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A review by kynan
Wildfire by Lene Kaaberbøl
3.0
The story of a girl, Clara, who discovers (in rather dramatic circumstances) that she's not as normal as she thought. The story is magical in nature and gets going after a stuttery couple of chapters. The first chapter definitely drags you in but the following two are not as well paced, however the story rapidly picks up after that.
I'm on the fence about how to rate this. I'm almost certainly not the target audience, it's classified as a childrens book, but I read this in order to discuss it with my son, not just to increase my "Books Read" count for the year! I feel that a well written childrens book should be just as engaging as an adult book and Wildfire was lacking a lot of detail and connective tissue (for want of a better term). I didn't dislike the story and I did want to find out what happened but there's no detail on any of the characters beyond cursory introductions and basic relationships nor is the world or the magic therein fleshed out beyond what is absolutely necessary for the story to progress. I think there's a lot to be gained by providing a more immersive environment for this story, and understanding the genesis, or even just the motivations, of both the heroes and villains would go a long way towards making this a four-star read.
The ending is wide open for a continuation and indeed there are at least five more books already (in the original Danish versions anyway) although in not sure that I'll actively seek them out.
Overall, it was OK and really read like an old fashioned fairy tale (causal connections are tenuous at best).
I'm on the fence about how to rate this. I'm almost certainly not the target audience, it's classified as a childrens book, but I read this in order to discuss it with my son, not just to increase my "Books Read" count for the year! I feel that a well written childrens book should be just as engaging as an adult book and Wildfire was lacking a lot of detail and connective tissue (for want of a better term). I didn't dislike the story and I did want to find out what happened but there's no detail on any of the characters beyond cursory introductions and basic relationships nor is the world or the magic therein fleshed out beyond what is absolutely necessary for the story to progress. I think there's a lot to be gained by providing a more immersive environment for this story, and understanding the genesis, or even just the motivations, of both the heroes and villains would go a long way towards making this a four-star read.
The ending is wide open for a continuation and indeed there are at least five more books already (in the original Danish versions anyway) although in not sure that I'll actively seek them out.
Overall, it was OK and really read like an old fashioned fairy tale (causal connections are tenuous at best).