House of Roots and Ruin (HoRaR) by Erin A. Craig is a fiction fantasy sequel to Craig’s House of Salt and Sorrows (HoSaS). The second book in the Sisters of the Salt, it follows Verity Thaumas (House of Salt and Sorrow’s main character, Annaleigh,’s youngest sister) all grown up. Now eighteen years old, Verity feels trapped in her older sister, Duchess Camille,’s manor on the sea. All her other sisters are gone, and Camille is stopping Verity from leaving, too. Verity doesn’t understand, until a letter from a nearby province, Bloem, arrives. The Duchess of Bloem wants Verity, a skilled painter, to come and paint a portrait of her son, Alexander, but Camille, after an argument about Verity leaving, reveals that Verity can see ghosts. Terrified after a ghost encounter, Verity leaves in the night for Bloem. She encounters a gorgeous and unique province, a land full of flowers and beauty, and meets the interesting family that rules Bloem. She falls in love with Alexander, but the longer that Verity stays there, the more secrets start appearing (and unraveling), revealing that not everything is as beautiful as it seems after all, and every person has their own secrets and past behind them. It turns out that Verity may be in even more danger in Bloem than in her own home, after all…
House of Roots and Ruin was a very strong sequel, but it can easily be detached from its predecessor. Most of the characters from the first book barely had any presence, and a significant amount of HoRaR was dedicated towards world building in a new province completely separate from her home. The new people and environment definitely contributed to making the book as interesting as HoSaS, because of the lack of reusing elements from the first book. Despite the amazing world building, it felt very lengthy and made the first part of the book, at least the first 30%, more difficult to get through despite the alluring ideas. I felt that Verity’s powers of seeing ghosts wasn’t emphasized enough, and there was a lot going on separate from that. Some positives I felt were that the plot was good after the first 30% and highly unpredictable until the very last sentence (literally!). It was hard to put down, and while there were strong elements of horror, I personally didn’t feel the horror as much as in the first book outside of a few chapters. It was more of a familial secrets drama rather than physical scariness. Lastly, I wish there were more romance elements. Alexander as a love interest was very boring and had pretty much nothing going for him, and other characters were much more compelling to read about, but comparatively didn’t get enough character building. I liked the ending, but one would expect a sequel to Verity’s story with that cliffhanger ending, and while the third book isn’t out yet, the author has already announced it will be about another sister.
I would recommend this book, at the end of the day, to anyone who liked the first book. It is pretty different but has some similar aspects. I don’t think (or never noticed) this book was a retelling (unlike HoSaS), but it worked. Craig is an amazing writer, and her writing is so lyrical in describing both beauty and horror. I’d give this book 4.5 stars! I’m a fan of Erin A. Craig in general (both Small Favors and HoSaS are among my favorite books, particularly standalones, of all time). It is hard to say where this book matches up compared to them, but I think it is just as high quality.