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3.68 AVERAGE
3.68 AVERAGE
Someone recommended this book from one of the blogs I read. Overall, It was just OK. It's very religious and the heroine is atypical (overweight, not pretty, etc).
The Good:
- A relatable heroine!
- very different than any other book I read
- Elisa's growth from a "nothing" to saving the country, growing into her Queenhood can be inspiring for young girls
The Bad:
- I kept getting confused. Not sure if that was me or the writing :)
The Ugly:
-Someone wrote that the author told the reader ever
The Good:
- A relatable heroine!
- very different than any other book I read
- Elisa's growth from a "nothing" to saving the country, growing into her Queenhood can be inspiring for young girls
The Bad:
- I kept getting confused. Not sure if that was me or the writing :)
The Ugly:
-Someone wrote that the author told the reader ever
I started this hesitantly. The main character was really naive at the beginning, and she has a Godstone in her navel, but it didn't take long for the story to pick up. Elisa's character development is incredible - she's a quick learner and really smart, and is willing to do what's necessary. It's amazing how much she grows, and how she learns how to love herself. I also loved the female friendships on this so much, and all the diversity in it. Can't wait to see where it goes. I have no idea, and this is incredibly refreshing for a fantasy trilogy.
very long, it was almost like 2-3 books squished into one, and while squishy book 1 was a bit of an insecure, overused-YA-tropes mess, squishy books 2 and 3 were amazing. i loved how the world and characters and plot and basically everything were allowed to grow and expand so much in this first book alone. honestly, i was about to stop in the beginning, and i'm so glad i didn't because if rae carson can turn the meh first third of the book into the exciting and wonderful last third of this book, i am beyond intrigued to see where she takes the rest of this series.
i love hector and if anything bad happens to him a lá every other male in this book, i will sob my poor eyes out. also, lol @ rae for having an actual love square and making me facepalm so hard just to go on a character murder spree. i mean it's no love triangle becomes a polyamorous relationship, but it is one of the more fun ways of handling that.
25APR20
I stand by my original rating. This is very clearly a first book in many ways.
The cast of characters is great. Elise's growth in herself and confidence is chefs kiss.
But the book is too long. And although the world and such stands the test of time. The plot leaves a lot to be desired.
I remember the trilogy growing a lot with every book so I look forward to hoping that's still the way.
Original review posted here: http://thisisthestoryofmyreadinglife.blogspot.ca/2013/09/review-girl-of-fire-and-thorns-by-rae.html
I was so excited to start this series. I made myself wait until the last book was released in August so I could marathon them. I'm thinking "this is high fantasy, I'm not going to want to wait a year in between books. I'll forget things. Important things." And what a let down. I mean it was alright. I was just hearing such amazing things that I thought I was going to get another Graceling or Poison Study or Throne of Glass. So maybe that's my fault because those are big shoes to fill. But really the material was there, the execution was not.
I feel like Carson was trying so hard to make this book different then other YA Fantasy out there, that that's what came across. The "try." First off this book is soooo slooowww, that it took me far to many days to get half way through. I could only read a chapter maybe two at a time before major ADD kicking in. It took getting through about 3 quarters of the book before it picked up and got a little more interesting for me. What really slowed this book down for me were:
1. Elisa. Guh, was she annoying. OK, I really liked the fact that Carson gave us this atypical heroine. She's over weight, not some super model, athletic princess. She enjoys her studies, especially languages and war and battle tactics. She's kind of the neglected Princess, which shows in her personality (especially lack of confidence). Elisa definitely shows character growth in the later half of the book. She starts to fit into the leader roll that she's destined for, even though she was never taught those skills growing up because again she was the "other" Princess. Her older, better sister will be Queen of their kingdom one day.
But lets come back to the weight thing. I appreciated that about her. BUT I didn't need to be reminded of it every other page. I got it when we were being introduced to her. I can understand her thinking about not fitting into a dress again or whatever every once in a while because great, she's insecure. We all are. But her constantly thinking about food, eating food or whatever else you do with food just took away from the story. Someone couldn't even start a serious conversation with her without her first saying "I'm hungry." And the other person is probably thinking "yea, of course you are."
2. So Elisa has this Godstone imbedded in her navel. It's part of her. Every 100 years God chooses someone to be the bearer. For what, they or in this case Elisa, doesn't know. Obviously this is in Elisa's every waking thought in life (besides food). At sixteen, when is she going to finally have to prove herself to God? I found the whole Godstone thing kind of weird and uninteresting.
3. Now this book is also very heavy in the religious content. Which is fine, but not really my thing. So I found the amount of time Elisa spent studying some scripture or praying, etc... really slowing down the story as well. I would have preferred more time spent on what's going on the world or more information and back story on the enemy countries. Seeing as your on the verge of war with them.
