Review of Fire by Kristin Cashore

 Fire by Kristin Cashore

Rating: 2 stars (4.11 on Goodreads)
Genres & themes: Young Adult, fantasy, adventure, family, friendship, magic.
Received: borrowed

Synopsis:

It is not a peaceful time in the Dells. The young King Nash clings to his throne while rebel lords in the north and south build armies to unseat him. The mountains and forests are filled with spies and thieves and lawless men.

This is where Fire lives. With a wild, irresistible appearance and hair the color of flame, Fire is the last remaining human monster. Equally hated and adored, she had the unique ability to control minds, but she guards her power, unwilling to steal the secrets of innocent people. Especially when she has so many of her own.

Then Prince Brigan comes to bring her to King City, The royal family needs her help to uncover the plot against the king. Far away from home, Fire begins to realize there's more to her power than she ever dreamed. Her power could save the kingdom.

If only she weren't afraid of becoming the monster her father was.

Review:

Yes, 2 stars (one star for ''I didn't like it'' and another star because it was truly well-written.)

First of all, you shall know that I really really enjoyed the first book in this series, Graceling. I adored it actually. I thought I was discovering another great author knowing how to write great fantasy/adventure books.

Kristin Cashore got on my nerves.

She played with them.
She played with me.
She played with my emotions.

Ok, first of all, we have a dark and intense prologue of 16 pages. The number of pages is not important but sure is a lot more than usual books I read. So, in that prologue, we meet two characters, one of them being a boy who really got my attention. Leck (not called like that at that moment.) Anyway, so Leck is able to control minds as Fire. I thought ''oh my my, what a great love story that'll make. They'll meet and fall in love with each other because probably they won't be able to control each others minds and they'll be relieved.''

Like hell.

I don't even know if they finally met. (Ok, I do because I read some last pages but, while I was reading, I did not know.)  All I know is that I wanted Fire and Leck to meet and fall in love. Because duh, doesn't Leck redeeming himelf, because of Fire, seem exciting? For me, it did. But, that's not what happened.

Oh la la, I just have so much anger in me right now. Must say that it sure doesn't happen often because of a book. At least, it'll be a memorable one for a special reason. *Sigh.*

I didn't have a direct problem with Fire. She was nice enough, for a fantasy/adventure book MC. I liked when she got all angry and on defense but she mostly was calm and one-dimensional, as many other characters. I didn't know that much about her. I knew things only when the narrator told us memories of her and her father (which is a badass!) Shame shame shame because she could've been such an interesting character.

Damn.

Fire and Archer have a ''relation'' at the beginning of the story of what I understand. But, seriously, I have no idea what kind of relation it was. It was much of:

''Would you marry me, Fire, if I slept in no one's bed but yours?''
He knew the answer to that, but it didn't hurt to remind him. ''No, and I should find my bed quite cramped.''

Oooook.

Also, in this book, there was a war setting. I hate war settings. I don't like when a book gets that serious. The only books I tolerated (and REALLY enjoyed) with war settings were Captive Prince: Volume One and Captive Prince: Volume Two and probably Captive Prince: Volume Three, but it hasn't been realeased yet so I haven't read it. I must admit that I'm a bit scared I won't love Days of Blood & Starlight, because of that.

The writing was splendid (due the 2rd star as I said.) I wansn't expecting and I didn't get less. The pacing was SLOW. So SLOW. Not much was actually hapenning up to where I got (and DNFed.) That's kind of why I DNFed this book (along with the fact that Fire and Leck weren't already a couple as I was hoping for.) The author created a good world building with many descriptions. In one page, there was usually 1 small (very small) dialogue and the rest were descriptions. A lot of them. Most were boring.

I bet this book would've been so much better and I may've liked it more if it was directed to adults. More interesting, exciting and yes, some sex scenes would've been welcomed as in my opinion. 

That's it. I could say more, but I feel calmer now.


Recommendation:
 
Technically, I wouldn't recommend this companion novel. I didn't like it and I wouldn't probably read Bitterblue. Maybe I'll finish this book if I ever feel like to but that could also never happen and I won't be sad. Yes, technically I wouldn't recommend this book but, since I saw that I'm in the minority here, why would you not read it because of what I said about it? Maybe what I was expecting isn't what you want in a fantasy/adventure book. So, go ahead, see for yourself. Maybe you're going to really like it.