Reviews with content warning for Blood - Fire

my favourite favourite book of all time ♥️

every time I read this book I am just reminded of Cashore’s insane ability to remove my heart from my chest, expose it to all the beauty and sadness in the world, and gently put it back wrapped in love and light and hope.

I just love this book so much and if you want to dissect it or discuss its problems I do not want to hear a bit of it; all I’ve got is love.

Content Warnings

frankieclc's review against another edition

Go to review page

I cannot believe how awful this book is it's truly a menace to society

Content Warnings

lubotomy's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Content Warnings

rebaba82's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Content Warnings

hazelsnoot's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Content Warnings

siglerbooknook's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional inspiring reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

nytephoenyx's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

The thing that frustrates me the most about Fire is that it’s a companion novel in the Graceling Realm and I want more story in the Dells. What a beautiful, terrifying world we have here, and I absolutely delighted in it. The Dells are dangerous and beguiling. Cashore tells the story in such a way it’s easy to be invested in all the various characters, their pursuits, and the welfare of the greater world. And our villain. There’s so much to say here folks so I’ll try to compress all my somersaulting thoughts into a few concise paragraphs.

First, the characters. Cashore does something curious here and introduces us to Leck long before we meet Fire, the primary protagonist. Through our villain, we learn about the world, and we learn about the terrible things even a child can do when given unlimited power and no moral guidance. After spending time with this villain, Fire is a relief. Her genetics make her a “monster” – equally hated and loved and always a victim to the extreme passions of others. Her personality makes her a heroine. Her perseverance makes her admirable. She’s great character to follow. In many ways, I found Fire reminiscent of Alanna from Tamora Pierce’s Lioness quartet, and that made me love her all the more.

The complexity of Fire’s emotions, motivations, and desires marks her among the most interesting characters one could have in a book. I particularly loved her internal struggle, which are subtle and important to her, but never take away from the main focus of the story: the war coming to the Dells. Both Fire’s aunt-like relationship to the young Princess Hanna and her unexpected kinship with Prince Brigan were nice to read and surprised me by ultimately forwarding the plot. Cashore always delivers in her characters. Fire is bisexual, but that doesn’t define her. The normativeness of sexual identity (outside of Fire’s father’s homophobia) was nice. It’s nice to have a fantasy world where prejudice does not perfect mirror our own. I’d also put Fire on the ace spectrum, but that is pure speculation.

Cashore uses color vibrantly to describe the Dells, and so as I read I felt the bright world unfurl around me. She’s good at shifting subtlely between senses to talk about how one place smells vs. another and shades the weather plays on a scene. It never feels flowery, and it never feels forced. Fire was a pleasure to read, and Cashore’s writing style and imagination both a gift.

I absolutely loved Fire and I know I’ll read it again, so it’s going on my list to add to my personal library. I’m so looking forward to Bitterblueeven though I know it won’t involve Fire and the Dells. Any peek into the Graceling Realm is a treasure. You don’t need to have read Graceling to enjoy Fire, so if you’re looking at a taste of Cashore’s writing and her fantasy worlds, this is the book you want. I will warn you – a simple taste won’t be enough.

Content Warnings

kbusemeyer's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This book is longer and more evolved in its language than Graceling was. I do miss the other characters, but it was nice watching Brigand and Fire’s characters and relationship develop.

The concept of Fire being a “monster” and that her beauty was just so irresistible is really hard to imagine. The mind part I get, but I think it was a little annoying to read about

Nash being so in love with her he tries to SA her

. Her relationship with Archer was also very confusing although his death was honestly so tragic especially at the time of Clara and Mila having his baby. The Jod being his dad part did make a ton of sense but I definitely did not put it together as fast as Archer had, I found out when Fire realized.

Seeing Leck was interesting, the way of getting between worlds always confused me like basically “fall down mountain” and somehow come out the other side of the tunnel. I guess he settled back into the Graceling world after Fire’s horse stabbed him in the eye and then 20+ years later is when Katsa and co encountered him.

I wanted to like this book more, I do think it was better writing than Graceling, but it was just slow and I found the characters less endearing just due to the constant “she’s pretty, I’m in love” which I get is her power. I did like seeing her character develop and the

reveal that she killed Canstrel by making him commit suicide and her coming to terms with loving someone but not agreeing with what he did.

I feel like sometime there were just unnecessary twists and turns and reveals

(surprise Brigand is actually Brocker’s son, your grandmother is actually alive) - nice to have, I guess but didn’t add anything besides that genetics were really strong in peoples ability I guess.

Content Warnings

More...