A review by krutikasurve
The Boy With Fire by Aparna Verma

3.0

Yeah, this was fine. but I’ll be frank…all that world-building went completely over my head. It’s kind of bad. I wanted more romance and that was the only feature that kept me engaged until the third act. That’s NOT to criticize the writing. Just my stupidity and general short attention span. Surprisingly, the romance plot is not as engaging as I would hope (my standards for romance are alarmingly low) but I think it is just one of those things that would develop. Nonetheless, I’m invested now. I’ll read the trilogy. Oh no, you got me. 

 

I will say I love how Indian culture was integrated into this while still maintaining the sci-fi elements. Every once in a while (ok very often) random words were thrown out and it was a bit overwhelming cause I didn’t know what they meant (back to my inherent disregard for world-building, if it’s not part of the romance it WILL go over my head) but then there will be a word thrown in there like diya or lehenga and I’m like “I know what that is”. It was very validating.