I really did like the fact that Carson used Spanish lore and language. That's what kept me reading. That's what made the story have different and interesting bits.
I also liked the hint of magic. I wish that it was brought into the story more. But maybe it comes more to the forefront in the next book?
I'm hoping that since this first book was a lot of "telling" the next book will be more "showing." I want the action and magic that was missing here. So although I was disappointed with The Girl of Fire and Thorns I am going to continue with the trilogy (mostly because I own the second book and just took the third one out from the library) in the hopes that it can only get better. *crosses fingers*
I stand by my original rating. This is very clearly a first book in many ways.
The cast of characters is great. Elise's growth in herself and confidence is chefs kiss.
But the book is too long. And although the world and such stands the test of time. The plot leaves a lot to be desired.
I remember the trilogy growing a lot with every book so I look forward to hoping that's still the way.
Original review posted here: http://thisisthestoryofmyreadinglife.blogspot.ca/2013/09/review-girl-of-fire-and-thorns-by-rae.html
I was so excited to start this series. I made myself wait until the last book was released in August so I could marathon them. I'm thinking "this is high fantasy, I'm not going to want to wait a year in between books. I'll forget things. Important things." And what a let down. I mean it was alright. I was just hearing such amazing things that I thought I was going to get another Graceling or Poison Study or Throne of Glass. So maybe that's my fault because those are big shoes to fill. But really the material was there, the execution was not.
I feel like Carson was trying so hard to make this book different then other YA Fantasy out there, that that's what came across. The "try." First off this book is soooo slooowww, that it took me far to many days to get half way through. I could only read a chapter maybe two at a time before major ADD kicking in. It took getting through about 3 quarters of the book before it picked up and got a little more interesting for me. What really slowed this book down for me were:
1. Elisa. Guh, was she annoying. OK, I really liked the fact that Carson gave us this atypical heroine. She's over weight, not some super model, athletic princess. She enjoys her studies, especially languages and war and battle tactics. She's kind of the neglected Princess, which shows in her personality (especially lack of confidence). Elisa definitely shows character growth in the later half of the book. She starts to fit into the leader roll that she's destined for, even though she was never taught those skills growing up because again she was the "other" Princess. Her older, better sister will be Queen of their kingdom one day.
But lets come back to the weight thing. I appreciated that about her. BUT I didn't need to be reminded of it every other page. I got it when we were being introduced to her. I can understand her thinking about not fitting into a dress again or whatever every once in a while because great, she's insecure. We all are. But her constantly thinking about food, eating food or whatever else you do with food just took away from the story. Someone couldn't even start a serious conversation with her without her first saying "I'm hungry." And the other person is probably thinking "yea, of course you are."
2. So Elisa has this Godstone imbedded in her navel. It's part of her. Every 100 years God chooses someone to be the bearer. For what, they or in this case Elisa, doesn't know. Obviously this is in Elisa's every waking thought in life (besides food). At sixteen, when is she going to finally have to prove herself to God? I found the whole Godstone thing kind of weird and uninteresting.
3. Now this book is also very heavy in the religious content. Which is fine, but not really my thing. So I found the amount of time Elisa spent studying some scripture or praying, etc... really slowing down the story as well. I would have preferred more time spent on what's going on the world or more information and back story on the enemy countries. Seeing as your on the verge of war with them.
I really did like the fact that Carson used Spanish lore and language. That's what kept me reading. That's what made the story have different and interesting bits.
I also liked the hint of magic. I wish that it was brought into the story more. But maybe it comes more to the forefront in the next book?
I'm hoping that since this first book was a lot of "telling" the next book will be more "showing." I want the action and magic that was missing here. So although I was disappointed with The Girl of Fire and Thorns I am going to continue with the trilogy (mostly because I own the second book and just took the third one out from the library) in the hopes that it can only get better. *crosses fingers*
Hm. I'm not quite sure what I think of this book. I've changed my mind about how many stars to give it twice now. Part of the problem, for me, is the very overt and assertive religious tone of the book. It's....troublesome. Also, the story pretty much wraps up, which makes me wonder where the heck the trilogy is going. And yet, because of that religiousness, I'm not even sure I want to read the next two books. A conundrum.
This book was set in a much different world than I was imagining before I read it, and I really, really liked it.
