Book: A House Of Rage And Sorrow by Sangu Mandanna

Published September 2019 by Sky Pony Press|336 pages

Where I Got It: I own the hardcover

Series: The Celestial Trilogy #2

Genre: YA Sci-Fi/Fantasy

One kingdom. One crown. One family.

“Maybe it’s time the great House of Rey came to an end. After all, what are we now? Just a house of rage and sorrow.”

Esmae once wanted nothing more than to help her golden brother win the crown of Kali but that dream died with her best friend. Alexi broke her heart, and she vowed to destroy him for it. And with her sentient warship Titania beside her, how can she possibly fail?

As gods, beasts, and kingdoms choose sides, Alexi seeks out a weapon more devastating than even Titania. Past lives threaten the present. Old enemies claim their due. And Esmae cannot outrun the ghosts and the questions that haunt her. What really happened to her father? What was the third boon her mother asked of Amba? For in the shadows, lurking in wait, are secrets that will swallow her whole.

The House of Rey is at war. And the entire galaxy will bleed before the end.

I LOVED this book so much!  This was the book I didn’t know I was in the mood for but was glad I read it.  I definitely read it at the right time.

Esmae was so easy to relate to, and the grief and rage she felt the entire book was so easy to relate to.  It’s been a couple of year since my grandma died, but I’ve been missing her a lot lately, and this book really hit home right now.  How Esmae felt was so really, and I was a sobbing mess by the end of the book.  I feel like it happens so rarely now, but the rage and grief was there throughout the whole book.  The events of the last book really changed things for Esmae, and she is no longer the person she was in the first book.

I actually loved that we see if throughout the book.  It would have been very easy for it to not be included, but the author didn’t shy away from it.  It was really refreshing to see how present and visible it was.  There were so many different paragraphs and sentences that really resonated with me, and this book is so much better than the first book.

I really liked the first book, but this one really blew me away.  I felt like we really got into the story, and there are so many lies and so much betrayal that I didn’t know what to expect.  You think you know what’s going on, but the more time you spend in this world, the more you realize that you don’t know what’s real and what’s not.  This series is definitely under-rated, and I really wish it got more attention.

I loved that we got a few chapters from Titania’s POV!  I really like the relationship Titania and Esmae have, and Titania is a great character.  I know she’s a sentient ship, but Titania is pretty awesome, and I loved seeing things through her eyes.  That aspect of it made me think of the Binti novellas by Nnedi Okorafor.  Those are great reads, so I definitely recommend them if you haven’t read them.

As much as I loved this book, there are a couple of things I didn’t like.

For one thing, I kept forgetting that the book was set in space, and all of the places mentioned were individual planets, and not neighboring countries or territories.

And two, I couldn’t picture the different planets.  At all.  There’s not a lot of description, and because you’re seeing roughly one place on each planet, there’s a lot that you’re not seeing on the planets.  I think that’s why it felt like the places were neighboring countries instead of planets.

This story is definitely more about the characters and what they’re fighting for, but I would have liked a little more description of the places we see.  Still, it will be interesting to see how things play out in the last book.  There’s a lot going on, but I’m glad we have a list of characters at the beginning, because there are a lot of people to keep track of.  It was easier in this book, and I think it’s because of that cast of characters at the beginning.

5 stars.  I loved A House Of Rage And Sorrow, and this series is worth reading.