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Liz's Reviews > Fire
Fire (Graceling Realm, #2)
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EDIT: It is now two stars - time has caused me to dislike this book more and more.
I gave this three stars which I think is kind of generous considering how much I did not enjoy reading it. There was nothing wrong with the way it was written it was the story that bothered me. It was like an episode of "Days of Our Lives" (I imagine): affairs and illegitimate children all over the place! And it seems Cashore didn't like having characters with any kind of loose ends (view spoiler) The major problem with this book is that it tried to have way too many plot twists - I was rolling my eyes more than being shocked or surprised. And the most interesting character was barely in the book! (The creepy little Leck of course, easily the most interesting character of the book - the series even?).
It may have been better if I liked Fire more but Cashore tried to make her character way to sympathetic - it seemed forced and it was annoying - I get it! Fire is beautiful, people stare at her constantly and think horrible things, she thinks she's a monster but she's so compassionate etc. I don't need a reminder every time she gets in a different situation.
This all seems rather harsh but I really did not like Fire and I really, really hated Archer. I did like Brigan and his daughter and really all the royal family I guess, but Fire being the main character was too much.
This book got to me so much that it is making me question whether I really liked Graceling so much, I'm sure that was better. I think Cashore has some good ideas but she seems a little too concerned with us liking her characters - also, what is with her and marriage? (I never thought I'd say that about someone!) I know her characters don't want children and I can understand completely, but marriage does not equal children! (some may say that in these "medieval times" (more or less) that the books are set in, it does - but you could make the same argument about all the sleeping around and such - illegitimate children out in the open in a royal family? I don't think so! If she makes that exception why not the exception to marriage?) (view spoiler).
Overall, the best part was the prologue, but that was over and done with quickly and barely dealt with in the book at all.
I love recording my rants here.
I gave this three stars which I think is kind of generous considering how much I did not enjoy reading it. There was nothing wrong with the way it was written it was the story that bothered me. It was like an episode of "Days of Our Lives" (I imagine): affairs and illegitimate children all over the place! And it seems Cashore didn't like having characters with any kind of loose ends (view spoiler) The major problem with this book is that it tried to have way too many plot twists - I was rolling my eyes more than being shocked or surprised. And the most interesting character was barely in the book! (The creepy little Leck of course, easily the most interesting character of the book - the series even?).
It may have been better if I liked Fire more but Cashore tried to make her character way to sympathetic - it seemed forced and it was annoying - I get it! Fire is beautiful, people stare at her constantly and think horrible things, she thinks she's a monster but she's so compassionate etc. I don't need a reminder every time she gets in a different situation.
This all seems rather harsh but I really did not like Fire and I really, really hated Archer. I did like Brigan and his daughter and really all the royal family I guess, but Fire being the main character was too much.
This book got to me so much that it is making me question whether I really liked Graceling so much, I'm sure that was better. I think Cashore has some good ideas but she seems a little too concerned with us liking her characters - also, what is with her and marriage? (I never thought I'd say that about someone!) I know her characters don't want children and I can understand completely, but marriage does not equal children! (some may say that in these "medieval times" (more or less) that the books are set in, it does - but you could make the same argument about all the sleeping around and such - illegitimate children out in the open in a royal family? I don't think so! If she makes that exception why not the exception to marriage?) (view spoiler).
Overall, the best part was the prologue, but that was over and done with quickly and barely dealt with in the book at all.
I love recording my rants here.
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Reading Progress
March 28, 2010
– Shelved
October 24, 2010
– Shelved as:
owned
January 5, 2012
–
Started Reading
January 11, 2012
–
Finished Reading
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Sofiya
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Apr 28, 2015 07:38PM
Fire did get quite irritating at times. I agree, Cashore tried to make her too pitiful, it got to a point where all she did was mope about how people only loved her for her beauty and used her for her powers. It seemed like for the vast majority of the book, Fire just felt bad for herself and thought about how everyone thought she was oh so pretty. It also seemed like Cashore was trying to make Fire too good. Yeah, I get that Fire was trying to make up for the flaws of her father, but all she seemed to do was do things to make her seem like a better person. I feel as though I would have related better to Fire if she acted like a real person and made a few mistakes here and there. Honestly, like you said, the best part of the book was the prologue. Cashore writes beautifully, but Fire really could have had more depth.
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