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A review by bookph1le
The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson
3.0
This was a weird book for me. I wasn't too into it in the beginning, got to a point where I couldn't stand Elisa, and then a funny thing happened: the book redeemed itself. More complete review to come.
Full review:
Talk about your mixed bag. This book was that in spades, and then some. It's rare that I start out disliking a book and continuing to read it in spite of that, only to end up liking things about it. Usually, it's the other way around for me. It's unfortunate that it did get off to such a weak start and that there were so many problematic elements to it, because I might otherwise have really enjoyed it. As it was, it was a decent reading experience, but not one that got me overly excited. Ahead be spoilers.
A big reason why I (and many others, it seems) wanted to read this book is because it was billed as diverse, owing to its featuring a main character who is very overweight. You know up front that she is, because it's mentioned multiple times. Elisa thinks it, other characters say it, and it's generally discussed on almost every page in the book. There is such a thing as driving the point home with a *bit* too much force. That said, it was interesting to see an author delve into a character's unhealthy body image and obsession with food. Yeah, I did get tired of reading about all the lamb dishes after a while, but it also made sense to me. Elisa's relationship with sustenance is very, very disordered, so it makes sense that it's on her mind a lot. She has an emotional relationship with food, turning to it in times of stress when she needs comfort, and the book is very clear on that point.
What bugged me about Elisa, though, was that she never stops to think about her unhealthy relationship with food. She is such a sad sack for such a huge portion of the novel that I couldn't stand her. I understood where she was coming from and why she felt the way she did, but since she didn't do much more than wallow in self-pity, I had a hard time empathizing with her. I wanted her to wonder why she's so attached to food, why she thinks so poorly about herself, and why she can't do something to change that. She gets there, but it takes a lot of outside events, and I thought that was kind of a letdown. For how introspective the girl can be, she doesn't spend much time wondering about her own destructive tendencies, and that's a shame. I wanted her to have a moment where she realized she was more than her body, that her inner worth counted for a lot more, but she never gets to that point without a LOT of outside validation. Really, I guess this boils down to a personal preference, that this is just the sort of person she is, but nevertheless I found it disappointing.
I didn't much like the godstones. They were way, way too deus ex machina for me. This is a huge flaw of the "chosen one" trope. The "chosen one" is a crutch because the character never really has to struggle or grow or learn, they just need to tap into their special "chosen one" powers at the right moment. It's possible to use this trope in an effective way. Harry Potter is a good example, but I'd argue that Rowling subverts the trope because, really, it's not so much that Potter is the "chosen one" as it is that he becomes the "chosen one" as a result of his enemy's paranoia. Harry doesn't have awesome special powers and he can't get by without help from his friends. Elisa, on the other hand, taps right into her uber power at the right moment, and the world is saved. Honestly, that bores me. I was a lot more interested in what she did with the Malificio, which was far more engrossing for me. Any way you look at it, though, it didn't much matter what Elisa did because what really wins the day is that special super power, a power that makes Elisa incidental. She's special only because of what she has in her belly, not because of her heart or her mind or anything else that makes a character compelling. It's a shame, because once her heart and mind start expanding, she becomes more interesting.
I also don't like that everything that inconveniences her is disposed of in the end, often in pointless ways that bleed the events of any impact, and always without her having to lift a finger. Inconvenient husband? Gone. (And don't get me started on their unconsummated marriage. It's utter nonsense. When a marriage is a way to cement a royal alliance, it's consummated. Period, full stop. YA fantasy, you need to stop giving your characters an out when this happens. Either have them consummate the relationship, or drop this plot device altogether.) Annoying, duplicitous, beautiful countess who harasses Elisa? Gone. Evil animagi who threaten to destroy the heroine's homeland? Gone--at least in the immediate vicinity. What happens to Humberto also feels pointless to me, a means of manipulating the reader's emotions and upping the angst for Elisa. It's not even important that he thinks he has a way to get her out of her marriage, because that obstacle is removed in the end anyway.
