. He has some of the powers of Apollion and Thanatos. When Bryce and Hunt finishing communicating with Hel, they find out that Morven and the Autumn King have cornered them again. At some point, Lidia and Ruhn had realized that their friends were missing and probably taken by Morven, so they head to the caves to back up their friends. Ruhn ends up killing their father, and Bryce kills Morven, thus making Bryce the queen of both Avallen and Valbara Fae. Lidia and Ruhn gathered some vague information in the archives that helps Bryce figure out that Theia’s power is hidden in the land of Avallen. She is able to get it by putting Starsword and truth-teller into a star on the floor of the caves. Since she already had 1/3 of Theia’s power as Helena’s descendant, plus the 1/3 from Silene that she took in Prythian, this gives he full access to Theia’s power. By releasing the power, it heals the land of Avallen and the castle crumbles.
Meanwhile, Ithan goes to the House of Flame and Shadow to try to find a necromancer to resurrect Sigrid. Jesiba (Bryce’s old boss) finds him and Ithan learns that Jesiba was once a sorceress/priestess at the Parthos library before the Asteri and Fae showed up in Midgard. She tried to protect the books from the Asteri and is under a curse by Apollion (Prince of the Pit in Hel) that makes her immortal until she reveals the power of the books to Apollion (tbh this whole part confused me). She helps Ithan by linking him up with Hypaxia, the witch-queen from previous books, who is a necromancer and has recently lost the throne as the witch-queen. Hypaxia attempts to resurrect Sigrid but inadvertently turns her into a reaper instead. She tells Ithan that she thinks she may be able to change Sigrid but will need a Thunderbird (people with lightening powers who were rendered extinct in book 2 when Sofie Renast died). Jesiba finds out that Sofie’s body is an Avallen, thus, Hypaxia and Ithan decide to travel to Avallen to get Sofie’s body (intention to resurrect Sofie to then resurrect Sigrid). The Under King then claims Sigrid since she is a reaper. However, when Ithan and Hypaxia get there, Bryce has defeated Morven and her father, and the castle in Avallen has crumbled, so Sofie’s body is irretrievable. Bryce tasks Hypaxia and Ithan with returning home to work on an antidote for the parasite that weakens their powers to feed the Asteri. Hunt packages up from of his lightening power in crystals for Hypaxia to use in hopes that it can fix Sigrid in the way that Hypaxia was hoping to use a Thunderbird to fix Sigrid. They get back and Hypaxia figures out an antidote relatively quickly, but uses all of Hunt’s packaged lightening in order to stabilize the antidote. She tests out the antidote on Ithan first and he gains magic and becomes stronger.
Ithan goes to the Den (despite being exiled) to confess what happened with Sigrid and to tell them about the parasite and the truth about the Asteri. When he gets there, he is confronted by Sabine who got Sigrid from the Under Lord. To the other wolves, she tries to frame Ithan as if he purposefully killed Sigrid. The way Sigrid teams up with Sabine, it is clear to Ithan that Sigrid is no better than Sabine and all of his fighting for Sigrid has been for nothing. But then the Prime comes out and names Ithan as his heir over Sabine. In a fit of rage, Sabine then kills the Prime and Sigrid eats his soul. Ithan ends up killing Sabine, but Sigrid escapes. The other wolves yield to Ithan as the new Prime of the wolves.
Meanwhile, Bryce and Hunt are in Nena where they plan to go open the Northern Rift bringing Bryce’s mom and step-dad. Bryce uses the horn to open a portal to the Night Court and see Nesta. She begs Nesta to borrow the Mask and uses her parents as collateral. Nesta ends up agreeing and lets her borrow the mask. They then have a run-in with the Harpy who had been raised from the dead by the Asteri using some of Hunt’s lightening that they had stolen. Isaiah, Naomi, and Celestina end up showing up. Using the Mask, Bryce ends up defeating the Harpy and opening the Northern Rift. Also at this point, Hunt is able to focus and erase the tattooed crown on his forehead himself and is actually able to erase it off Isaiah as well. In the end, they are able to smooth over the bad blood between them and Celestina.
Back in Luthion, Ithan then goes to the Under-King and asks if he can speak to his brother one last time as he feels so conflicted about being the new Prime of the wolves. During this interaction, we get this passage:
“And she,” the Under-King went on, gesturing to that unusual depiction of Urd towering above him, “was not a goddess, but a force that governed worlds. A cauldron of life, brimming with the language of creation. Urd, they call her here. Wyrd, we called her in that old world.”
Page 655, House of Flame and Shadow
This further connects the book to the ACOTAR series, because if you have read that series, the cauldron is the determiner of fate and what binds the world together.
The Under-King allows Ithan to see Connor one last time and Connor gives him a bullet which turns out to be full of the second-light of the dead with the intention for Bryce to use it in the Godslayer rifle (Jesiba’s rifle that Bryce used to kill Micah in the first book). The Under-King and Ithan have a stand-off and Ithan uses his new ice powers to turn the Under-King into ice. Hypaxia then enters and swings a brazier at the frozen Under-King, shattering him into shards of ice. By being the one who gave the killing blow to the Under-King, Hypaxia becomes the new Head of the House of Flame and Shadow. Ithan, Hypaxia, and Jesiba then head to the Eternal City to get the rest of the friends the antidote that Hypaxia crafted, plus the Godslayer rifle and bullet for Bryce.
Meanwhile Tharion and Sathia are going around Luthion trying to let people know that the Blue Court (River Queen) will harbor refugees and have a run-in with the Viper Queen who still has a bounty on Tharion’s head for burning down the Meat Market after Ithan killed Sigrid. Sathia sees that one of the Viper Queen’s guards was her lost childhood love. The Viper Queen almost kills them before Hypaxia shows up and is able to use her new title to save them.
