A review by chrschn
Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman

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

2.25

This is for sure going to be a clunky review, it’s super late and my eyes hurt and I dislike this book for reasons that are difficult to put into words. As a disclaimer though I will say that I’m very likely not the target audience for this one because most of what I disliked about this book are the same things that make it successful at what it was trying to do. 

Between Two Fires reads appropriately for its subject matter, in as much as it’s reminiscent of biblical writing. It’s oddly paced, moving glacially most of the time and then extremely quickly at others. It feels feverish and everything has a dreamlike quality, never sitting quite right, which I assume was intentional but didn’t make it any more endearing. People’s words, their actions, everything feels weirdly performative and ethereal and like you’re reading a parable. Appropriate, I guess. The book is somewhat episodic and doesn’t connect the pieces well, while at other times fails to adequately describe what it intends to, which left me feeling confused more than I expect I was supposed to, which took me out of the story a fair bit. This was only made worse by how frustratingly anachronistic the book was at times.

The world in BTF is filthy, cruel, and full of bad people, our protagonist included. Every character is unlikable, but there are moments of decency when the story calls for it. I never did really warm to anyone in the book, but found them a bit more sympathetic by the last 30 pages, having experienced at least some growth. There’s a really creepy fascination with
rape, particularly centered around the pre-teen deuteragonist
which was handled very poorly.
The character in question never is SA’d in the book, but the subject is approached an uncomfortable amount, and never well. At one point the primary protagonist resists demonic influence to rape his adolescent surrogate daughter, and upon successfully fighting it off, the book treats it like it’s a bonding moment for them, going so far as to have another character be jealous over the newfound closeness the two share over the ordeal.
Felt very fucking gross on the author’s part. Above all though, for the handful of very interesting and creepy ideas it has, everything feels just kind of pointless. Things happen just to happen. There’s a difference between establishing how fucked the world is and just throwing in a creepy idea you had without knowing how to tie it to anything significant. There’s not really a reason for most things that take place, and events don’t have much bearing on the central story. There’s a character that’s introduced later in the book that could have been removed entirely and nothing would have been different. 

My dislike for the book wavered slightly throughout, losing its intensity somewhat as we went on but never managing to go away. I will give BTF one full star for managing to finish on a high note with a well crafted ending. Still feel like I need to brush my teeth after the whole thing though. 


Expand filter menu Content Warnings