The Girl of Fire and Thorns (Fire and Thorns, #1) in SOS: Serious Overload of Series

Nov 12, 2011 D.G. rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: reviewed, fantasy

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The Girl of Fire and Thorns has a very familiar YA premise: an insecure girl finds her path to greatness. Chosen by God, she’s supposed to deliver her people from evil but she doesn’t know how. The book deals with her transformation from pastry-obsessed, self-conscious girl to secure leader.

The most interesting aspect of the story was the conflict, which centered in doctrinal differences among different groups. They all had a different Check out this review and others at www.badassbookreviews.com

The Girl of Fire and Thorns has a very familiar YA premise: an insecure girl finds her path to greatness. Chosen by God, she’s supposed to deliver her people from evil but she doesn’t know how. The book deals with her transformation from pastry-obsessed, self-conscious girl to secure leader.

The most interesting aspect of the story was the conflict, which centered in doctrinal differences among different groups. They all had a different interpretation of God’s will and they were willing to kill for it (where have I seen that before…) The use of a (sort of) Spanish for the names of places and people (Brisadulce for instance means ‘Sweet Breeze’) as well as the descriptions of the land and their inhabitants made me think of the Moors and the Spanish and their showdown in the Fall of Granada. But I was disappointed in the way the book ended because it seemed as if God took sides.

My feelings for Elisa were a bit ambivalent. She’s a decent person, smart, strong when she needs to be, and not annoying or TSTL but I felt that some of her issues were just an attempt to elicit sympathy instead of real character traits. It didn’t make sense to me that she was so insecure. Yes, she was fat and couldn’t physically compare to her beautiful sister, but Elisa was God’s Chosen! It’s a sad fact of life but the less common something is, the more status it has. Beautiful women are a dime a dozen but Elisa is one among millions! There’s nobody like her. How could she feel inferior when God chose HER and only her to fulfill an important task? Any normal person would be filled with a certain amount of vanity by such a distinction (even if they didn’t know it themselves) so her bouts of insecurity rang false. I could understand her being terrified of her role and being afraid she wouldn’t have the strength, wisdom, etc. to fulfill it but not this constant comparison to other people that left her feeling wanting.

At times, the story left me emotionally untouched. Lots of bad things happened but I didn’t seem to care for them, maybe because they were a bit whitewashed. Sometimes it seemed to me there was more discussion of food than real emotion.

The Crown of Embers (the sequel) already came out this past week. I hope that Elisa’s ultimate role is to unify all these groups but I fear that this will be at odds with the required happy ending. People that have changed the world (Jesus, Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. to name a few) don’t end so happily so I really don’t know how the author will bridge the gap between Elisa’s responsibility as deliverer of the people and her happiness as a person.

I guess I’ll have to read the rest of the books to find out. ...more

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Aug 20, 2017 Lauren⁷ 💜 rated it really liked it

Shelves: young-adult-teen-new-adult, library-has-a-copy, fantasy-science-fiction

You'd think that opening with your heroine about to get married to a man she barely knows would have made for a more exciting first quarter or so of the book. But no. This took a little while to get going for me. Not only was the beginning rather slow, Elisa is kind of whiny and not all that likable. In the first half of the book, she's very heavily defined by her relationship with food and wanting to eat and her weight. And that got boring after a while and kind of dumb. But I know it was in se You'd think that opening with your heroine about to get married to a man she barely knows would have made for a more exciting first quarter or so of the book. But no. This took a little while to get going for me. Not only was the beginning rather slow, Elisa is kind of whiny and not all that likable. In the first half of the book, she's very heavily defined by her relationship with food and wanting to eat and her weight. And that got boring after a while and kind of dumb. But I know it was in service for Elisa's character growth later in the book. After she gets kidnapped by Humberto roughly a quarter of the way into the book, she starts to change for the better and really grows and changes and quits focusing so darn much on food and becomes far more likable and the story starts to really pick up pace. Though it did take time for Elisa to grow on me, I ended up really liking her by the end of the book. And watching her go from a whiny, timid, patronized girl to a strong, brave, bold queen was really great. She went on a pretty epic character journey and emerged out the other end of it a much better person. And I liked the rest of the characters as well. And I have to hand it to Carson (view spoiler). The fantasy elements of this book were really unique. Being a Christian, I recognized that Carson borrowed very heavily from Christianity to create Elisa's religion and I liked what she did with it. Though as a fantasy, this wasn't my personal favorite, I appreciate just how different they were and the obvious thought and care that Carson put into it. I really liked the worldbuilding. It was a mashup of Mexico, Spain and South America set roughly somewhere in the 18th to 19th century. A book with non white protagonists set well outside of the normal Anglo-Saxon fantasy setting was a refreshing and enjoyable change. The actual plot was overall good and enjoyable and once it got going, it really held my attention. Though this lacks that certain something that would have made this book a favorite, I still found it to be worth reading and I did not feel as though my time was wasted. This was yet another pick from a list of YA novels for Game of Thrones fans and coming at it from that perspective, I wouldn't really recommend it if you're looking for that. Though this was by no means a bad book, it is nothing like Game of Thrones and suffers in comparison to the show or the books and you will be disappointed if that's why you choose to read this book. ...more

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Aug 27, 2012 Jesslyn rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook-whispersync-companion, cat-series-ongoing, kindle-sample, cat-epic-fantasy, cat-ya-fantasy, cat-christian-fantasy, z2012-kindle-reads, cat-series-not-a-cliffhanger, z2013-kindle-reads

This was a really good book that I am glad I finally picked up. I think the only reason that I haven't picked it up before (despite the great ratings) was because the synopsis is weak---really weak.