So what do I like about this book? Well, I like that the heroine is introspective, bookish, and introverted. Quiet characters are fairly rare in YA, and they're also rarely the center of the action. I like Elisa's struggle to find her place in the world, to do what's demanded of her because she understands that it's her responsibility. Sure, she sometimes wishes she could just go hide in her room, but she's mature enough to accept that she can't. And for as unwilling as she is to be an active part of her own life, she does react when she's called to do it, as in the fight with the Perditos. It was so refreshing to see a character react like that rather than waiting for someone to save her. It gave me hope that she could rise above her (mostly self-imposed) limitations and become something more.
I like that her looks are unconventional. While I wasn't fond of the fact that she gains a lot of her confidence after losing some weight, the book is also clear that she's not exactly supermodel slim either. In some ways, her evolving body type is a reflection of her evolving character, and even though she looks different, who she is on the inside hasn't changed much. Elisa is still the same Elisa, just in different packaging, and I think that's a good thing. And while I thought the body image issues were a bit mixed, I wanted to cheer at the way some characters react to it. Sure, some are big jerks who can't look past Elisa's weight, but some see her for who she is and respect, admire, and even love her *for* it, not *despite* it. Hector's and Humberto's nonchalance about Elisa's appearance is significant because it's true. The world often appears to be a very superficial place, but there are always those who eschew the superficiality because they're more concerned about substance. Guess which characters I liked most in the book?
The other thing that I thought was so well done about this book is the way it examines its religious context. Sometimes this does feel rather like Christian fiction, but there is nuance here. Elisa's godstone indicates to her and everyone who shares her belief system that her actions are the results of God's will. Yet she reaches a point where she looks at her belief system through new eyes and sees that it's kind of warped. She's spent her life believing in a truth and yet has the intellectual capacity to recognize when her truth doesn't gibe with other people's truth. More, she's able to see that maybe, just maybe, the Invierne also think they're acting out of God's will, even though other characters in the book have a hard time giving this idea credit. I feel like there's a lot under the surface here, and I'd guess that the other books probably develop this nuanced version more. I guess I'll find out if I do decide to read the others.
Whether or not I will remains a question because, while this book does some things really wrong and others really right, I'm not sure it was compelling enough for me to continue with the series.
Full review:
Talk about your mixed bag. This book was that in spades, and then some. It's rare that I start out disliking a book and continuing to read it in spite of that, only to end up liking things about it. Usually, it's the other way around for me. It's unfortunate that it did get off to such a weak start and that there were so many problematic elements to it, because I might otherwise have really enjoyed it. As it was, it was a decent reading experience, but not one that got me overly excited. Ahead be spoilers.
A big reason why I (and many others, it seems) wanted to read this book is because it was billed as diverse, owing to its featuring a main character who is very overweight. You know up front that she is, because it's mentioned multiple times. Elisa thinks it, other characters say it, and it's generally discussed on almost every page in the book. There is such a thing as driving the point home with a *bit* too much force. That said, it was interesting to see an author delve into a character's unhealthy body image and obsession with food. Yeah, I did get tired of reading about all the lamb dishes after a while, but it also made sense to me. Elisa's relationship with sustenance is very, very disordered, so it makes sense that it's on her mind a lot. She has an emotional relationship with food, turning to it in times of stress when she needs comfort, and the book is very clear on that point.
What bugged me about Elisa, though, was that she never stops to think about her unhealthy relationship with food. She is such a sad sack for such a huge portion of the novel that I couldn't stand her. I understood where she was coming from and why she felt the way she did, but since she didn't do much more than wallow in self-pity, I had a hard time empathizing with her. I wanted her to wonder why she's so attached to food, why she thinks so poorly about herself, and why she can't do something to change that. She gets there, but it takes a lot of outside events, and I thought that was kind of a letdown. For how introspective the girl can be, she doesn't spend much time wondering about her own destructive tendencies, and that's a shame. I wanted her to have a moment where she realized she was more than her body, that her inner worth counted for a lot more, but she never gets to that point without a LOT of outside validation. Really, I guess this boils down to a personal preference, that this is just the sort of person she is, but nevertheless I found it disappointing.
