My least favorite Shannon Hale book. I mostly only kept going because I knew I had to in order to get to the third book, and also because I'm kind of in love with Finn. But for a book in which a ton of things happen, it was really quite boring.

Each of the Books of Bayern features a hero struggling with a major character flaw. Enna's is her need to stand out and do something special, which drives her to learn fire-speaking in spite of the dangers, and the need to burn almost kills her. If you read it as a metaphor for addiction, it's more interesting and makes Enna a little more sympathetic, but it still makes for a boring book and my least favorite Hale heroine. (That said, I should point out that if I were like her in a desire to stand out and be noticed, I might have identified with her more and liked the book better.) I mean, most characters with flaws go through ups and downs that are interesting to read, but Enna is just in a tailspin towards doom the entire book, and it's frustrating and a little boring to watch. And all the talking about fire! I understand that this was Enna's conflict, but I was dead sick of the unbearably long descriptions of how much she wanted to light things on fire by halfway through the book.

It was fun to see the characters from the first book reappear, and I do love me some Finn, but mostly this book is just sort of a necessary step to get to the third book in the series, which I love.