Bryce, Hunt, Isaiah, and Naomi go to the Eternal City for the final Asteri stand off. They release footage of Bryce killing Micah the year before to news outlets as well as a message that Bryce and Hunt record to tell people the truth about the Asteri with the intention that it will distract the Asteri with a media mess that they won’t notice them about to ambush the Asteri. Slightly prior, Lidia learns that Pollux has her two sons held captive. Bryce and Hunt get into the Crystal Palace and Bryce uses the Mask to resurrect the souls of the Fallen Angels who died in the original uprising whose wings were kept as trophies by Rigelus. The souls end up going to the battlefield and taking on the bodies of the mech-suits that the Asteri was using against Hel’s armies, Bryce, and friends. Bryce is able to bring the Starsword and Truth-Teller together and kill one of the Asteri on the battlefield, which proves the hypothesis of how they can defeat them.
Lidia and Ruhn have a stand-off with Pollux. Ruhn originally shoots Lidia in the leg to prevent her from walking into a trap, but when Tharion shows up, he gets them the antidote and they are able to beat Pollux and save Lidia’s sons. The antidote reveals that Ruhn has healing powers and Lidia has big-time fire powers.
Bryce and Hunt have a battle against Rigelus and the other Asteri within the crystal palace, and Hunt uses his power to try and drive a hole through the cores of first-light power stored within the Crystal Palace that feed the Asteri. Bryce and Hunt get close to doing so and destroying them but then get stopped. Bryce and Hunt get separated, but not before Bryce gives Hunt the Mask, so that is Bryce alone battling the Asteri. Rigelus reveals that destroying the first-light cores is essentially a kill-switch for their entire world. They did so to prevent anyone from destroying the cores and overthrowing the Asteri. Bryce uses the Godslayer Rifle and second-light bullet to blow up the first-light cores anyway. This opens up a black hole that threatens to suck their entire world in. Bryce then uses the Horn to open up a portal to nowhere and sends the growing black hole through the portal (essentially a black hole to eat their black hole). The Asteri get sucked into the black hole, but so does Bryce. Bryce and Rigelus are floating through the portal and fighting one another while drifting slowly toward the black hole. Without oxygen in the black hole, Bryce begins to die, but Hunt climbs into one of the mech-suits (one that was occupied by Shahar’s soul) and goes into the black hole. Hunt dons the Mask so that he can survive without oxygen and shoots a missile at Rigelus, guided by Shahar. Hunt uses the propulsion of the suit to grab Bryce and get them out of the portal and away from the black hole before the portal closes.
By the time they get out though, Bryce is dead. However, Jesiba steps forward and is able to make a deal. She gifts her immortal life that she was cursed with by Apollion to Bryce. Hypaxia is able to do some kind of ritual/chant to make this trade/gift to Bryce (I also couldn’t understand this part lol). Bryce and Jesiba have a last conversation in a place between life and death and Jesiba tells Bryce to protect all of her books and artifacts from Parthos. Then Jesiba heads toward a distant hill where she can see the figures of her lost friends even though their secondlight is gone.
“It took their power. But what is eternal, what is made of love… that can never be destroyed”
Page 769, House of Flame and Shadow
With the Asteri defeated, Bryce uses the horn to fully close the Northern Rift to Hel and opens back up a portal to the Night Court where she gets her parents back and returns the Mask to Nesta but also returns Truth-Teller and gifts her with the Starsword. Bryce returns home and writes up paperwork destroying the monarchy of Fae in hopes to create a fair government for people. Lidia returns her sons to their adoptive fathers on the Depth Charger. Book ends with them trying to figure out a new way to power their world without using first light and also a way to get the antidote to everyone in the world. Bryce takes over Jesiba’s books and business of antiquities and has the fire sprites as employees to help guard the Parthos books that Jesiba had rescued. Pegasus’ also come back in Avallen– a nod back to book 1 where Bryce is obsessed with Jelly Jubilee.
This book was A LOT. It’s long. And it’s clear to me that SJM rushed to write it. Despite this book being so big, I felt confused so much of it. Like too much time spent on some things and not enough time spent on others that I just didn’t understand. And there were WAYYYY too many perspectives and plot points going on that I stopped caring about any of the characters. Like because there was so much, none of the characters really got a lot of time to develop and grow on me.
Things I did like? The ACOTAR cross-over. That was so fun for someone who has read and loves ACOTAR. Plus its creating all these theories. I saw one that theorized that Azriel is mates with Bryce because SJM has said that they can be mated with two people? Also probably because of the link between the Starsword and Truth-Teller. I don’t know if I totally buy into it, but it is interesting! It also makes me curious how CC is going to play into ACOTAR in subsequent books, especially now that Nesta has the Starsword. I just know it’s going to have a role somehow!
Rating: 2.75/5 stars
Not my fave, but of course I’ll be there when book 4 drops in 100 years! 🙂
This post may contain affiliate links. Please see policy page for more information.
Fall is in the air (although maybe not officially for a few more days), and…
All Signs Point to Malibu by Jennifer Snow came out TODAY and even though I…
Our first apartment was about a block from a California Pizza Kitchen, and while they…
August was a month of getting back into thrillers! Maybe it's because we are rapidly…
We have a sweet little toad (known as Mister Toad) in our yard who lives…
I have been wanting to give our boring, builder-grade half bathroom a makeover for well…
This website uses cookies.
View Comments