Scan barcode
A review by couldbestephen
Gravity's Fire by C.J. Aralore
2.0
Thanks to Midnight Meadow for gifting the digital ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!
This YA Urban Romantacy debut stumbles its way through its story to deliver an uninspired queer coming of age story. I rated this book 2 stars.
Phoenix Ashwell, or Nix, is your basic gay teen whose heart is set on finding "the one." When his world gets turned upside down with the revelation that magic is real, Nix sets out to find some answers (and hopefully a boyfriend). His adventures lead him to a school for elementamers (elemental magicians) and Max, a handsome soiltamer. As the two fall for each other, Nix finds out he's at the center of a plan for world domination. This is a coming of age story marketed for a YA audience.
I enjoyed some of the romantic movements between Nix and Max. The way the two interact with each other was generally awkward (mostly due to the author's amateur writing voice), but at times, believable. Growing up and figuring out who you like and who you want to kiss is a wild ride, and at times, I think Avalore managed to capture it.
I didn't like the author's writing style. This book, while marketed for a YA audience (I'm assuming 16-year-olds are the target demographic, since that is the main character's age), is written like it's meant for a much younger audience that cannot be trusted to extrapolate information for themselves. The author writes with the subtlety of hammer through glass; he constantly repeats core details of the plot over and over, as if he's afraid you've forgotten what you've just read. Avalore was unable to make any of his "twists" and "reveals" land due to painfully obvious set-ups made much earlier in the book.Nix is a suntamer, a rare type of elementamer that hasn't been seen for years. Him finding this out is played as some sort of shocking reveal, even though any reader with an once of sense saw this coming from a mile away. What do you mean the boy named after a phoenix, who constantly has a fever, and is constantly messing with electronics is a fire/plasma magician?? Who saw that coming!? Me. I did. From the first chapter. I can't imagine older teenagers will appreciate the amount of narrative handholding and "cringey"/"fanfiction" author voice contained in this book
The plotting of this book could have used a lot more work. Events and reveals and twists keep happening back to back, and you’re never given the chance to process anything. This isn’t written as a “high octane” adventure story, there isn’t a good reason for the story to be structured as it is. The main character never sits with what's happening, never gets a chance to process the insane stuff that is going on. The story never has a chance to breathe. Many minor plot elements and reveals could have been removed, and that time and word count spent making the story actually work.I understand Phoenix is meant to be an impulsive, clumsy teen. And one of the tropes is "Idiots to Lovers." But at some point, you have to wonder how Nix has gotten anywhere in life without any basic common sense. He is beyond an idiot. It's not fun to read a main character who is 15 steps behind the reader. It is frustrating.
Almost no character is fleshed out in this story beyond maybe Nix (and that's because the book is written in his perspective). Max, the love interest, is a flat, "copper colored" character who barely gets fleshed out near the last third of the book. The best friend, Lex, exists to be smart and have gay dads. The other friends Nix makes at the human/elementamer school are almost all forgettable and interchangeable. No one made a lasting impression beyond River, who is set up to be Nix's romantic rival for Max. But even he is just "the jealous guy." I just finished the book a half hour ago and I couldn't tell you any more about him.
The world building in this book does not hold up; one simple "wait, why?" makes the entire world fall apart. Elementamers are a hidden group of magicians in our world. Fine. So why are they going to a school mixed with normal humans? Who thought putting magically inclined hormonal teens, whose existence must stay a secret, with regular human teens was a good idea?? I understand the thematic reason behind it, having Nix walk between the two worlds, magic and normal, but in practice it's dumb and doesn't work!! It leads to so many more questions! The lies and the lore of the world are just dropped around and don't feel like they have any weight.
The magic system feels like Avatar the Last Airbender but, like, materially less thought out. If this was just a simple, soft magic system where people just control elements, I'd be ok! But each elementamer can control more than just a "simple element," all can heal different parts of the body, and it also includes the stages of matter? Gas, liquid, solid, plasma? It's so disorganized and not explained, it all just becomes a meaningless buzz in the background of the story. There are also familiars, 12 dragons(?! there didn't need to be 12, why were there 12 Avalore?? For the astrology stuff? That is never a major plot point or character trait beyond a rare mention??), it's a mess! You've given us the perfect character to follow while you build the world! But the class scenes where Magic is explained are done poorly! I know nothing!
Finally, there were some problematic elements with how Avalore described characters of color. I’m concerned a sensitivity reader wasn’t involved who could have caught some of these issues. Nix seems to fetishize POC, particularly those who look like Max. Max is constantly described as having copper skin tone, earthy skin tones, having nipples like chocolate (THAT SCENE REALLY DIDN’T NEED TO BE WRITTEN LIKE THAT). Avalore describes a few POC characters while comparing them to food WHICH HAS BEEN SOMETHING POC HAVE BEEN TELLING WHITE PEOPLE TO STOP DOING.
Honestly, it's a whole separate issue with how Avalore describes characters. Like with many elements of the story, the author continuously reminds the reads of how people look and smell over and over ad nauseum. If you cut the enormous amount of repetition in this novel, you'd get a shorter, tighter story (but not necessarily a better one).
