Crescent City: House of Earth and Blood

Crescent City

 (House of Earth and Blood)

By: Sarah J. Maas

Rating: 5 Wine Glasses

There are some moments where I’m at a loss for words after reading a book, and many of those moments have been after reading a Sarah J Maas book. I am a big fan of this lady, and I feel this way because of the books she has created. She has said, “You are enough”, “Love is enough”, “Being broken doesn’t mean you don’t deserve the world” in more ways than these phrases can mean when simply read on paper. She shares a story that gets down into the roots of all things painful and broken with characters you long to follow until the end.  Crescent City is so beautiful, so aw inspiring, so supernatural filled; but it is ultimately human. It reminds you of what being human feels like, how to love, the power of love, and the importance of friendships that will span even through death.

I was sobbing throughout the last hundred pages, and finished this book expecting to go full blown fangirl, but there is an air of maturity that flows throughout this book that I’ve yet to see in her others. So, I finished this book, sobbing, happy/sad, but most importantly contemplating it’s message. The importance of everything I’d just learned through these characters. I sat in silence, grateful that someone has written these words, that they exist.

This book is well written, the plot is so intricate I had to go back to reread things just to make sure I knew exactly what was going on, the romance was beautiful, but secondary. The friendship that Bryce has with Danika is right up there as one of my favorite relationships to ever grace the book world. It’s to the very very end. We can all only hope to find someone like that one day, and I hope we all do.  Bryce is a heroine you don’t fully appreciate until you know her; her faults, the struggles she’d gone through, what she’d given up for those she loves. The surface level of Bryce Quinlan is what she wants you to see, and SJM did a beautiful job of exploring this and digging deeper into what makes a person who they are.

There are so many plot twists you don’t expect- which is something I’ve always loved about Sarah J Maas. The thought might have crossed your mind, but so did the other 40 possibilities. She leaves so many doors open that you can’t pinpoint the answer down until it’s right in front of you and you are REELING. This world she has built is so fantastical and imaginative that I wished to walk the streets of Crescent City with my own feet. The multiple point of view narrative creates this 3-dimensional world that introduces us to more information from many different characters. Sarah has perfected this kind of writing, weaving each character more tightly together with each chapter, and ultimately creates a climax that is far more powerful than a single narrative would have been.

The romance is swoony, raw, and honestly the best kind, (you know): enemies to lovers. Hunt is all kinds of broken and beautiful, but so is Bryce. Together they pick each other off the floor, wipe away the tears, and love each other through the faults. I think you always know who the romantic interest will be (for the current book at least) with Sarah J Maas, but the execution of how this love blossoms is captivating. Watching the enemies, to friends, to lovers relationship take place within Crescent City was refreshing. We’ve seen this trope a million times, but never with these characters, and they gave it a shiny new light that made it enjoyable to read.

No one is truly whole in this book, everyone had problems, and it’s because of this rocky surface that Crescent City is easily one of my favorite books now. Crescent City broke me, but I don’t think I’ve ever felt more seen, and for that I think I’m a little more whole. Read this book, I can’t recommend it more highly.

Stay Drunk...on Books,

Steph