Fire

Kristin Cashore

Fire has an irresistible power against men. And some women. Her beauty attracts them, even as she controls their minds. Despite this power having been used negatively in the past, Fire is determined not to use it for evil – except that she needs to, to protect a royal family she is gradually getting attached to.

I felt like there could have been more ‘meat’ in this novel. Yes, it’s only a teenage fiction read, but still, it felt like there were superfluous things that could have been better filled with more of an epilogue and detailing other things (such as what Fire actually did in regards to pregnancy).

The end for Archer was too simple. I thought Fire’s reaction was completely overstated, and also inappropriate. She didn’t finish the job she had started! Not to mention she continued to act stupidly after escaping.

Fire’s philosophy of not wanting to hurt people is admirable. In fact, for me, I find it hard that she made the turning point so quickly and was able to use it to indirectly harm others. It’s strange thinking of her power as a muscle. It gets stronger as she practices with it, and she becomes more adept at carefully holding things.

There are some things that don’t become clear until later in the novel, although the truth of them are hinted during the novel. For me, this could have had more in it. Each thing wasn’t totally hinted at, and I felt some frustration that it took the characters so long to get to the point. I’m not sure whether I enjoyed the flash-back type text or not. It was important for Fire’s progression as a character, but its inclusion was not entirely seamless.

I didn’t make the connection between the ‘Leck’ in this book to the ‘Leck’ in Graceling. It makes sense, but I only got it because I had a quick look at other reviews to remind myself of character names.

I have read Graceling, and I believe I considered it a light read, and although I was enthused about it, obviously I wasn’t that entraced. I picked up Fire at the same time, but just never got around to reading it. At the time that I bought them, Bitterblue had just come out, and it was all the rage with other YA bloggers.