Fire by Kristin Cashore

Fire by Kristin Cashore
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I wasn't sure going into this if I would like it as well as Graceling. Turns out, I liked it even more. Book 2 in the Graceling Realm series could be a standalone. In fact, I really hope the author will take this book and go forward with it. There is so much potential here…Here's what I loved: The setting, the characters, the originality of the story, the plot twists, the emotion the author drew out, the descriptiveness, the tie in to one of the characters from Graceling – That's all I can think of for now, but I'm sure more will come to me later.

Fire is amazing. I love her and the idea of her. The last human monster. The monsters are beautiful and deadly, but Fire especially. She's beautiful, she's strong, she's not afraid to show emotion. She's also afraid of herself. She is afraid she really is the monster everyone believes her to be. It's really heartbreaking watching her as she resigns herself to the fact that everybody hates her. She can't see how wonderful she really is. Luckily, the people who love her can. Now, don't worry…she's not one of those winy girls who sits around feeling sorry for herself because nobody likes her. She understands why they don't and accepts it. It's her way of life.

There is romance in this book, but it is an underlying theme and doesn't take over the story, which is fast-paced and action packed from beginning to end. And, wow, the twists the author throws at you. There is no way you could see them all coming.

The one thing that bothered me a bit at first was how similar Fire was to Katsa (Graceling). I actually made a list of similarities and decided it was not coincidence; they were definitely based on the same person. However, as the story went on, Fire became an individual. She was most definitely not Katsa, but her own strong character.


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