Fate of Flames

I have so many things to say about this book that I'm not sure I can be concise. (The good news is that I have a review in the works.) I like the plot, the story, the way everything is handled. The girls themselves are almost universally awesome. The absolute only thing that keeps me from giving this five stars is the fact that Maia takes way too long to decide she actually wants to do this. So much of the first half she spends kind of lackadaisically going along with her ‘handler' and the other girls and wishing to be normal again. Once she settles in, her character does improve, but that was enough for me to knock it down a star.

Edited
Reread in January 2019 to refresh my memory for the third book in the series.
...Pretty much disregard my previous review. While I like the story more the second time around, and I'm not going to be as hard on Maia - because she does jump on ‘the call' pretty much right away - and the people are as compelling. ... I don't know. I mean, it's still totally a four star read, which is good because I was a little worried it wouldn't hold up as well. So, yeah. Good book. Fun. Likable characters. Great world building. Total highly recommended!


Review from my blog: https://athousandworldssite.wordpress.com/
Effigies. Girls, chosen by fate to battle the monsters – Phantoms – that attack their world. Maia was just a normal girl, a geek, and totally obsessed with the Effigies, especially one Belle Rousseau.

But when the current fire effigy, Natalya, kills herself, Maia is chosen as her successor. Maia is unprepared to work alongside the other three effigies, unprepared to fight Phantoms and the mysterious boy that can control them, and unprepared to discover that Natalya just might have been killed by the very organization Maia now works for.

You know how sometimes a book sounds so awesome that you put off reading it because you have this idea in your head that it can't be as good as it sounds and you would almost rather not read it than find out you hate it? Yeah, I needn't have worried. While this book isn't perfect, it's a lot of fun.

Maia is, honestly, the weakest link in the story for me. I would have loved to have a cycling narrator, where each chapter is from one of the different girls. That being said, because we are always inside Maia's head, we really get to see her grow and develop. While I didn't much care for her at the beginning (she spends way too big a portion of the first half of the book not wanting this) by the end of the story I was having to give her some respect.

None of these characters are perfect. They are all very human and it's interesting to see the way they deal with the pressure. I mean, four girls (ranging in age from sixteen to nineteen, I think) have to fight monsters. Yeah, they do have some mundane backup, but it's these girls that save the day on numerous occasions. And there are under a ton of stress.

The girls start off not liking each other, but they are never mean or bitchy, which, sad to say, is a definite danger for books with several important girls. There's never putdowns or insults. They treat each other well and respect each other. And they are all so different, have different personalities and strengths, but can all be heroes.

“Wtf is everyone's deal? What is with this barebones, commercialized, overly simplistic faux-feminist perception of gurl power? Like a girl has to be able to murder giants without batting an eye before anyone can see her as strong?”

(When I read that comment on the effigy message board, I knew I'd adore this book a little.)

I also appreciate how Maia kind of has a love interest. Or, at least, there's this guy that she kind of likes, but she's not obsessed with him. He doesn't take over her life. She's more interested in being an effigy, in making friends with the others, in solving the mystery of Natalya death, than she is in chasing him. I also bears a mention that there are a couple other guys of an appropriate age that she interacts with, but she has zero romantic (or even, friendly) interest in them because she's creeped out by both of them. (And here's hoping it stays the same in the sequel!)