Fire

by Kristin Cashore

This book gives me really mixed feelings.

I love the premise. Fire is a human "monster". Basically this means she has brightly colored hair and has the power to read others' minds and control them if she wishes. She's also extremely beautiful. She's also the last of her kind. She's always refused to use her power to manipulated people because of the way she saw her father do it. However, soon the kingdom needs her help to uncover whose plotting against the crown. Fire must decide if she will consent to use her power and how far she will go.

Unfortunately, my enjoyment of this book is marred by a few things:

One - Fire (much like Katsa in Cashore's previous book Graceling) refuses to marry. It seems that Cashore has some hatred towards marriage and wants to make her readers agree with her. Not only this but there are many similarity between Graceling and Fire - she should have just named is "Graceling 2.0!"

Two - Fire is (kinda) in love with (and sleeps with) this guy whose a total womanizer. Not only that, but he proclaims his love for her on one page and then a few pages later we learn that he's fooling around with somebody else! (***SPOILER: And then a few pages later we learn that he's gotten TWO women pregnant!) I'm supposed to LIKE this character? What a jerk. (SPOILER AGAIN - I was actually kind of revealed when he died! END OF SPOILERS***)

Three - Fire is totally over-dramatic and self-absorbed. She can't seem to see beyond her own self-inflicted problems to realize there are bigger problems out there. She's so concerned that her power COULD be used for evil that she can't see past her own nose to realize she SHOULD use it to save peoples' lives!