62 pages • 2 hours read
Sarah J. MaasHouse of Earth and Blood
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2020A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Character Analysis
Bryce Quinlan
Bryce is a 23-year-old half human-half Fae. She is strikingly attractive, with a tall, slender build, long red hair, and the pointed ears of the Fae. She works as an assistant at an art gallery but leads an aimless life in a dead-end job while partying too hard with her friends at night. Because her closest friends all possess magical powers, Bryce is viewed as the least worthwhile member of the group by outsiders. The magical Vanir look down on her. Her own father, the king of the Fae, ignores her existence in favor of her brother, Ruhn.
Bryce deliberately projects a party girl persona, but she is far from an empty-headed wild child. She is an expert sharpshooter, thanks to her stepfather and the combat training he gave her. She has also inherited the Starborn gift of light from her Fae ancestors. When she reveals her light and uses it to save the city, everyone begins to respect her for the first time.
Bryce will do anything to protect those she loves, and her world is upended when her closest friend, a wolf shapeshifter named Danika, is brutally murdered. Bryce goes on a mission to find Danika’s killer and tries to deal with her grief over the loss of her dearest companion. It isn’t until she meets Hunt, who is carrying emotional baggage of his own, that Bryce begins to turn her life around.
Orion “Hunt” Athalar
Hunt is a muscular, attractive fallen angel who is a slave when the story opens. Decades earlier, he participated in an angel rebellion against the repressive regime of the archangels. He has since been punished with eternal slavery and a magical tattoo on his forehead that prevents him from retaliating against his oppressors. Because Hunt possesses the unusual power of controlling lightning, he can be a lethal weapon in the hands of his master. Micah uses him as a personal assassin, and Hunt dispatches his owner’s enemies with brutal precision.
When Hunt first meets Bryce, he is still grieving the death of his lover, Shahar. He initially sees the young party girl as an annoyance whom he has been assigned to protect as the pair tracks Danika’s murderer. Over the course of the story, Hunt comes to admire Bryce’s courage, resourcefulness, and self-sacrifice. He eventually falls in love with her and moves beyond the losses of his past. For helping her save Crescent City, he is granted his freedom.
Ruhn Danaan
Ruhn is Bryce’s privileged older half-brother. He is 75, but, having made the Drop, his aging has slowed to the point that he appears to be in his 20s. His pure Fae blood and Starborn gifts guarantee his succession to the throne one day. Ruhn hates his imperious father and feels sympathy for his castoff sister. After a fight with Bryce when she was 13, the two have become estranged. Over the course of the novel, Ruhn does everything in his power to protect Bryce and help her find Danika’s killer. When he eventually realizes that his sister possesses even more of the Starborn light than he does, he isn’t jealous. Ruhn tells Bryce that the title of Chosen One and the throne never meant anything to him. By the end of the novel, the two siblings become close again.
Micah Domitus
Micah is the sharp-dressing, smooth-talking archangel governor of Crescent City. He appears to be in his mid-30s, but his near-immortality makes his age impossible to tell. Micah initially seems to be a benign figure since he wants to help Bryce find her best friend’s murderer. He is also Hunt’s least cruel master, even offering to free the Umbra Mortis if he can find Danika’s killer. In reality, Micah has a secret agenda to repair Luna’s Horn and open a portal out of Midgard. He wants to raise an army so that he can become as powerful as the Asteri. The archangel is ruthless and doesn’t care how many people die before he achieves his goal. He willingly sacrifices Bryce’s life to open his portal. Instead, Bryce uses the Godslayer Rifle to destroy him.
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By Sarah J. Maas
