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I took a photo of this book with some flowers I got on Valentines Day which feels like ages ago because I haven't put up a proper review till now......Not just that, but the fact that February has practically ended and it's almost March, like whAt? This year is floating by.
The Girl of Fire and Thorns is a Young Adult, Fantasy novel. It is the first book in a trilogy. Here is the goodreads synopsis:
Once a century, one person is chosen for greatness. Elisa is the chosen one.
But she is also the younger of two princesses, the one who has never done anything remarkable. She can't see how she ever will.
Now, on her sixteenth birthday, she has become the secret wife of a handsome and worldly king—a king whose country is in turmoil. A king who needs the chosen one, not a failure of a princess.And he's not the only one who seeks her. Savage enemies seething with dark magic are hunting her. A daring, determined revolutionary thinks she could be his people's saviour. And he looks at her in a way that no man has ever looked at her before. Soon it is not just her life, but her very heart that is at stake.
Elisa could be everything to those who need her most. If the prophecy is fulfilled. If she finds the power deep within herself. If she doesn’t die young.
Q: Guess how I ended up reading this book rather that all the books on my 'to-read'/'currently reading' (which you can find on your right)?
(If you don't want to guess imma tell you anyways.)
A: I stole it from my sister. She has recently bought a couple of books she has mentioned she will definitely read but that has not happened so I saw this on her shelf and it looked interesting so I started to read it. This is 100% not something I would read. Yes, it is fantasy, yes it is Y/A but it's not a book I would normally be gravitated towards.
I am all for BOOKS HAVING D I V E R S I T Y! I know that in most young adult, there is quite a minimal amount and the books are mostly whitewashed which is a big disappointment. THIS BOOK HAS GREAT REPRESENTATION OF WOMEN AS WELL AS BEING DIVERSE and that makes me so happy. To be honest I expect all books to have diversity and to somewhat not be a 'generic read'. I say this because lately when I think of the Young Adult genre the first couple of things that pop up are: (1) love triangles, (2) some form of the story leading up to a relationship, (3) the main character is white (and the rest of the characters are as well), (4) super unrealistic representations of people, (5) these horrendous gender society roles! (6) "Your not like other girls, you're different." (6) Loads of violence but it is taboo to have sex, (7) "I let out a breath I did not know I was holding." (8) Overthrowing/rebelling a system, government, society, etc (9) Lack of LGBT+ (10) and of course, lack of diversity/poc and there is much more but I am trying to contain myself.
I'm not gonna lie and say that before I educated myself on these issues I was definitely reading books like those and thinking they were amazing.
If you would like to see funny tweets relating to the 'generic' young adult books and phrases most said, I will link you to this twitter account: @DystopianYA , enjoy!
this account is a great laugh and highly recommend you follow them for more amusing tweets, here are some tweets I thought were hilarious:
In no way am I saying this book is the perfect book or anything along the lines of that. Yes, this is a book with great diversity and represents characters realistically but this book, like any other book will have flaws. This book starts off with the main character Elisa having to get married off to the King for reasons (read the book) and the King is a beautiful man with black hair and captivating eyes. Shocker! However, trust me when I say sometimes things like this need to be in books. Just to keep it interesting. I will agree that there are MANY ways in which books can be more compelling rather than something generic like a hot dude and a love triangle (which is also shockingly in this book). I mean sometimes a love triangle is needed, sometimes there need to be a hot dude and I'm not saying this needs to stop entirely but something new and alluring would be preferred.
However I will mention this book is fantastic at keeping you on edge and the many plot twists.
*whispers* everything changes
This book is also strongly and I mean VERY STRONGLY surrounded around the authors perception and views of religion. I applaud Rae Carson for having religion/faiths a part of this book. Religion is another thing I believe most authors don't write about or simple choose not to and it's always cause: they 'just don't want to go there' or don't want to explore that extent, I totally understand why but it nice to see once in a while something different.
In this book Rae Carson has addressed religion without condemning or condoning a certain faith. Religion is a very hard thing to introduce in writing; this is because there are many religions/faiths and in a way when it is pronounced in books it can come off as trying to 'advertise' a certain religion. I'm not saying religion in books is crazy rare because of course there are books where it is hinted or clear elements shine through in the writing, for example Harry Potter.
I love reading about strong female characters and Elisa in this book was phenomenal. She is strong, smart, witty and truly wonderful. It is so heart-warming to see authors write about female characters like this with good representation that can relate to many readers. Elisa goes through a physical and emotional journey throughout this book and I'm sure throughout this series. Another thing that makes me very happy is that periods have been mentioned in this book. If you ask me the rarest thing I read in books it's probably addressing that the majority of people with vaginas bleed occasionally is by far the rarest! Thankyou Rae Carson for including that, even though it might have only been mentioned less than a page, it is better than nothing.
I highly, highly recommend you go read this!
p.s: tbh I am still waiting for a book other than the THRONE OF GLASS series by Sarah J Maas and this one where having a period is mentioned.
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