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oneoflifeslollopers 's review for:
The Girl of Fire and Thorns
by Rae Carson
I’ve been seeing the cover for this book at the library the last couple of months and it always grabbed my attention. While I got off to a shakey start, by about a third of the way through I loved it, and by the end I was doing a happy dance in excitement of how awesome I thought this book was.
Tomorrow I go to the desert country of Joya d’Arena to be its queen. I leave the jacaranda tree outside my bedroom window to bloom lilac without me. I leave my painted adobe walls and trickling fountains for stone castle a millennium old. I leave a newer, vibrant nation for an enormous beast of a country – one scorched by the sun, and stale with the traditions that made my ancestors leave it in the first place. I’ve not had the courage to ask papa and Alodia why. I’m afraid to learn they are glad to be rid of me. But the most frightening thing of all is that I am about to be someone’s wife.
Princess Elisa has spent her life in her sister’s shadow despite being the bearer of the Godstone, a small stone in her belly believed to be gifted by God to one person every four generations. As the story starts she is being married off to the King of another country – a man she has never met – for reasons that have yet to be explained to her. Elisa is in a new country but being hidden by her husband who won’t reveal their marriage to his people. The country is now on the brink of war, with several sides wishing to claim her Godstone, many not caring if she is alive to bear it or not.
Elisa and I did not get off to the best start, but by the end of the novel I found her to be one of the most developed, likeable characters I have read in a long time. When Elisa starts the novel, she is very much the entitled, naïve child one would expect a princess to be. She has lived a sheltered, privileged, idle life being taught by a tutor and cared for by her two ladies in waiting. None of these aspects about her bothered me as much as the constant references to her weight – from both herself and outside sources. I don’t care how much a character weighs, and while I can see that this was used to display how much Elisa changes over the course of the novel, this aspect was far too heavily referenced and frustrated me so much I was very tempted to give up trying to read through it.
I see my life in sudden clarity. The hush whenever I walked into a room. Glances exchanged between my tutor and my sister. Hand-guarded whispers. Reassuring platitudes delivered from behind worried countenances. I thought it was because the world holds me in contempt, because I am so unlike my sister. Because I am fat.
By the time Elisa reaches her husband’s country I saw several examples of the possibility of more depth to her. On the journey to her new home, the party is attacked and Elisa responds with a cool, logical head in the face of danger that saves many lives, including that of her new husband. As the novel progresses, and Elisa is humiliated at court by her husband who won’t give up his mistress, is kidnapped and forced to trudge across the desert or be killed by her kidnappers, is kidnapped again, betrayed and captured, and finally, must lead the defence against the invading masses.
Elisa shows determination to succeed, resourcefulness and ingenuity when she recruits a guerrilla army of children to attack the oncoming forces with a series of annoyance tactics – harassing them in the dead of night, poisoning water supplies, and blocking food trains. I loved seeing Elisa determined to make a difference, and involve the children who desperately wanted to fight back, while still making sure not to endanger them. It was great to see her assume the role of leadership, especially when her husband is hesitant to take any action for fear it’s the wrong decision. What really made her such a great character was that she did all these things despite being terrified, despite never having a plan or any training and despite the losses she suffers throughout the novel.
“…Our goal will be to harass them. Weaken them. Terrorize them. We will be the spirit of death that visits them in the night, the hidden viper in their path. We will be the Malficio, the curse on their existence…If we are very clever, very careful, I think we can give the king a huge advantage. I think we can help him win this war. But there can be no heroes, no honour in senseless death. Our goal will be to sting them only, and live to sting again.”
Apart from the characterisation, I really enjoyed the plot. Carson’s writing flows easily and there is plenty of action throughout to keep you racing through the pages. There are only a couple of main settings; the castle, the desert and the enemy camp, but they all came alive in my head and I enjoyed my time in all of them. Carson does a great job of showing us the people in all of these places and how all the different lives form the country Elisa has inherited. I especially loved Elisa’s time in the desert, and the people she got to know along the way. As I said earlier, a lot of them are children, but they have such an amazing strength of spirit considering that they’ve been exiled by the enemy, blown up, tortured and seen their parents and village die before them.
“They believe this is God’s will,” I say softly.
“Acquiring a seaport? Invading another country? Killing innocent people? Which of their actions, exactly, are they going to blame God for?”
Religion plays a very interesting role in this novel. I’m not a religious person and I will usually shy away from books that have a big religious theme. At first I was a little sceptical when there was talk of a “Godstone” placed in the navel of a child on her naming day but the story really grew on me. Far from just being a story about worship, Carson uses the novel to point out some of the hypocrisies about religion; that several countries, all sharing the same faith, have such different interpretations of common beliefs and that all of them use “God’s word” to excuse mass-murder and the conquering of other countries.
Fire and Thorns ended up being the first novel in a long time that I actually wanted to fangirl about. I thought the transformation of Elisa into a strong, in control person was fantastic and definitely the most enjoyable part of the novel. Carson made a few surprising decisions with her characters and I’m really looking forward to seeing what happens next.
“Oh, Ximena, he was right to choose me, but not because of my worth. You, Cosme, Hector, even little Rosario, were already willing to be heroes. You didn’t need to be chosen. But I would have done nothing, become nothing, were it not for this thing inside me. So you see, God picked me because I was unworthy.”
