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Fire is a monster. Monsters in her homeland are creatures of brilliant colors, each with abilities, that feed on humans and animals (there are even monster insects!) and each other. They have a tremendous attraction for human beings, one of extreme passion which leads to murder, clutching, or attack, depending on the human, which is why Fire has led much of her life isolated in the house of her hated monster father, who died several years ago. Her only friends are Archer and his father.

And then everything goes pear-shaped. A strange bowman with an empty head shoots Archer. Fire brings him in, but he escapes, and is murdered in turn. The realm is in chaos, and the crown is calling on Fire to use her mind-probing skills to find out what spies are withholding. Fire doesn't want to do it--she feels she must live her life in expiation for her father's existence and her own--but she must go to the capital to face the issue herself.

It's an incredibly complex book. Fire is in the position of holding off one brother who is driven to possessive passion by her monster looks, while another brother distrusts her and she cannot tell what the third thinks of her at all. She's in an ethical tangle over entering the minds of others, but she has to do it to survive, or people would tear her to pieces. She has her own dark secrets, for someone who has lived in the country all her life. And her best friend, the only one who wants nothing from her, is a horse named Small.

Cashore's writing is more polished than GRACELING, and Fire is a very different person from Katsa. The book is REALLY good. Reading it made me very, very happy!