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3.84 AVERAGE
3.84 AVERAGE
This was recommended to me on vacation by a BN bookseller in Highland Village, TX. I asked for a book from either a local author or set in their city or area. Fire and Flood was written by a Dallas author. It is Dystopian teen fiction. My favorite part about this is the creation of the Pandoras, and how they respond to Tella's humanity. Without giving spoilers, I'll stop there. If you like dystopian society, here's another series to quench your thirst.
This was a wild ride of whether or not I liked this book, but after finishing it, it definitely makes the favourites shelf. I need the second book right now!
Tella Holloway's brother is sick. Doctor's can't help him and, as his condition worsens, their parents relocate the family to Montana for some fresh air. Tella feels helpless. Her brother is slowly dying in front of her eyes and there's nothing she can do. But then she gets a mysterious message inviting her to participate in the Brimstone Bleed, an epic race across jungle, dessert, ocean, and mountain. The winner will receive The Cure. The one thing that can save her brother's life.
This book is a weird mixture of (a slightly less gruesome) Hunger Games meets The Amazing Race meets Digimon (not Pokemon because there's no gotta catch 'em all). But it works. I rounded up my 3.5 stars because it is a fast paced read that had twists I did not see coming. I really enjoyed the Pandora companions. Tella is an amusing MC. She's a bit high-maintenance, but she's aware that it's her flaw. The romance is obvious from the beginning, but it develops in a very believable way and I look forward to seeing how it pans out in the next installment. Scott does an excellent job fleshing out her secondary characters. However, one character that didn't work for me was the villain. He had no real motivation for why he did the things he did. He was just bad to be bad. The villain could have used some more fleshing out for me as could the world. It wants to be a dystopian, but it just isn't there yet. I had a difficult time believing the premise behind the race and we don't learn much until the end of the book.
A good read for someone looking an exciting and fast-paced story, but who is also willing to suspend major disbelief over some of the world building.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.
Publication Date: February 25, 2014
This book is a weird mixture of (a slightly less gruesome) Hunger Games meets The Amazing Race meets Digimon (not Pokemon because there's no gotta catch 'em all). But it works. I rounded up my 3.5 stars because it is a fast paced read that had twists I did not see coming. I really enjoyed the Pandora companions. Tella is an amusing MC. She's a bit high-maintenance, but she's aware that it's her flaw. The romance is obvious from the beginning, but it develops in a very believable way and I look forward to seeing how it pans out in the next installment. Scott does an excellent job fleshing out her secondary characters. However, one character that didn't work for me was the villain. He had no real motivation for why he did the things he did. He was just bad to be bad. The villain could have used some more fleshing out for me as could the world. It wants to be a dystopian, but it just isn't there yet. I had a difficult time believing the premise behind the race and we don't learn much until the end of the book.
A good read for someone looking an exciting and fast-paced story, but who is also willing to suspend major disbelief over some of the world building.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.
Publication Date: February 25, 2014
This was a great book! I loved the main character's personality, and throughout the book, there were parts that were just hilarious. But the storyline was very interesting. And there were surprises and twists everywhere! Great book!
This book resembled The Hunger Games mixed slightly with Divergent and majorly with The Amazing Race. The main character Tella is really self-centered and only cares for her looks, never losing the trait throughout the novel so the whole time she's competing in the race and trekking through the jungle and desert, she's constantly worried about her appearance and wishes she were elsewhere getting a massage or caking on makeup. After pulling a Tris Prior and cutting off all her hair at the beginning of the novel, she spends the rest of the novel berating herself over her stupid decision which gets tiring after a while. She may want to be a leader, but yet she can never properly take charge of a situation and prefers to let the men step in and overpower her. This happens quiet a few times which was irritating. Especially when other men would have to save her since she is incapable of saving herself; even a bear saves her at one point.
Before I turn this review into a huge rant on how similar Fire & Flood was to The Hunger Games and The Amazing Race and then write paragraphs on Tella's stupidity, I will focus on the good aspects which led me rate this book as a 4. Some of the characters were actually interesting and well-constructed; not Tella of course. I loved Harper as well as the twins and I had a love/hate relationship with Guy. Even the antagonist Titus intrigued me.
