Review: Fire by Kristin Cashore.

It is not a peaceful time in the Dells. In King City, the young King Nash is clinging to the throne, while rebel lords in the north and south build armies to unseat him. War is coming. And the mountains and forest are filled with spies and thieves. This is where Fire lives, a girl whose beauty is impossibly irresistible and who can control the minds of everyone around her. Exquisitely romantic, this companion to the highly praised Graceling has an entirely new cast of characters, save for one person who plays a pivotal role in both books. You don't need to have read Graceling to love Fire. But if you haven't, you'll be dying to read it next.

This edition includes an article by and an interview with Kristin Cashore, as well as a sneak peek at her next book, Bitterblue!

A young half human, half monster child named, “FIRE”. She was beautiful with hair of red, orange and pink highlights. Her beauty defied all other humans and monsters of her type. Her mother was human and her father a monster. In the Dells is where she was born of parents who loved her. Her father (Cansrel) was a cruel monster, who enjoyed doing evil and cruel things to humans. He had the gift of controlling people’s minds and making them do and see things his way. He was an evil creature, but the monsters had a power over all humans; they were beautiful and the humans couldn’t control themselves and instantly fell in love with monsters if they did not get control over their own minds.

Cansrel taught his daughter Fire how to use her powers to over take others and to do evil things, but Fire was not like him. She was kind and didn’t like the thought of harming others. She was a loving monster and used her powers for good and not deceit.

This book was an interesting read, but I must say that I enjoyed Kristin Cashore’s book “Graceling” more than this read. It was hard to follow in the beginning, the monsters and the different colors of the monster bugs and the powers that the monsters had were a bit beyond my imagination. I really did have to do some thinking and self creativity while reading this book. I enjoyed the love portion of the book, but it was kind of obvious who was going to fall in love with whom.

I did enjoy the part of the book where her best friend, Archer, was her first love and he loved her to no end, but still yet visited other women’s beds because he knew that Fire would not love him the way he loved her. She accepted him and in the end only loved him as a dear and true friend. Everyone hated her father, Cansrel, for they knew he was always up to no good. Fire loved her father, for he was very kind and loving towards her.
One of the big events in the book was when we find out that Fire, despite her love for her father, ended up controlling his mind and had him killed by his own ferocious monster pet. She made it look like he committed suicide; but in fact, she set up the whole incident.

She loved her father, but she knew she had to kill him in order for Brigan to live, for her father was trying to overthrow the kingdom and kill Brigan and his Brother Nash –the reigning king. She knew if her father lived, he would bring misery and pain to everyone in the land. A terrible thing for Fire to do, but she did it for the good of the people. I admire her for doing such a thing. She lived with that pain and memory all her life, but in the end she knew it was for the best.

I personally wouldn’t read the book again, but I’m glad I did read it because there was a Graceling in the story who was able to control people with his voice and what he said to them. I’m pretty sure there will be another book to elaborate on Immiker- the graceling.

Really quick, he tried to join forces with Fire, and his desire was to overthrow the King and take over doing evil and gaining power for himself. Fire was not impressed and sought to kill him, but he got away, and thus I can tell that he will come back in one of Cashore’s books.