Book Review :: Fire, by Kristin Cashore

Fire by Kristin Cashore
Series: Graceling Realm #2
Also in this series: Graceling
Published by Gollancz
on September 24th 2009
Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult
Pages: 352
Goodreads

It is not a peaceful time in the Dells. In King City, the young King Nash is clinging to the throne, while rebel lords in the north and south build armies to unseat him. War is coming. And the mountains and forest are filled with spies and thieves.

This is where Fire lives, a girl whose beauty is impossibly irresistible and who can control the minds of everyone around her.

Exquisitely romantic, this companion to the highly praised "Graceling" has an entirely new cast of characters, save for one person who plays a pivotal role in both books. You don't need to have read "Graceling" to love "Fire." But if you haven't, you'll be dying to read it next.

Last updated on 19 January 2022

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About Fire by Kristin Cashore

Fire by Kristin Cashore takes place in the same world as Graceling, but over the mountains in a different area. Not only are the places new and different, but the people are too. The characters from Graceling aren’t in Fire, and I soon came to realise that this was, in fact, more of a prequel than a sequel. One thing I really enjoyed about Graceling was the fact that there were actually Gracelings – people in the land who had two different coloured eyes and who had special abilities. I loved that concept and idea. There is one Graceling in Fire. One. But! On a happier note…

Fire is the name of a monster. Well, she’s a monster-girl. Where there were Gracelings in the first book, there are monsters in the second. The land is plagued with monsters of nearly every kind – birds, large cats, insects…but what makes them monsters is the astonishing colours that they are. Bright pink, sunset orange, sky blue…which makes them incredibly beautiful, incredibly deadly.

Fire is the only monster-human left. Her father, Cansrel, was a monster-man, her mother was normal, so, obviously, with all the genetics I learnt in Biology class in high school, she is half monster. Her hair is fire red, and her beauty is beyond that of anyone else in the land. Oh, and she can push thoughts into people’s minds and make them do things, think things, believe things. The land is at war, monsters are always after her because she has yummy blood, she can shoot an arrow like nobody’s business and she is needed in the south to help the King and his family.

My thoughts on Fire by Kristin Cashore

Although it’s well written, and I really liked some of the characters, I didn’t like Fire. If she had died at the end, I wouldn’t have minded at all. I didn’t dislike her…I just didn’t like her. The childhood friend is a bit of…how to put it…he’s a bit of a player, and while he (Archer) and Fire are more or less together at the beginning of the book, things start to fall apart when she goes south from their home to help the King and his distasteful brother, Brigan.

Brigan and Fire hate each other…which means, of course, they end up together. I didn’t give anything away just then, because as soon as you read Brigan and Fire’s encounters, you can see that coming. So it was a little predictable. I found it to be slow going too, as opposed to Graceling when I couldn’t put it down. The end dramatic climax wasn’t as exciting and long as I had hoped, but it did end sort of nicely with a mini family reunion of sorts.

So…I guess what I’m trying to say, in this mix-match round-of-about kind of way is that I enjoyed the colourful monster idea, and the odd character here and there, but as an overall book and story…meh. Not so much. For that reason, I’ve only given a two out of five. Perhaps it’s a little harsh, so I might bump it up to a 2.5. But nothing more. I believe the next book is set after Graceling, with characters and places and ideas I am familiar with and enjoyed more, so I think, though I didn’t enjoy this one as much, I will still read the next one.

Have you read Fire by Kristin Cashore? Or Graceling?