Crescent City: House of Earth and Blood Re-read Thoughts
Hello everyone and welcome back to the blog! I have been on a Sarah J. Maas reading binge lately if you couldn’t tell. With all of the hype surrounding the announcement of Crescent City 3: House of Flame and Shadow, I decided that it was finally time to read the second installment, House of Sky and Breath. But in order to do so, I needed to start at the very beginning…again…and re-read House of Earth and Blood. So, let’s get into it!
Ever since House of Flame and Shadow was announced, I was feeling this pressure to catch up with everyone else. Plus, my Tiktok feed was flooding with SJM universe theories. As best I could, I tried to ignore any that mentioned CC2. But I'm a sucker for fandom theories, so I have to be in the know eventually.
I also decided to annotate this book as I did my re-read. As everyone always jokes, the first 100-150 pages is a lot of world building and setting the stage. It really is an information overload. After gone back, there was so much that I missed initially. Important things too that I think have part in setting up the rest of the series and any crossovers that might happen.
I do have to say that I don’t remember liking the first book as much as I did the second time around. Previously, out of all of her series, Crescent City was my least favorite, but now I love it. I love the characters, and I love the character group. The group dynamic is one of my favorites especially after having now read the second book (which will have its own separate blog post). I'm a character-driven reader, so this is really important to me.
Bryce reminds me a lot of Aelin in just the way she acts and handles herself. She’s always 10 steps ahead of everyone. Hunt reminds me of Cassian…does anyone else think this? I think its because of his warrior background, the wings, the long hair, etc. But I love his and Bryce’s relationship. Getting to see them slowly come back to life throughout the book was everything.
When I’m writing this post, it's early April and I have finished both books; the third installment does not come out until January 2024. That feels so far away, and I’m really hoping that I remember everything. Which is another reason I decided to annotate the first book. There is all the world building and introductions to the Asteri, the Prince of Hel, the hierarchy, etc. In general, I highly recommend annotating this book with any world building notes, character descriptions, things you want to remember for later on, etc. I think that will be really helpful for the large gap between finishing the second and waiting for the third. Also, if there is crossover into other series, then I may need to freshen up on A Court of Thorns and Roses too.
Overall, I am really glad that I did re-read House of Earth and Blood. There was no way I would’ve been able to appreciate House of Sky and Breath without doing so. And now that I have read everything, all the series, every book, it is now time to deep dive into all the theories on Tiktok.
As stated previously, I have just finished House of Sky and Breath so there will be a separate blog post with thoughts, and maybe even another one going over different theories.
This is definitely still a 5 star read for me!
Alright folks, that is all I have for today! Come back next Wednesday for another blog post! As always, thank you for reading:)