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A review by jrayereads
We Set the Dark on Fire by Tehlor Kay Mejia
adventurous
challenging
emotional
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
I'm on a mission to find a YA fantasy duology that I love and this one just wasn't it.
We Set the Dark on Fire follows Dani, who goes to an elite all-girls school that trains girls to be married off to rich people's sons as either a Primera (her husband's equal, trained to be emotionless, analytical, and to manage the household) or a Segunda (trained to be eye-candy and baby makers). Dani is the top Primera at her school and set up to marry the most desired-bachelor of the year, but she has secrets of her heritage that she's trying to keep and all the while is sucked into a rebellion that wants to overthrow the entire oppressive system she is about to dedicate her life to.
Okay things I liked:
First off, the writing was really enjoyable. It's YA so it's easy to read but I still found it beautiful and extremely clear - I had such a detailed image in my mind of what was going on. I swapped back and forth between the digital copy and the audiobook and I loved the narrator. She did an excellent job with her performance and that definitely enhanced my experience. I also liked the pacing of this book A LOT. I read the entire thing within a day because I was genuinely sucked in and had to know what happened. I also thought Dani was a likeable main character and I sympathized with her throughout the hard choices she had to make. I thought the tension between her comfort and her sense of duty to her home was well handled and developed well throughout the story.
I also appreciated the morally grey depiction of the rebellion. There was a pretty clear good side (the poor starving people who literally just want to have healthcare) and a bad side (the rich assholes), but there were still moments for complex morality and that forced Dani to make really interesting choices.
Now the things I didn't like. . .
I was kind of stunned at how little this book explored the gendered aspects of the roles that Dani and the other girls were put in. It felt more like the type of oppressive misogyny that you would see in a regency-era historical romance where women have strict limitations and weird roles but otherwise are kind of fine as long as you're rich? We just didn't see a lot from these girls on whether or not they were happy to be in their situation. Dani had struggles based on class and being born outside the walls of the city, not from the marginalized position she was in as a woman. There are also a lot of women who do not live within this structure where they have to be one of two wives for a random rich dude, especially when the book mentions same-sex couples who live outside the city's wealthy walls. Older Primeras and Segundas are also framed as having a certain amount of power and respect within their society, especially if their husbands are high ranking, which sometimes felt girl-boss-y and not that they were making the best of a bad situation.
Of course I love the gay shit but things were rushed pretty quickly and I did find Carmen's characterization to be kind of shallow in this first book. If you want me to believe these girls are ready to die for each other I'm going to need a little more development there. That took some of the impact out of what was otherwise a pretty tense climax.
Overall this book was pretty fun and I was entertained throughout. I am definitely going to read the sequel because it left on a pretty solid cliffhanger and I'm interested to see if things have a bit more depth in the second book.
We Set the Dark on Fire follows Dani, who goes to an elite all-girls school that trains girls to be married off to rich people's sons as either a Primera (her husband's equal, trained to be emotionless, analytical, and to manage the household) or a Segunda (trained to be eye-candy and baby makers). Dani is the top Primera at her school and set up to marry the most desired-bachelor of the year, but she has secrets of her heritage that she's trying to keep and all the while is sucked into a rebellion that wants to overthrow the entire oppressive system she is about to dedicate her life to.
Okay things I liked:
First off, the writing was really enjoyable. It's YA so it's easy to read but I still found it beautiful and extremely clear - I had such a detailed image in my mind of what was going on. I swapped back and forth between the digital copy and the audiobook and I loved the narrator. She did an excellent job with her performance and that definitely enhanced my experience. I also liked the pacing of this book A LOT. I read the entire thing within a day because I was genuinely sucked in and had to know what happened. I also thought Dani was a likeable main character and I sympathized with her throughout the hard choices she had to make. I thought the tension between her comfort and her sense of duty to her home was well handled and developed well throughout the story.
I also appreciated the morally grey depiction of the rebellion. There was a pretty clear good side (the poor starving people who literally just want to have healthcare) and a bad side (the rich assholes), but there were still moments for complex morality and that forced Dani to make really interesting choices.
Now the things I didn't like. . .
I was kind of stunned at how little this book explored the gendered aspects of the roles that Dani and the other girls were put in. It felt more like the type of oppressive misogyny that you would see in a regency-era historical romance where women have strict limitations and weird roles but otherwise are kind of fine as long as you're rich? We just didn't see a lot from these girls on whether or not they were happy to be in their situation. Dani had struggles based on class and being born outside the walls of the city, not from the marginalized position she was in as a woman. There are also a lot of women who do not live within this structure where they have to be one of two wives for a random rich dude, especially when the book mentions same-sex couples who live outside the city's wealthy walls. Older Primeras and Segundas are also framed as having a certain amount of power and respect within their society, especially if their husbands are high ranking, which sometimes felt girl-boss-y and not that they were making the best of a bad situation.
Of course I love the gay shit but things were rushed pretty quickly and I did find Carmen's characterization to be kind of shallow in this first book. If you want me to believe these girls are ready to die for each other I'm going to need a little more development there. That took some of the impact out of what was otherwise a pretty tense climax.
Overall this book was pretty fun and I was entertained throughout. I am definitely going to read the sequel because it left on a pretty solid cliffhanger and I'm interested to see if things have a bit more depth in the second book.