The plot line is what really hooked me. I liked the idea of a race that battled the natural elements of Earth. I preferred the jungle portion over the desert portion though since the desert was basically a repeat day after day. The next book in the series focuses on the mountain and ocean portions of the race which I hope are just as good as the jungle and desert portion were.
Another thing I found interesting were the Pandoras. Each person fights for an egg at the beginning of the novel and then later the egg hatches and a baby animal is present. It either grows or stays miniature, but the purpose of the Pandoras are to assist their owner in helping them win the race by surviving in the wild. Guy's Pandora is a lion that breathes fire. Harper's Pandora is an eagle that can turn invisible. Tella's Pandora is a small black fox that can turn into any other Pandora. Even though the magical elements of the Pandoras weren't to my liking, they at least were better written than Tella. In fact, the Pandoras resembled Pokemon and Digimon.
I did have many questions that didn't make sense regarding how they were answered in the novel. For instance, Tella gets stabbed towards the end of the novel in her abdomen and somehow manages to climb down a large rock structure without difficulty, passing out, or dying from blood loss. This is the same girl who worries more about her appearance, acts like she's ten, and doesn't know anything about survival. Of course she couldn't die since she was the main character, but might I add that that didn't stop Veronica Roth. And if Tella had died then I would have jumped for joy at whoever was going to pick up and narrate. That's how much I disliked her.
Disregarding Tella and her wonderful ability to whine about her appearance and her lack of common sense when it comes to survival and not being abducted, I recommend this novel solely for the plot. Not the main character. She makes Bella Swann look like an angel.
Before I turn this review into a huge rant on how similar Fire & Flood was to The Hunger Games and The Amazing Race and then write paragraphs on Tella's stupidity, I will focus on the good aspects which led me rate this book as a 4. Some of the characters were actually interesting and well-constructed; not Tella of course. I loved Harper as well as the twins and I had a love/hate relationship with Guy. Even the antagonist Titus intrigued me.
The plot line is what really hooked me. I liked the idea of a race that battled the natural elements of Earth. I preferred the jungle portion over the desert portion though since the desert was basically a repeat day after day. The next book in the series focuses on the mountain and ocean portions of the race which I hope are just as good as the jungle and desert portion were.
Another thing I found interesting were the Pandoras. Each person fights for an egg at the beginning of the novel and then later the egg hatches and a baby animal is present. It either grows or stays miniature, but the purpose of the Pandoras are to assist their owner in helping them win the race by surviving in the wild. Guy's Pandora is a lion that breathes fire. Harper's Pandora is an eagle that can turn invisible. Tella's Pandora is a small black fox that can turn into any other Pandora. Even though the magical elements of the Pandoras weren't to my liking, they at least were better written than Tella. In fact, the Pandoras resembled Pokemon and Digimon.
I did have many questions that didn't make sense regarding how they were answered in the novel. For instance, Tella gets stabbed towards the end of the novel in her abdomen and somehow manages to climb down a large rock structure without difficulty, passing out, or dying from blood loss. This is the same girl who worries more about her appearance, acts like she's ten, and doesn't know anything about survival. Of course she couldn't die since she was the main character, but might I add that that didn't stop Veronica Roth. And if Tella had died then I would have jumped for joy at whoever was going to pick up and narrate. That's how much I disliked her.
Disregarding Tella and her wonderful ability to whine about her appearance and her lack of common sense when it comes to survival and not being abducted, I recommend this novel solely for the plot. Not the main character. She makes Bella Swann look like an angel.
This book is a mind blowing one , I was fascinated by each character, I love them all!.
There are some plot twists that shocked me , which is amazing . It gripped me and didn't let go!
There are some plot twists that shocked me , which is amazing . It gripped me and didn't let go!