I didn't much like the godstones. They were way, way too deus ex machina for me. This is a huge flaw of the "chosen one" trope. The "chosen one" is a crutch because the character never really has to struggle or grow or learn, they just need to tap into their special "chosen one" powers at the right moment. It's possible to use this trope in an effective way. Harry Potter is a good example, but I'd argue that Rowling subverts the trope because, really, it's not so much that Potter is the "chosen one" as it is that he becomes the "chosen one" as a result of his enemy's paranoia. Harry doesn't have awesome special powers and he can't get by without help from his friends. Elisa, on the other hand, taps right into her uber power at the right moment, and the world is saved. Honestly, that bores me. I was a lot more interested in what she did with the Malificio, which was far more engrossing for me. Any way you look at it, though, it didn't much matter what Elisa did because what really wins the day is that special super power, a power that makes Elisa incidental. She's special only because of what she has in her belly, not because of her heart or her mind or anything else that makes a character compelling. It's a shame, because once her heart and mind start expanding, she becomes more interesting.
I also don't like that everything that inconveniences her is disposed of in the end, often in pointless ways that bleed the events of any impact, and always without her having to lift a finger. Inconvenient husband? Gone. (And don't get me started on their unconsummated marriage. It's utter nonsense. When a marriage is a way to cement a royal alliance, it's consummated. Period, full stop. YA fantasy, you need to stop giving your characters an out when this happens. Either have them consummate the relationship, or drop this plot device altogether.) Annoying, duplicitous, beautiful countess who harasses Elisa? Gone. Evil animagi who threaten to destroy the heroine's homeland? Gone--at least in the immediate vicinity. What happens to Humberto also feels pointless to me, a means of manipulating the reader's emotions and upping the angst for Elisa. It's not even important that he thinks he has a way to get her out of her marriage, because that obstacle is removed in the end anyway.
So what do I like about this book? Well, I like that the heroine is introspective, bookish, and introverted. Quiet characters are fairly rare in YA, and they're also rarely the center of the action. I like Elisa's struggle to find her place in the world, to do what's demanded of her because she understands that it's her responsibility. Sure, she sometimes wishes she could just go hide in her room, but she's mature enough to accept that she can't. And for as unwilling as she is to be an active part of her own life, she does react when she's called to do it, as in the fight with the Perditos. It was so refreshing to see a character react like that rather than waiting for someone to save her. It gave me hope that she could rise above her (mostly self-imposed) limitations and become something more.
I like that her looks are unconventional. While I wasn't fond of the fact that she gains a lot of her confidence after losing some weight, the book is also clear that she's not exactly supermodel slim either. In some ways, her evolving body type is a reflection of her evolving character, and even though she looks different, who she is on the inside hasn't changed much. Elisa is still the same Elisa, just in different packaging, and I think that's a good thing. And while I thought the body image issues were a bit mixed, I wanted to cheer at the way some characters react to it. Sure, some are big jerks who can't look past Elisa's weight, but some see her for who she is and respect, admire, and even love her *for* it, not *despite* it. Hector's and Humberto's nonchalance about Elisa's appearance is significant because it's true. The world often appears to be a very superficial place, but there are always those who eschew the superficiality because they're more concerned about substance. Guess which characters I liked most in the book?
The other thing that I thought was so well done about this book is the way it examines its religious context. Sometimes this does feel rather like Christian fiction, but there is nuance here. Elisa's godstone indicates to her and everyone who shares her belief system that her actions are the results of God's will. Yet she reaches a point where she looks at her belief system through new eyes and sees that it's kind of warped. She's spent her life believing in a truth and yet has the intellectual capacity to recognize when her truth doesn't gibe with other people's truth. More, she's able to see that maybe, just maybe, the Invierne also think they're acting out of God's will, even though other characters in the book have a hard time giving this idea credit. I feel like there's a lot under the surface here, and I'd guess that the other books probably develop this nuanced version more. I guess I'll find out if I do decide to read the others.
Whether or not I will remains a question because, while this book does some things really wrong and others really right, I'm not sure it was compelling enough for me to continue with the series.