I’ve decided as part of my fantasy writing journey to listen to a lot more fantasy novels, since I’m actually very limited in terms of my reading time. I mainly borrow them from my local library, so many of the most popular ones were on hold. However, looking online, one of the recommendations that stood out to me was The Girl of Fire and Thorns. In this post I’ll share my first impressions. Keep in mind, I definitely don’t expect everyone to agree with my thoughts, and this only applies to the first eight chapters, since that’s as far as I’ve gotten up to now. This will be a spoiler-free review that only explains things shared in the first couple chapters.

First, here are some of the criteria I use when choosing a fantasy or romantic fantasy novel.

1. Low spice. This is my personal preference only and I realize many people enjoy spice just fine, so I don’t use this to gauge whether a book is good; it only indicates whether I personally will enjoy it.
2. Hard vs. soft magic systems. I tend to prefer hard magic systems, which basically means there are more set rules for how magic operates in the world. It makes for some very interesting story setups. I do have exceptions though.
3. Magic-focused. I prefer stories that use magic as a central part of the plot and story rather than a peripheral fact of life.
4. At least somewhat moral main character. I will read morally gray characters all day, but I’m not one to enjoy downright villainous protagonists.

As I’m reading The Girl of Fire and Thorns, I’ve pretty much decided that another criteria in the future will be no first-person perspective. I’ll explain why that is later in the post.

The Girl of Fire and Thorns seems to have a soft magic system, with little explanation so far as to how magic operates. It is written in first person perspective from the point of view of Elisa, a young woman who seems to struggle with overeating and stress eating to her own embarrassment and detriment. Elisa is a “Chosen One,” but she has no idea what she’s been chosen for, and the “Godstone” in her stomach doesn’t seem to do anything for her one way or another.

In the first chapters, Elisa is going to get married, and her insecurity is palpable. We hear a lot about how ugly she thinks she is and how she resents when people feel sorry for her. We also hear about how beautiful her husband is, how she struggles to trust him, and how her family pretty much sees her as worthless apart from the “Godstone.” And we discover there is much more than meets the eye to her old nurse who accompanies her to her new husband’s lands.

Some pros:

1. The descriptions are extremely visceral. You really feel like Elisa, which isn’t an entirely comfortable feeling. You can see what she sees and feel what she feels, and the world is vibrant and full.
2. Elisa is flawed, but her good points stand out after the first couple chapters and as a reader you can begin to appreciate her intelligence.
3. The mystery of what the Godstone does makes you want to keep reading, and there are several other mysteries that feel almost unsettling and make it difficult to put it down.

For me, that is where the pros end so far. Here are the issues I had with it.

1. Elisa is annoyingly self-deprecating. By that I mean she’s unendingly complaining about herself, her appearance, her personality, her personhood. This wouldn’t be a problem for me if it was second-person. I could stand on the outside and sympathize with her, because I’ve felt similarly. But because it is in the first person, her complaints about herself feel like a grating mantra that is being forced on the reader, as though you are being dragged along to feel exactly all the same unpleasant things that she does. (Or maybe I’m just overly empathetic.)
2. There are some odd setups the author uses to info-dump about characters that are barely used in the story. It seems like this is a way to try to make you feel emotionally attached to those characters, but there’s too little time to get to know them. Side characters feel a bit one-dimensional. Again, this is only the first eight chapters (about one-sixth of the way through the book), so I may change my mind on this later.
3. Elisa’s feelings, the descriptions, the mysteries, and many other aspects of the story leave you feeling vaguely unsettled. There are strangely grotesque and awkward moments that feel raw but uncomfortably so. While, as I said, this leads you to want to read the next part, it also leads to feeling trapped to read the next portion rather than eager to read it. And so far there hasn’t been a super likable character or a funny moment or anything else that really lightens the tension.
4. The tone throughout the first eight chapters reeks of a heavy sameness. Because Elisa’s growth can’t be expected to happen in just eight chapters and it’s only from her point of view, the reader is forced to suffer from her repetitive miserable moments, repetitive questions and doubts, and repetitive behaviors. It doesn’t help that for this particular audiobook the reader is extremely monotone.

I actually think nearly every one of these problems could be solved by simply going into the third person perspective instead of first person. The truth is, I’m rarely fond of first-person books, but I think it can work if it’s a mystery, where the point of view has to be narrow to make it even more mysterious, or horror, where you are supposed to feel unsettled by the unknown. And maybe that’s exactly what The Girl of Fire and Thorns is supposed to be: a mystery, steeped in fantasy.

But that’s not what it feels like. It feels like the diary of a very unhappy high school girl who is extremely uncomfortable in her own skin. And since it is in first person, you, the reader, are forced to be uncomfortable as well.

Don’t get me wrong; Rae Carson is clearly an incredible writer. I will probably finish the first book in the trilogy, but I may not read a second. I have a low tolerance for discomfort when I’m cozying up to listen to a book after a long day of work. Still, authors can learn something from the way Rae Carson manages to put readers into her story and cause them to view the world from the protagonists perspective in a way I’ve never really experienced before. It ends up being a bit of a masterpiece, albeit a thorny one that never leaves you comfortable long.

As a reminder, I am also planning to release the first chapters of my own fantasy romance novel, Loyalty Fallen, here on June 4th. Please subscribe to this blog to get updated when it goes live, and I hope you enjoyed this review!