Review: Fire by Kristin Cashore

Once in awhile, I'll post a little something about the books I've been reading recently. This isn't a reviewers blog, but I think as far as writing goes, it helps to see the kind of books that writers read that give them inspiration.

Just today I finished Fire by Kristin Cashore. I've actually had this book for a while and started it back when, but lots of stuff prevented me from finishing it. I finally did and can I say how much a breath of fresh air Cashore is.

I've been finding it rather difficult to find Young Adult novels that don't feel forced, or ones that I can see their bones. I've been trying to decide if I should stop reading YA altogether, but then I'll find a Holly Black or a Amelia Atwater-Rhodes, Stephenie Meyer, etc and my faith will be reassured! What I love about Cashore's books is that she isn't afraid to let you see the emotions and the politics and she ties all of these together. What I also like is that she shows you the real parts of characters and their flaws. Perhaps that is what I feel is missing in a lot of YA, that the characters never make really big, emotional mistakes. Consequences are never really big and there are never bad consequences to the things they do. Somehow things always turn out okay. Cashore has more respect for her writing to not let this happen, and it changes her characters. They go through life just as we do.

I found myself getting lost sometimes in the battle talk and politics of Fire, but that's mostly me as I do really enjoy the technical aspects of fantasy novels, but I personally get bored/lost after awhile. That is probably the only "bad" thing I could say about the book. I love that this book straddles that line of "YA". Really, what makes anything young adult fiction? Sometimes I wish that there were more YA novels that had more serious topics in them as this one did. Those are the ones that I look out for and nab if I can. I have a stack of about 40+ books to read and Ill tell you now that probably 20 of them I'm not going to like because good lord YA authors, but some more depth and consequences in your books. That's what makes them so amazing. And please don't make me migrate to the adult section. Bleh.