Book Review and Theories for Crescent City: House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas

The Cozy Chapter
Aug 5, 2025
3 min read

🚨 SPOILER ALERT! Massive SJM Multiverse Spoilers Ahead! 🚨

If you haven’t read:

Crescent City: House of Earth and Blood
A Court of Thorns and Roses series
Throne of Glass series

...then STOP RIGHT HERE! This post is packed full of theories and connections that will absolutely spoil major reveals across the Sarah J. Maas universe. Consider yourself warned 👀

🐺📚 Book Review: Crescent City: House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas

Let’s start with the basics: I devoured this book. Crescent City is part murder mystery, part urban fantasy, and 100% emotional chaos. It’s gritty, slow-building, deeply layered and the last 100 pages? I was screaming, crying, throwing my Kindle.

What I loved:

Bryce Quinlan – a heroine who is messy, emotional, fierce, and incredibly real. Her grief and growth hit so hard.
Hunt Athalar – the morally gray angel with wings, lightning, and pain. We love a broken boy with a redemption arc.
The slow burn, the politics, the world-building, the friendships, especially Lehabah (I’m still not over it).

But beyond all the plot twists and heartbreak, this book felt like a key. A puzzle piece. The start of something bigger. Which leads me to…

🧠 My Theories: The SJM Multiverse Is Real (And Wild)

🧪 Hypaxia = Connected to Throne of Glass's Med Witch

The fact that Hypaxia knew exactly how to counteract the venom from the kristallos demon? Yeah. That’s not random.

I seriously believe she’s connected to the med witch who helped Chaol in Tower of Dawn. Both use ancient healing magic. Both understand strange venom. What if the kristallos venom is the same one that injured Chaol… because the kristallos are actually Valg demons?

🔗 Theory: Kristallos = Valg

📍Hypaxia = descendant or apprentice of the Southern Continent med witch

👑 The Autumn King = Lucien’s Descendant

Red hair. Fiery power. Manipulative and cruel but deeply strategic. You’re telling me that’s not at least a cousin of Lucien or one of his brothers from the Autumn Court?

🔗 Theory: Autumn King = Lucien bloodline

📍Possibly from a “keep the power pure” lineage strategy gone wrong

📖 Jesiba’s Library = Lost Library from Prythian?

Jesiba’s private library is suspiciously powerful, full of forbidden magic and forgotten knowledge. Sound familiar? The library beneath the House of Wind in ACOTAR was sacred, mysterious, and ancient. What if after some sort of magical upheaval, that library was relocated, renamed, or rewritten into myth?

🔗 Theory: Jesiba’s library = evolved or relocated Prythian archive

📍Myths and names may have changed over centuries

🪽 Angels = Descendants of the Night Court

Let’s talk about the angels.Shadowy powers. Emotional repression. Wings, darkness, stars, power, and loyalty. They’re giving Night Court. They’re giving Azriel and Cassian had babies. I'm not saying Hunt is a direct descendant of the Bat Boys, but… I am saying it.

🔗 Theory: Crescent City angels = evolved descendants of Illyrians

📍Possibly after thousands of years of magical evolution

🥀 Ember Quinlan = Descendant of Elain Archeron?

Okay, this one is a huge stretch, but hear me out. Elain Archeron is often overlooked but powerful in quiet ways. Her affinity for visions and softness may have carried down through the bloodline. Ember is stubborn, mysterious, and maternal and if she was with the Autumn King to "keep the bloodline pure," maybe she has Fae ancestry from Elain?

🔗 Theory: Ember Quinlan = descendant of Elain

📍The Autumn King may have used Ember for political mating purposes and she left after seeing his true colors

🌀 The Asteri = Descendants or Corrupted Versions of the Suriel?

This is deeply unhinged, but I love it. What if the Asteri were once like the Suriel powerful, ancient beings that observed and manipulated but over time, they corrupted, consumed, and evolved into something darker? The Suriel had all-knowing power, just like the Asteri pretend to. But the Asteri feed on magic and control knowledge.

🔗 Theory: Asteri = descendants of (or twisted versions of) the Suriel

📍All-knowing, cryptic, and tied to the fate of the worlds

💥 Final Thoughts

Sarah J. Maas is not writing three separate series. She’s building a multiverse and Crescent City is the hinge that ties them together.

Whether it’s the Valg hiding in plain sight, the Illyrians reborn as angels, or the lingering shadows of courts and kings long gone… it’s all connected. And I think Crescent City 4 is going to crack the entire SJM world wide open.