Anna McElhinney

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Anna is Currently Reading

Anna McElhinney is currently reading

House of Flame and Shadow (Crescent City, #3)

by Sarah J. Maas (Goodreads Author)

bookshelves: currently-reading

Reading for the 2nd time

read in February 2024

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Anna McElhinney said:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

" if i had to compare this book to a football game, the first and third quarters were total snoozefests, Q1 and Q3 were full of so many yellow flags and rewinding to make sure all the details of whatever just occurred on the field were noticed and unde if i had to compare this book to a football game, the first and third quarters were total snoozefests, Q1 and Q3 were full of so many yellow flags and rewinding to make sure all the details of whatever just occurred on the field were noticed and understood properly. Q2 being pretty entertaining but knowing it’s a set up for the end of the game. Q4 was Entertaining capital E. a true sjm 100 and with a hail mary throw to the end zone at the end that was epic enough to make the game worth the 4 hour watch.

unlike a football game though, i was not expecting some of the players to become astronauts floating around in outer space like anne hathaway in interstellar.

bryce’s character arc led her straight into the toilet with this one. bad decision after bad decision after BAD. DECISION. like please be so for real. aelin would never.

also very annoyed with EVERYONE throwing themselves a pity party every 10 pages. like ithan, tharion, and hunt i’m BEGGING yall to realize some things just happen and they’re shitty but no one’s fault.

the crossover episode parts were kind of iconic, and i hope we see these interactions from prythians pov later on in acotar. these sections definitely didn’t live up the hype but it was still really cool. even though bryce in the tunnels with the wyrm and the sleeping asteri might as well have been a different character cause where is the bryce i know. that wasn’t her. cassian needed more screen time.

this book was the first sjm book where inconsistencies in the worlds were distracting. just one example was when nesta (who is death herself and the only one who can wield the instruments without dying) puts on the mask it takes over her entire self and she isn’t even really nesta anymore. yet bryce (who is in fact NOT death herself) can have whole conversations with it on and just take it off easy peasy lemon squeezy? nope. and then hunt who can wield it no problem simply because he and bryce boned a few hours before and since he was nasty hadn’t showered after her powers lingered enough on him that he could put it on AND use it as an oxygen tank in space? double nope.

the info dumping has got to stop sarah. please. i might’ve liked this book even less than tower of dawn. in this current moment considering the current state of bryce’s character development or lack thereof i can list off more redeeming qualities of chaol westfall than bryce.

also getting a little tired of no one important dying. like you’re telling me she raised the fallen (slay) they got into the pacific rim suits and allied with hel, just for her to shoot a bullet into the ground and create a black hole? WHERE ARE THE STAKES WHERE IS THE ANGST WHERE IS THE TEAR CAUSING CHAOS AND HEART BREAK. cried when jesiba did her thing but that’s IT. wtf.

i didn’t really want to but i finished this book for lidia and lidia only. she can do no wrong. ruhn is perfect. i want nothing but happiness for them. and if im doing the math correctly, if they have kids… it would make those kids part of a joint rhys and aelin / dorian bloodline in this essay i will…

is there going to be a next book? cause it feels pretty wrapped up in a bow minus the dragon and sathia / colin… is the whole next book going to be about them creating a new government because NO THANK YOU SNOOZEFEST. ...more "

progress:

(page 310 of 852)
"Unfortunately skipping ithan and tharion POVs does in fact make this book better" — Oct 26, 2026 07:38PM

May 26, 2024 06:00AM · see review