Crescent City: House of Earth and Blood is Sarah J. Maas at her best

Fans of Sarah J. Maas’ young adult novels will love her foray into contemporary adult fantasy with “Crescent City: House of Earth and Blood”, and newcomers will quickly fall under its spell.

Sarah J. Maas’ young adult novels are pretty much the gold standard in YA fantasy. Her Throne of Glass and A Court of Thorns and Roses series both feature incredible and complicated heroines, smoldering romances, and the sort of intricate plotting that makes the entire reading experience feel as exhilarating as it does emotional. Which is, of course, why it’s so exciting that the popular author is taking a swing at telling a more adult style of story.

Crescent City: House of Earth and Blood is Maas’ first foray into contemporary adult fantasy. For fans concerned that her first non-YA offering wouldn’t feel like her YA efforts, well. I’m here to tell you not to worry about that. House of Earth and Blood is Maas unleashed, an author free to tell a darker, more complex story than she has in the past, with characters who are every shade of gray under the sun. The urban setting allows for a grittier tone, as does the grisly murder mystery at the novel’s center, and everything all just feels a touch more adult than her previous efforts. There’s certainly more profanity – our new lead character is awfully fond of f-bombs – as well as drug use, though for this novel, at least, the sexual activity is largely hinted at rather than explicitly shown.

That said, everything we all loved about Maas’ ToG and ACOTAR books is still deeply present in this story. She hasn’t somehow graduated to the adult section and become a completely different kind of storyteller. No, you’ll feel right at home here in the world of Midgard, a world in which humans live as second class citizens under the rule of a group of varied and elite supernaturals. The hierarchy of the non-humans is equally strict, led by a group of god-like beings known as the Asterii, who each purport to posses the power of stars.

Each non-human species, be they Fae, shifters, witches, angels, demons, vampires, mermaids or something else entirely, all belong to specific “houses”. Wolves, for example, belong to the House of Earth and Blood, while Fae are members of the House of Sky and Breath. Sorceresses, vampires and reapers are all part of the House of Shadow and Flame. These various buckets are useful distinctions in this novel, particularly as we’re struggling to sort out who all these people are, but one has to guess they’ll come into play with greater urgency as the series continues.

House of Earth and Blood follows the story of Bryce Quinlan, a half-human, half-Fae college grad, whose best friends are brutally murdered by a demon. She spends the next two years grieving the loss of her BFF, the wolf shifter Danika Fendyr, when a second, nearly identical murder convinces everyone that Danika’s killer is still at large, and not the man they imprisoned for the crime.

As the only real connection between the two dead bodies, Bryce is called upon by the governor to assist in the murder investigation. She’s teamed with Hunt Alathar, a Fallen malakim (that’s Maas-speak for angel or angel adjacent) assassin who’s currently serving as a slave to the Archangel Micah Domitus, as punishment for his part in a failed rebellion. The pair are tasked with investigating Danika’s final days in the hopes they can both catch her killer and stop a series of monsters that are (literally) tearing residents of Crescent City apart.

Of course, for those of us who have ever read one of Maas’ other works, it won’t come as any surprise that the story spirals well past this point. This latest novel clocks in at just over 800 pages, which is certainly substantial, but the epic length is generally put to good use.

The intricate worldbuilding of the kingdom of Midgard and the various sectors – as well as the creatures who live there – of Cresent City is rich and varied, full of the sort of details that make this universe feel fleshed out and real. (This is a hallmark of Maas’ stories generally, but it’s all really turned up to 11 here.) There’s so much fascinating history, lore and lessons about societal structure crammed in alongside the turnings of the plot, and I truly can’t wait to see some of the secondary characters explored more fully in future.

Bryce is a remarkably human and likable heroine: Wry, stubborn, loyal to a fault, and often too outspoken for her own good, she’s a person who feels everything, even as she tries not to do so. She’s messy but tough in that way that Maas heroines often are, embracing the shield of a party girl lifestyle to avoid having to face the more difficult truths at the heart of who she is and what she wants. But she loves ferociously and, we learn over the course of the novel, is more than willing to sacrifice herself when it comes to the people she cares about.

Though it’s fairly obvious from their smoldering chemistry that Hunt and Bryce are destined to become something more than friends, the Fallen angel still gets quite a bit more depth than some of Maas’ other romantic leads we have seen in the past. His reasons for choosing to rise up against the angel hierarchy, the punishment he’s currently suffering, as well as his personal romantic history, are all compelling bits of his character, and the story initially focuses on these elements rather than any sort of flirtation with his new partner in (the investigation of) crime.

Like any novel that is this lengthy, House of Earth and Blood can feel as though it drags in places, particularly when the exposition machine really gets going. But the ultimate effect is one of careful layering and surprising depth, rather than overstuffing. I found myself bursting into tears unexpectedly at various moments toward the end of the story, simply because the book had put in the work to make each character and their relationships with one another feel genuine and real, and to fully ground them in the world in which they exist.

By the time we reach the end of the novel, and our characters have been put through the emotional and physical wringer, we’re still here, on page seven hundred and whatever, sticking it out because these characters matter to us, and we care – desperately, sometimes – about their happiness, no matter what their particular journey – or supernatural species – might be. And whether her story is a YA novel or a specifically adult tale, that’s what Maas has always been best at, and it’s what completely translates from her earlier works to this one.

Light it up, Bryce. Let’s see what this new world has in store for us.

Crescent City: House of Earth and Blood is available everywhere now.