Miss Kate's Book Reviews

The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson

Why it’s good:

• It manages to be religious without being at all preachy.
• The main character Elisa is not the “typical” YA novel heroine.  She is not thin or white.  She is in fact overweight and dark skinned, which is refreshingly different.
• Elisa has a wonderful character arc, in which she grows and changes in multiple ways.
• A couple supporting characters such as Cosme and Lord Hector are independent; their lives don’t revolve around the heroine.
• The story takes place in several places and we get to “see” many different atmospheres.
• People die!

What I didn’t like:

• There were a couple places where the story lagged, but luckily it did pick back up again.  The first 200 and last 100 pages were very exciting.
• The love story didn’t really do it for me.  It wasn’t central to the plot, though.
• The author uses the word “sob” too often.

Final Thoughts:  Worth a read because it’s a fun adventure!  Elisa is a character I might not always agree with, but I rooted for her.  I liked that she had a need to prove herself, and it’s nice to see that in a young woman in fiction.