With a lot of editing to the story but not much to the "voice, the basic writing style would work for young readers. This could almost be reworked as a Middle Grade novel. Most teens who are looking to pick up a YA novel want to read a book that takes them seriously, want to read a book that doesn't constantly feed them plot points and reveals you can see from miles away. The only teens who might like this are the ones who read and write for fanfiction sites. Why would they pay to read a book that has a similar quality to something they can read for free?
I probably won’t be recommending this book to my audience.
This YA Urban Romantacy debut stumbles its way through its story to deliver an uninspired queer coming of age story. I rated this book 2 stars.
Phoenix Ashwell, or Nix, is your basic gay teen whose heart is set on finding "the one." When his world gets turned upside down with the revelation that magic is real, Nix sets out to find some answers (and hopefully a boyfriend). His adventures lead him to a school for elementamers (elemental magicians) and Max, a handsome soiltamer. As the two fall for each other, Nix finds out he's at the center of a plan for world domination. This is a coming of age story marketed for a YA audience.
I enjoyed some of the romantic movements between Nix and Max. The way the two interact with each other was generally awkward (mostly due to the author's amateur writing voice), but at times, believable. Growing up and figuring out who you like and who you want to kiss is a wild ride, and at times, I think Avalore managed to capture it.
I didn't like the author's writing style. This book, while marketed for a YA audience (I'm assuming 16-year-olds are the target demographic, since that is the main character's age), is written like it's meant for a much younger audience that cannot be trusted to extrapolate information for themselves. The author writes with the subtlety of hammer through glass; he constantly repeats core details of the plot over and over, as if he's afraid you've forgotten what you've just read. Avalore was unable to make any of his "twists" and "reveals" land due to painfully obvious set-ups made much earlier in the book.
The plotting of this book could have used a lot more work. Events and reveals and twists keep happening back to back, and you’re never given the chance to process anything. This isn’t written as a “high octane” adventure story, there isn’t a good reason for the story to be structured as it is. The main character never sits with what's happening, never gets a chance to process the insane stuff that is going on. The story never has a chance to breathe. Many minor plot elements and reveals could have been removed, and that time and word count spent making the story actually work.
Almost no character is fleshed out in this story beyond maybe Nix (and that's because the book is written in his perspective). Max, the love interest, is a flat, "copper colored" character who barely gets fleshed out near the last third of the book. The best friend, Lex, exists to be smart and have gay dads. The other friends Nix makes at the human/elementamer school are almost all forgettable and interchangeable. No one made a lasting impression beyond River, who is set up to be Nix's romantic rival for Max. But even he is just "the jealous guy." I just finished the book a half hour ago and I couldn't tell you any more about him.
The world building in this book does not hold up; one simple "wait, why?" makes the entire world fall apart. Elementamers are a hidden group of magicians in our world. Fine. So why are they going to a school mixed with normal humans? Who thought putting magically inclined hormonal teens, whose existence must stay a secret, with regular human teens was a good idea?? I understand the thematic reason behind it, having Nix walk between the two worlds, magic and normal, but in practice it's dumb and doesn't work!! It leads to so many more questions! The lies and the lore of the world are just dropped around and don't feel like they have any weight.
The magic system feels like Avatar the Last Airbender but, like, materially less thought out. If this was just a simple, soft magic system where people just control elements, I'd be ok! But each elementamer can control more than just a "simple element," all can heal different parts of the body, and it also includes the stages of matter? Gas, liquid, solid, plasma? It's so disorganized and not explained, it all just becomes a meaningless buzz in the background of the story. There are also familiars, 12 dragons(?! there didn't need to be 12, why were there 12 Avalore?? For the astrology stuff? That is never a major plot point or character trait beyond a rare mention??), it's a mess! You've given us the perfect character to follow while you build the world! But the class scenes where Magic is explained are done poorly! I know nothing!
Finally, there were some problematic elements with how Avalore described characters of color. I’m concerned a sensitivity reader wasn’t involved who could have caught some of these issues. Nix seems to fetishize POC, particularly those who look like Max. Max is constantly described as having copper skin tone, earthy skin tones, having nipples like chocolate (THAT SCENE REALLY DIDN’T NEED TO BE WRITTEN LIKE THAT). Avalore describes a few POC characters while comparing them to food WHICH HAS BEEN SOMETHING POC HAVE BEEN TELLING WHITE PEOPLE TO STOP DOING.
Honestly, it's a whole separate issue with how Avalore describes characters. Like with many elements of the story, the author continuously reminds the reads of how people look and smell over and over ad nauseum. If you cut the enormous amount of repetition in this novel, you'd get a shorter, tighter story (but not necessarily a better one).
With a lot of editing to the story but not much to the "voice, the basic writing style would work for young readers. This could almost be reworked as a Middle Grade novel. Most teens who are looking to pick up a YA novel want to read a book that takes them seriously, want to read a book that doesn't constantly feed them plot points and reveals you can see from miles away. The only teens who might like this are the ones who read and write for fanfiction sites. Why would they pay to read a book that has a similar quality to something they can read for free?
I probably won’t be recommending this book to my audience.