Aimee W. (peculiarway) - reviewed on 12/14/2011 + 8 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 2

I thoroughly enjoyed Kristin Cashore's first book, and quickly went out to buy this one as well. Fire is a prequel to Graceling, set in a different land and with only one common character between the two books, which started me out a bit disappointed, as I'd become so invested in the previous characters. That said, Fire is very much a stand alone book and you do not need to have read the first book to appreciate the second--though I would not recommend reading Fire before Graceling, as there is a spoiler in the prequel that gives away a big part of the mystery of Graceling.

The main character of Fire is, well, named Fire. I won't go in to a synopsis of the book, but I will say that Fire is a very intriguing character with a lot of interesting emotional baggage. The world in which she lives isn't developed nearly as elaborately as the one in which Katsa (the main character in Graceling) lived, but that's not surprising considering that Fire's world (or what of it she is exposed to) is seemingly a much smaller one than Katsa's. I wasn't immediately sucked in to Fire; it wasn't one of those books that I skipped meals to finish, dying to find out what happens. The build up was slower, but ultimately worth the wait.

Looking forward to her next book, Bitterblue, due out in May of next year!

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