My review of Cashore’s first novel, Graceling, is here. I really enjoyed it. But you know what? Fire was even better.
I’ll be honest, the prologue bothered me because it’s about the antagonist, who we KNOW is the antagonist (if we’ve read Graceling) and that was a hard way to enter the book. But it was still fascinating and Cashore carries us through.
Fire is a wonderful protagonist. She’s complex - her back story in a way defines her, at the beginning, and the first half of the story is her rising above that. I was dismayed, actually to think, “Get on with the external plot already,” and notice I was at page 200. The first half is slow. It’s not bad-slow; there’s a lot to set up, a lot of internal conflict being addressed. The story does progress, but we have a story question, “Will Fire use her power or not?” and it takes a while to be answered which is, I think, why it felt slow.
The plot in this book is much tighter than the first. I wanted to write this review without comparing, but I found it hard partly because normally the second book is the more difficult book for the writer, and it shows to me as a reader, so I was pleasantly surprised this wasn’t the case here. I loved Brigan; I loved the interplay between all the characters. The cast is somewhat large but I didn’t need any maps or spreadsheets to keep track of who was who and how they related to everyone else, a nice juggling act by Cashore.
The similarities between Fire and Graceling’s Katsa bothered me a bit at first. Here’s another girl who doesn’t want to marry. BUT that’s about where the similarities end, and you can’t fault an author for having a character type they draw well (in this case, the independent woman). Also, Cashore does an admirable job of using Fire’s back story to make her decisions completely believable and, in fact, necessary. Cashore explores the themes of independence and identity and uses this type of character to do so, and does it very well.
The writing, as before, was beautiful. It’s lyrical and storyteller-esque, and even when I critically thought, “this is a lot of telling,” I didn’t care because I was committed and I cared about it, and she tells it so well. 
All I can say is I can’t wait for Bitterblue!