3.5 stars. I really liked the plot and story of this book, but there were a lot of flaws that were hard to look past. I thought the world building was great, especially how detailed the religion was described. Elisa, the second daughter to the King of Orovalle, is chosen by God. She thinks the godstone in her stomach is her only redeeming quality; she doesn’t care for court, and she’s not as graceful or diplomatic as her older sister, Alodia. As God’s chosen, Elisa is destined to perform some kind of heroic service. Unfortunately for her, she has no idea what that service will be, and she doesn’t feel ready for it all. Then suddenly, Elisa is forced into a political marriage with a foreign king she has never met. She tries to fall in love with him, but he feels the need to hide the fact that they are married from his people. She is later kidnapped in local rebels and gets swept into a worldwide conflict.
Like I said before, I really enjoyed the worldbuilding in this book. I thought the way the cities were characterized and how the author differentiated between societies was very nice. Each culture took on its own personality, but they still felt like they all belonged in the same universe together. I also liked the plot of this story. I enjoyed the entire concept, and in general it was pretty well executed. The way the sorcery was illustrated was also well done, and so were the fight scenes.
As much as I enjoyed this book, I definitely had a few problems with it. The biggest of those is how Elisa’s weight is described. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for a protagonist that isn’t the picture perfect model. However, this could've been done a lot better. In the beginning of the book especially, it felt like Elisa’s only trait was the fact that she was overweight. All she ever thought of was her next meal, and she was thinking like food was the only important aspect of her life. Elisa got a little better later on in the book, but her weight still felt overdone. Also, her overweightness had no background. After very meal, Elisa would regret eating but then she’d binge again that night. We also never got any insight on how she felt about food and her eventual weight loss. It seemed to me that Elisa was fat because it was convenient to the story at times. In order to justify doing this to Elisa, Carson completely blows Elisa’s body out of proportion.
In my opinion, there were also a few plot holes. For example, after Elisa is kidnapped she is almost immediately attracted to Humberto, who led her kidnapping. Aren’t you supposed to be afraid of someone that drugs you then drags you out into the desert? She automatically trusts them and makes absolutely no attempt for escape. I can understand this as Elisa can’t survive the desert on her own, but escape barely crosses her mind. She just automatically accepts her kidnappers as her new friends.
All in all, I did enjoy this book. Unfortunately, there were a few errors and stylistic I just couldn’t ignore.
Like I said before, I really enjoyed the worldbuilding in this book. I thought the way the cities were characterized and how the author differentiated between societies was very nice. Each culture took on its own personality, but they still felt like they all belonged in the same universe together. I also liked the plot of this story. I enjoyed the entire concept, and in general it was pretty well executed. The way the sorcery was illustrated was also well done, and so were the fight scenes.
As much as I enjoyed this book, I definitely had a few problems with it. The biggest of those is how Elisa’s weight is described. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for a protagonist that isn’t the picture perfect model. However, this could've been done a lot better. In the beginning of the book especially, it felt like Elisa’s only trait was the fact that she was overweight. All she ever thought of was her next meal, and she was thinking like food was the only important aspect of her life. Elisa got a little better later on in the book, but her weight still felt overdone. Also, her overweightness had no background. After very meal, Elisa would regret eating but then she’d binge again that night. We also never got any insight on how she felt about food and her eventual weight loss. It seemed to me that Elisa was fat because it was convenient to the story at times. In order to justify doing this to Elisa, Carson completely blows Elisa’s body out of proportion.
In my opinion, there were also a few plot holes.
All in all, I did enjoy this book. Unfortunately, there were a few errors and stylistic I just couldn’t ignore.
This is in a similar category as Daughter of Smoke and Bone, I think. I loved the worldbuilding and largely liked Elisa’s journey. I was intrigued by the way the relationships panned out–certainly unusual for the current crop of YA! And yet, I never felt that spark that really pushed me over the edge into love. I’m hoping for another book, though, because I did enjoy the world, and I often find second books stronger than first ones. [Oct. 2011]
The way religion infuses this book and how that is handled (character's relationships to it, etc.) alone make it worth reading. Then there are some very unconventional but spectacular plot machinations. I approve.
Re-read this 05/30&31/2013
Re-read this 05/30&31/2013
If it hadn't been for the overly preachy atmosphere, I might have enjoyed it more. As it stands, I didn't see much fantasy but a lot of "bible bashing", so to speak. Fantasy played a minor role in the story, and that took away much of the excitement for me. It didn't mention anywhere in the blurb that it concentrated so much on God, his chosen one and God's will, and I feel it should considering it is the main plot and point of the book -- and so people are aware, before they pick it up.
However, putting those aside, I absolutely adored Elisa as the main character and all the character development, and how well fleshed out the side characters were. The plot was slightly predictable, but I found myself enjoying the last half immensely.
Full review to come on 100% Rock!
However, putting those aside, I absolutely adored Elisa as the main character and all the character development, and how well fleshed out the side characters were. The plot was slightly predictable, but I found myself enjoying the last half immensely.
Full review to come on 100% Rock!