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

Review: Eon

Eon by Alison Goodman

Pages: 430, paperback

ISBN: 9780732290115

Publisher: Harper Collins

Date Released: December 1st, 2009

Genre: Young Adult / fantasy / Asian mythology

Where I got it from: bought

Premise:

Eon has been studying the ancient art of Dragon Magic for four years, hoping he'll be able to apprentice to one of the twelve energy dragons of good fortune. But he also has a dark secret. He is actually Eona, a sixteen-year-old girl who has been living a dangerous lie for the chance to become a Dragoneye, the human link to an energy dragon's power. It is forbidden for females to practice the Dragon Magic and if discovered Eon faces a terrible death. (Taken from Goodreads)

~~~

There were a million things that I loved about this book. The fact that it was centered around Eastern mythology basically blew me away and had me begging for more. I've been able to find very few fantasy books with dragons and the Asian cultures being an influence, so it was very comforting to finally find something of interest.

The writing was brilliant, I found. Goodman writes in a very poetic way, describing every detail so perfectly, much like I wish could. Everything is very detailed and colourful, and she provided the reader with all the neccessary information, avoiding the feared 'info dump'. I could literally feel like I was in this fantasy world, as if I myself was seeing all those dragons, smelling those whiffs of frangipani, feeling all the pain that Eona was feeling (actually, on that note, it was so detailed in fact, that I felt queasy whenever I came across a part about pearls being threaded through the skin of the royals, and during some particularly graphic fight scenes).
Though, sometimes it seemed that despite all the intricate details, it was somewhat hard to decipher what was happening in the story. I found this happened most often when Eon entered the domain of her energy; it just wasn't explained properly, or maybe it was described too much.

The characters were well developed, and I loved how Eon was the opposite of what a hero is seen to be: female, the submissive sex in the society; and a cripple, which needs no explanation.
In a society where both are shunned, Eon has to pretend to be male or risk death. It was an interesting concept, and well played upon.
The role of genders in this world was a heavy theme, as shown by Sun energy for males and Moon energy for females. Also presented in the novel was Lady Dela, a transvesite (who provided most of the entertainerment, I found) and eunuchs. Honestly, I was blown away by that. This is the first YA novel I've read that has transvestites and eunuchs as characters, and talks about such mature themes. And I loved it. It shows that someone finally realises that teenagers shouldn't be shunned from such things. Plus, it was just so interesting, being told small pieces of information, new facts about this whole world of people I had barely known existed.

The plot was somewhat predicatable in some places, but completely unforseeable in other parts, so I guess it balances out. I did not expect Eon to not get chosen by the Rat Dragon, or to wake the Mirror Dragon, but then again, I did correctly assume that the Sun drug and the tea inhibiting her period had something to do with why the Mirror Dragon refused to show. That part was way too obvious for my liking.

What I disliked most was the ending, how Ido seemed to reform magically. It seemd almost unrealistic. I sort of loved him as a villain, he was fresh, devious and just interesting. Who doesn't love a villain that wants to rape the main character?

Overall, this book is something I would love to reread over and over again. I really can't wait for the next book, I'd love to see how things will pan out, and know what the hell happened to the prince (I was annoyed when it wasn't told).

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

Total Rating: 5/5