Fire by Kristen Cashore Book Review

 Fire by Kristen Cashore is one of those books that you miss once you've finished it. You miss the world, the characters, everything about it. 

Even though Fire takes place before Graceling and in theory is its sequel it can be read as a standalone as none of the key characters are featured in Graceling and it takes place in a totally different part of the world. 

Fire is a monster, more specifically a human monster, who is mesmerising for anyone who sees her. Meaning people who succumb to her appeal will do anything for her, leaving their families, jobs and even lives behind. Fire aware and afraid of her power hides away in a tiny corner of the world, that is until she is needed to help the King. If Fire wants to help save her country and undo the wrongs of the past, Fire must face her fears, abilities and a royal court full of people with a reason to distrust her.

Fire is a book I wanted to re-read the moment I finished it. I loved being lost in the world and spending time with the characters. I did not expect Fire to exceed my love Graceling but it did by a mile. Fire may be over 10 years old but that does not mean that it is no longer a book that should be talked about and read because it is 100% a book that is still relevant now and still deserves to be read. 

My favourite part of this book was probably the characters, but I also really liked the writing. There is something about Kristen Cashore's writing that really works for me and I love. Part of that is the way she builds her characters. The characters in Fire were all written really well and all unique, even the side characters who were barely in it were possible for us to picture, and we could tell through their actions who they were as a person without being told anything about their reasons or past, something as a writer I aspire to be able to do. Every character introduced to us had some effect on the plot or final outcome, there were no unnecessary characters introduced just for the sake of it. 

I think I would probably recommend this book to any YA fantasy reader but only if they were mature enough to cope with some of the topics mentioned and discussed. If I was to give an age (which isn't something I like doing) I would probably say 14+, 13 at a stretch. 

Fire was 100% worth the 5 stars I gave it, making it my 3rd five-star book of the year (I'm averaging out at about one five star book every five books I read).