Review: Firelight

Firelight by Sophie Jordan

Pages: 323, hardcover

ISBN: 9780061935084

Publisher: HarperTeen

Date Released: September 7th, 2010

Genre: YA / romance / fantasy / dragons

Source: library

Premise:

A hidden truth.
Mortal enemies.
Doomed love.

Marked as special at an early age, Jacinda knows her every move is watched. But she longs for freedom to make her own choices. When she breaks the most sacred tenet among her kind, she nearly pays with her life. Until a beautiful stranger saves her. A stranger who was sent to hunt those like her. For Jacinda is a draki—a descendant of dragons whose greatest defense is her secret ability to shift into human form.

Forced to flee into the mortal world with her family, Jacinda struggles to adapt to her new surroundings. The only bright light is Will. Gorgeous, elusive Will who stirs her inner draki to life. Although she is irresistibly drawn to him, Jacinda knows Will's dark secret: He and his family are hunters. She should avoid him at all costs. But her inner draki is slowly slipping away—if it dies she will be left as a human forever. She'll do anything to prevent that. Even if it means getting closer to her most dangerous enemy.

Mythical powers and breathtaking romance ignite in this story of a girl who defies all expectations and whose love crosses an ancient divide.

(Taken from Goodreads)

Buy it from: Book Depository / Amazon

I won't lie. For a YA, this blew me away.

The writing is so vivid and descriptive, and it paints the perfect image in the readers head. It's so engaging that it becomes fairly impossible to put down. The writing was definitely my favourite part of this book, especially the first couple of chapters, when we see Jacinda in the wild, where she belongs. The descriptions of her surroundings are amazing, and her world is one that the reader can immerse themselves in.

Jacinda was a character that really liked. She was strong, defiant and loyal. Her relationship with her sister is rocky, since Jacinda is a draki, but Tamra isn't. Tamra's jealousy got in the way of their friendship as they were growing up, because Tamra was the black sheep in the family and in the pride. But once they escape the pride and live amongst the humans, the tables turn. It's Tamra's turn to fit in naturally, and Jacinda is the odd one out. She doesn't belong in the human world.

Now, regarding that, that's where my problems lie.Their mother takes them to the desert to kill the draki inside of Jacinda, claiming it's for her own good. She never once asked for consent in that matter, and the idea of slowly losing her draki actually bothers Jacinda a whole lot more than her mother expects. A friend of mine recently opened my eyes regarding consent in stories--particularly in the case of Tangled, when Ryder cuts her hair without consent. I didn't think these little things mattered, but now, it really bothers me to see that.

That said, Jacinda's relationship with her mother is strained. Jacinda tells us that whilst her father was proud of Jacinda's draki, her mother was wary, as if Jacinda was "someone she had to love, but wouldn't have chosen". That's why it's so easy for her mother to decide to kill Jacinda's inner draki. It's kind of tragic, really, that their relationship is like this. It's the cause for Jacinda's rebellious stage, because she's tired of her mother making all of her decisions.

All the characters here are selfish. Tamra and her mother have no qualms with killing Jacinda's draki, just to have a normal life as humans, and Jacinda is doing all she can to keep her draki alive. I'm not sure if this is intentional or not, but I sort of love it. Their intentions parallel the others', and it sort of works.

Regarding the romance, I'm sort of on the fence. The writing--as I said before--was fairly fantastic, and it especially shows in the uber hot makeout scenes. The chemistry between Will and Jacinda is just breathtaking, sexy and hot, and it makes me wish that it weren't YA, so that I could read the hot sex scenes that would have arisen. But Will is an odd character. One moment, he's sweet, the next, he's controlling, telling Jacinda what to do. He acts like he has multiple personalities. Also, he sort of breaks into her house and makes her breakfast. It's sweet that he makes her breakfast, I guess, but still really creepy that he let himself into her house without her permission, especially after knowing her for only a month. And by then, they 'love' each other, which I find unbelievable and hardly realistic.
What I liked between them was that this time, it was the girl who was different. It was a nice change, but unfortunately, didn't stop her from constantly switching from "OMG I love him" to "But we can't be together :(" and back in a matter of seconds. Ugh, just make your decision and stick with it, please?

I had a huge problem with Brooklyn and Tamra, though. Brooklyn was the stereotypical blonde bitch, who's angry at the new girl because the hot guy likes newbie more than herself. Brooklyn attacks Jacinda in the bathroom, and when Jacinda fights back--with her fire power, though, so a bit dumb on her part--Tamra throws a massive hissy fit because according to her, Jacinda started that fight just to ruin Tamra's chances of making friends. Just... no. Tamra didn't even want to hear Jacinda's side of the story. Tamra is the most selfish, bratty, conceited sister ever, and I feel really sorry for Jacinda.

Despite that, I'm still really excited to read Vanish, which is expected to come out this September. After the ridiculous cliff-hanger and the plethora of unanswered questions at the end, I'm itching to get my hands on Vanish.

Cover Art: 4
Plot: 3
Characters: 4
Writing: 4
Level of Interest: 5

Total Rating: 4/5 stars