“But you rose to the choosing. You gave hope to your people…”
Understanding hits me like a rock to the gut, and I gasp a little. I know God selected me because I needed a push, but Ximena is right too – I rose to the choosing. I didn’t need faith in God so much as I needed faith in myself.
Tomorrow I go to the desert country of Joya d’Arena to be its queen. I leave the jacaranda tree outside my bedroom window to bloom lilac without me. I leave my painted adobe walls and trickling fountains for stone castle a millennium old. I leave a newer, vibrant nation for an enormous beast of a country – one scorched by the sun, and stale with the traditions that made my ancestors leave it in the first place. I’ve not had the courage to ask papa and Alodia why. I’m afraid to learn they are glad to be rid of me. But the most frightening thing of all is that I am about to be someone’s wife.
Princess Elisa has spent her life in her sister’s shadow despite being the bearer of the Godstone, a small stone in her belly believed to be gifted by God to one person every four generations. As the story starts she is being married off to the King of another country – a man she has never met – for reasons that have yet to be explained to her. Elisa is in a new country but being hidden by her husband who won’t reveal their marriage to his people. The country is now on the brink of war, with several sides wishing to claim her Godstone, many not caring if she is alive to bear it or not.
Elisa and I did not get off to the best start, but by the end of the novel I found her to be one of the most developed, likeable characters I have read in a long time. When Elisa starts the novel, she is very much the entitled, naïve child one would expect a princess to be. She has lived a sheltered, privileged, idle life being taught by a tutor and cared for by her two ladies in waiting. None of these aspects about her bothered me as much as the constant references to her weight – from both herself and outside sources. I don’t care how much a character weighs, and while I can see that this was used to display how much Elisa changes over the course of the novel, this aspect was far too heavily referenced and frustrated me so much I was very tempted to give up trying to read through it.
I see my life in sudden clarity. The hush whenever I walked into a room. Glances exchanged between my tutor and my sister. Hand-guarded whispers. Reassuring platitudes delivered from behind worried countenances. I thought it was because the world holds me in contempt, because I am so unlike my sister. Because I am fat.
By the time Elisa reaches her husband’s country I saw several examples of the possibility of more depth to her. On the journey to her new home, the party is attacked and Elisa responds with a cool, logical head in the face of danger that saves many lives, including that of her new husband. As the novel progresses, and Elisa is humiliated at court by her husband who won’t give up his mistress, is kidnapped and forced to trudge across the desert or be killed by her kidnappers, is kidnapped again, betrayed and captured, and finally, must lead the defence against the invading masses.
Elisa shows determination to succeed, resourcefulness and ingenuity when she recruits a guerrilla army of children to attack the oncoming forces with a series of annoyance tactics – harassing them in the dead of night, poisoning water supplies, and blocking food trains. I loved seeing Elisa determined to make a difference, and involve the children who desperately wanted to fight back, while still making sure not to endanger them. It was great to see her assume the role of leadership, especially when her husband is hesitant to take any action for fear it’s the wrong decision. What really made her such a great character was that she did all these things despite being terrified, despite never having a plan or any training and despite the losses she suffers throughout the novel.
“…Our goal will be to harass them. Weaken them. Terrorize them. We will be the spirit of death that visits them in the night, the hidden viper in their path. We will be the Malficio, the curse on their existence…If we are very clever, very careful, I think we can give the king a huge advantage. I think we can help him win this war. But there can be no heroes, no honour in senseless death. Our goal will be to sting them only, and live to sting again.”
Apart from the characterisation, I really enjoyed the plot. Carson’s writing flows easily and there is plenty of action throughout to keep you racing through the pages. There are only a couple of main settings; the castle, the desert and the enemy camp, but they all came alive in my head and I enjoyed my time in all of them. Carson does a great job of showing us the people in all of these places and how all the different lives form the country Elisa has inherited. I especially loved Elisa’s time in the desert, and the people she got to know along the way. As I said earlier, a lot of them are children, but they have such an amazing strength of spirit considering that they’ve been exiled by the enemy, blown up, tortured and seen their parents and village die before them.
“They believe this is God’s will,” I say softly.
“Acquiring a seaport? Invading another country? Killing innocent people? Which of their actions, exactly, are they going to blame God for?”
Religion plays a very interesting role in this novel. I’m not a religious person and I will usually shy away from books that have a big religious theme. At first I was a little sceptical when there was talk of a “Godstone” placed in the navel of a child on her naming day but the story really grew on me. Far from just being a story about worship, Carson uses the novel to point out some of the hypocrisies about religion; that several countries, all sharing the same faith, have such different interpretations of common beliefs and that all of them use “God’s word” to excuse mass-murder and the conquering of other countries.
Fire and Thorns ended up being the first novel in a long time that I actually wanted to fangirl about. I thought the transformation of Elisa into a strong, in control person was fantastic and definitely the most enjoyable part of the novel. Carson made a few surprising decisions with her characters and I’m really looking forward to seeing what happens next.
“Oh, Ximena, he was right to choose me, but not because of my worth. You, Cosme, Hector, even little Rosario, were already willing to be heroes. You didn’t need to be chosen. But I would have done nothing, become nothing, were it not for this thing inside me. So you see, God picked me because I was unworthy.”
“But you rose to the choosing. You gave hope to your people…”
Understanding hits me like a rock to the gut, and I gasp a little. I know God selected me because I needed a push, but Ximena is right too – I rose to the choosing. I didn’t need faith in God so much as I needed faith in myself.