Fire & Flood by Victoria Scott is a survivor story mixed with a little bit of a Hunger Games feel. Sure there are a lot of Hunger Games similarities but it still has it's own unique plot. Fire & Flood has a lot of mixed reviews because of the similar plot like Hunger Games, but I LOVED this book so much! I plan on starting Salt & Stone this weekend because I have to see how this race ends!
Tella has a really sick brother, but even though he is sick they still exchange their usual banter. However, things change for Tella when she finds a box in her bedroom with an ear piece in it. Since moving to try to get treatment for her brother, she has not had access to the internet, so she's secretly hoping this ear piece will connect her to the online world. Come to find out the ear piece is letting her know that she's invited to be a Contender at the Brimstone Bleed.
Her father ends up burning the device to hide the fact that Tella has received an invitation. Tella sneaks out and gets the device out of the fire, and it is actually fire proof. She finishes listening to the message in the middle of the night and decides to try her hand at the Brimstone Bleed for a chance to win a cure that will help her brother. After following the directions that the voice gives from the ear piece, she gets to choose an egg that hatches a Pandora to help her get through the race. Each Pandora has special abilities that can be handy during the race/Brimstone Bleed. The race involves battling different types of environments such as a desert.
One of my favorite things about this book is the humor mixed in with the darker parts of the story. Tella has some hilarious comments, and yes, she can sound like a drama queen at times. But I think it works so well with her character. She can stand on her own two feet when she needs to even though she's thinking of missing girly things like makeup. Honestly, I think I'd be a bit of a drama queen too if I was dropped off in the middle of the desert without food and shelter. :grin: Anyways, the main character is great after the first few chapters of the book.
Tella ends up making a lot of friends (and enemies), and I must say I loved most of the characters except this one jerk who quickly becomes Tella's enemy.
The *only* thing that bugged me was that we never really find out if this is a futuristic world or if it is suppose to occurring now. Although the race and each environment is described perfectly, I would have liked to know more about the current situation and when things are happening. I do like that we get a "why" for the Brimstone Bleed during book one. Sometimes with series the "why" is dragged out for ages and ages until it is finally revealed.
I highly recommend Fire & Flood if dystopians like the Hunger Games or even The Maze Runner is your thing!
Tella has a really sick brother, but even though he is sick they still exchange their usual banter. However, things change for Tella when she finds a box in her bedroom with an ear piece in it. Since moving to try to get treatment for her brother, she has not had access to the internet, so she's secretly hoping this ear piece will connect her to the online world. Come to find out the ear piece is letting her know that she's invited to be a Contender at the Brimstone Bleed.
Her father ends up burning the device to hide the fact that Tella has received an invitation. Tella sneaks out and gets the device out of the fire, and it is actually fire proof. She finishes listening to the message in the middle of the night and decides to try her hand at the Brimstone Bleed for a chance to win a cure that will help her brother. After following the directions that the voice gives from the ear piece, she gets to choose an egg that hatches a Pandora to help her get through the race. Each Pandora has special abilities that can be handy during the race/Brimstone Bleed. The race involves battling different types of environments such as a desert.
One of my favorite things about this book is the humor mixed in with the darker parts of the story. Tella has some hilarious comments, and yes, she can sound like a drama queen at times. But I think it works so well with her character. She can stand on her own two feet when she needs to even though she's thinking of missing girly things like makeup. Honestly, I think I'd be a bit of a drama queen too if I was dropped off in the middle of the desert without food and shelter. :grin: Anyways, the main character is great after the first few chapters of the book.
Tella ends up making a lot of friends (and enemies), and I must say I loved most of the characters except this one jerk who quickly becomes Tella's enemy.
The *only* thing that bugged me was that we never really find out if this is a futuristic world or if it is suppose to occurring now. Although the race and each environment is described perfectly, I would have liked to know more about the current situation and when things are happening. I do like that we get a "why" for the Brimstone Bleed during book one. Sometimes with series the "why" is dragged out for ages and ages until it is finally revealed.
I highly recommend Fire & Flood if dystopians like the Hunger Games or even The Maze Runner is your thing!
Loved this book--adventure, survival, mystery, a bit of romance, cool Pandora creatures...can't wait to read #2!