Reviews with content warning for Death of parent - Fire

I had a hard time following it. It felt like the political intrigue and pacing in general ramped up a lot near the end and was very sudden, whereas the beginning was slow. I love this series to bits and this was very well done as usual, but I definitely preferred all the other books in the series more.

I also felt extremely gross at the age gap relationships with the teenage girls getting pregnant by an adult man. If these were shamed in the plot that would be one thing, but they are not. The older man is seen as loved and sympathetic and he is martyred.

Content Warnings

tea_27's review against another edition

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4.75

Content Warnings

sara_berlin's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

So much about this story was just right. I’ve read so many books that I have really enjoyed, but there was always something that was just a bit too much or a bit too little, but somehow, Kristin Cashore manages to strike a perfect balance between, well, everything. The length of the book is ideal; it rounds out at about 450 pages, not too short to miss it but not so long it feels unnecessarily extended. There were just enough distinct characters for me to not get tired of the same people and same relationships over and over again (although I’m sure with her skill at character development, even if there weren’t so many they would still be plenty entertaining), but not so many that I was consistently confused about who was who. It was blunt without being unnecessarily explicit or romanticizing serious topics. The plot had enough slowed down, cozy parts for the escapist in me, but also plenty of suspense and action-filled sequences to keep me on my toes (

my personal favorite action scene that painted such a vivid picture in my mind that I had to take a pause just to enjoy it was when Fire rides out on her horse and pulls her headscarf off to distract the raptors from the soldiers leaving Roen’s fortress. So dramatic, I loved it.

). The amount of tragic moments and hopeful, healing moments in the story was also at the exact right ratio. It’s really a wonder how she does it.

I feel like it is hard to compare this book to any other books I’ve read, because it’s an amalgamation of and improvement on my favorite aspects of many books, but I’ll try. It’s like The Cruel Prince’s political drama, spies, and Jude’s fiery (pun intended) and headstrong personality meets The Song of Achilles’ reflections on war and beautiful way of putting emotions into words meets The Lunar Chronicles’ many star-crossed romances, but with such unique world building and magical abilities that I have yet to read anyplace else. Also, Fire herself kind of reminded me of Genya from the Grishaverse. I guess there’s some kind of trope about

scarred

redheaded women who were hurt by men for being beautiful.
Also, I may be totally off and incorrect about this, but the story had some kind of Celtic or generally British Isles-region mystical vibes. I don’t know if it was the names, the beautiful landscape or just the fact that Fire has such exuberant red hair (although hopefully it wasn’t just that), but it was the feeling I got while reading the story.

Another thing I really liked about this book that I’m sure will be more apparent when I reread it is that there is some symbolism. I wouldn’t say it’s an English class-level book, but there are definitely layers to it that make it fun to read when you’re the target audience, but also fun to reread once you’re a bit older. It’s also not symbolism just for symbolism’s sake (a thing that I feel like a lot of classics do which greatly annoys me), the symbols are relevant to the story as well.

There were two specific things that I noticed may be symbols (or maybe I’m just overanalyzing). For one, Fire’s horses. I think Small very much represented her childhood and herself at the start of the story; aiming for comfort, and controlled by her fear of becoming like her father, which all changes at the turning point of the story when she decides to use her powers to help. Meanwhile, while she was struggling to cope with the grief of losing her closest companion of many years and the trauma she experienced from being kidnapped, she meets and connects to the wild river horse, which in my mind represented Fire’s full, gorgeous, powerful and free self that was confident in who she was as a human enough to grow into her monster self. She reiterates multiple times how beautiful and independent the horse is (coincidentally, or not, Brigan makes a similar observation, perhaps reflecting on how he sees fire). Another smaller thing that is a little more obvious; Fire’s hair. As she works on healing and connects with her community, she wears her hair down much more frequently and isn’t nearly as afraid of something happening to her (not that it was her fault at all, she had good reason to be afraid, but her overcoming this was a significant moment).

All in all, an exquisite YA fantasy novel that succeeds at everything it set out to do, and probably more. This is how you write.

Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief and Death of parent

Moderate: Infidelity, Misogyny, War, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, and Violence

Minor: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Fire/Fire injury, Pedophilia, Rape, and Sexual violence

Now, I don’t usually do trigger warnings, but I think the particular themes and perspective of this story might not be clear from the synopsis or the listed triggers. (Minor spoilers ahead.)

Because of who Fire is and how her powers function, people often resort to assaulting her or saying vile things to her, and the key difference is that for a good portion of the story she kind of thinks she deserves it, or at least that these people aren’t completely in the wrong, because her powers sort of encourage that behavior. I think this could be very triggering for survivors of SA and the guilt that comes with it for some people. I will say that, in general, Kristin Cashore was careful to be blunt, as is Fire’s personality, but not graphic. I don’t think there were even any graphic consensual situations in the book (which makes sense since it’s Young Adult). Also, Fire’s relationship with her father (and his behavior) was often pretty unhealthy and resulted in her having certain traumatic experiences, but despite that she still felt affection towards him, so I think people with similar experiences in terms of their parents or partners should be cautious. Lastly, a lot of Cansrel’s (and honestly even Archer’s sometimes) behavior towards women is unsavory at best (adultery) and vile (p!dophilia, assault) at worst, so watch out for that as well. The overwhelming majority of this isn’t actively depicted and is just talked about or offhandedly mentioned, so I don’t think most people should be too worried, but I thought it warranted clarification. Overall, it's handled very carefully and Fire herself heals and comes to terms with a lot of what she had to deal with. I guess while I’m at it I’ll also mention that there is some violence, but I’m sure most people expect that going into a fantasy book with war in it. Again, not graphic or very frequent, but worth mentioning.

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