Most of the faith-based fantasy that I've read has been a thinly disguised way to deliver a 'god-is-good-and-wants-you-to-do-the-right-thing' message. This was more a story about self-discovery and growth. And Thank You Rae Carson for a unique heroine--at the end of the book, I still wasn't sure if sh ...more

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Jul 06, 2011 Logan rated it really liked it

Shelves: young-adult, fantasy

First impressions: I had a hard time getting into this book. The opening third is slow paced, not very interesting, and Elisa is really down in the dumps. Despite this, however, I wanted to keep reading.

Lasting impressions: It may have started off slow, but by the end I could hardly turn the pages fast enough. I will remember this book for its ability to completely shock me.

Conflicting impressions: Some of the concepts didn't really work for me (a magical stone in her bellybutton? Really?) and I First impressions: I had a hard time getting into this book. The opening third is slow paced, not very interesting, and Elisa is really down in the dumps. Despite this, however, I wanted to keep reading.

Lasting impressions: It may have started off slow, but by the end I could hardly turn the pages fast enough. I will remember this book for its ability to completely shock me.

Conflicting impressions: Some of the concepts didn't really work for me (a magical stone in her bellybutton? Really?) and I felt the religious aspects drew too much focus.

Overall impressions: One of the first things we learn about our heroine, Elisa, is that she is fat. She is trying to squeeze herself into her wedding gown, and it ends up ripping. She consoles herself with pastries and hopes that her husband-to-be is ugly and old so she doesn't have to feel inferior. It's a refreshing change of pace from most books where the hero/heroine is devastatingly attractive.

What I thought would be a questing fantasy tale about Elisa fulfilling her fate turned out to be more of a book about Elisa finding herself. Throughout the course of the book she discovers that she is more than capable of being a leader - and an inspiring one at that. She becomes a completely different woman by the end of the book with changed attitudes about the world, politics, war, and even love. It's a fascinating journey.

Though the first third of the book is a lot of Elisa moping and worrying about her destiny as the bearer of a Godstone, the story picks up after she is kidnapped. She is stolen away from her new husband's home and dragged across the desert by residents of a war-torn area of the kingdom that is getting little help from Elisa's husband, the king, and as the bearer of the Godstone they are convinced she is the only one who can help them.

The Godstone is a jewel placed by God in Elisa's belly as an infant - a sign that she is the chosen one who will fulfill a Service to God. Elisa is fairly ignorant of all this entails, and as a result, so are we. We don't know what kind of Service this means. We don't know much about past Godstone bearers. All we know is that it responds to prayer and senses enemies. As a result, a LOT of time is spent in prayer, and at times the religious aspects seemed a bit heavy-handed.

Religion is an important player in this story, though. Elisa witnesses many different groups of people use God's will as their reasoning behind opposing actions. She is frustrated that they are hiding behind this in order to justify their actions, but as a religious woman and a bearer, she also struggles to figure out God's will and how it should influence her own actions. This really doesn't get explored beyond the superficial, and I wondered why it wasn't delved into more deeply. I wanted to know how she felt about religion impacting differing groups feeling "right" about their actions and not have her just sort of passively observe it.

Once Elisa gets fully immersed in war and comes into her own, the narrative really picks up. Though we still don't know what she will do to save the day, we suspect that she will, and as more pieces of the puzzle fall into place it's fun to try and anticipate what it will be. Maybe because I was so focused on the end game is why one particular event floored me. There is a SHOCKING scene that I absolutely did not see coming. It was a pleasant surprise in that I always like books that can do things differently but I was saddened by this event because I'm not sure how it served the story. It's the kind of thing that should have rocked Elisa's world a bit more, and when it didn't seem to impact her trajectory or have any more influence on her choices than any other event, it cheapened what happened and made it seem unnecessary and purely for shock value. I'm curious to know what others thought, but try not to spoil it in the comments.

This was an interesting book with lots of unique elements. Rae Carson has an engaging writing style that pulls you along through slow parts and keeps you riveted through fast ones. I think this would be a great book for people interested in personal journeys of self-discovery. This is purely Elisa's story, that happens to take place in a fantasy setting, and this is by no means a book only for fantasy lovers. If you haven't given much fantasy a try, I suggest you start with this one. ...more

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Dec 08, 2013 Thenia rated it liked it

Shelves: r-ab, reviewed, series, ya-na, fantasy, 2013, magic

Not at all what I expected. Obvious character growth, realistic and unexpected deaths of important characters, a magical mystery and intense religious element that was a bit too much for me.

The next book in the series is The Crown of Embers, but if I read it in hopes of liking it more than this one, it probably won't be in the very near future. ...more

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