The Flame In The Mist by Renée Ahdieh Review
This review is gonna be a bit of a mess, but my god am I having some internal struggles over just what I think of this book. I flew through this book in a day and whilst reading I noticed a few things, I should point at before this begins it was enjoyable, but in a trashy kind of way. However, the issue with this is when I read a book that fast it means it can be amazing, but more often that not it means it really isn't very good. Funnily enough, after I put it down some things just didn't sit right and that's real concerning to me.
Firstly we have the main character Mariko, who is supposed to be based off of/inspired by Disney's Mulan, which amazing because who doesn't love Mulan? And I really wanted to love Mariko! And I did at the start, the first chapter made me think we were going to have a smart, competent YA female lead, but I'm not sure we did get that. Mariko is established as a competent and inventive girl in the narrative, but we're unfortunately told this rather than shown this. I can't really think of a time where Mariko did anything really that impressive, sure she did invent a couple of things but none of it felt incredible, as the narrator implied she was capable of. As well as this, we're told by her brother multiple times that she is leaps and bounds ahead of anyone in a conversation, and is very sharp, but in none of Mariko's interactions do we see this! She is left dumbfounded and embarrassed by a lot of her interactions with people, and she's always the one who knows the least in any conversation. She just doesn't seem to understand anyone else or how things work, she also doesn't really work much out by herself, and revelations you see a mile away as a reader for some reason she just can't see for ages. She's just a classic example of a character we're told everything about, but it's never actually shown - she's basic.
Now, Mariko's love interest was somewhat better. Initially, the character was intriguing and mysterious, and did have an interesting back story, which however as the book went forward I thought was slightly underdeveloped. And whilst I like some of their interactions, others just fell flat and the connection between the two just felt kind of dead - I'm not even sure they should be ending up together. The problem with this character is he's not very memorable, I can't even tell you his name, which is disappointing as I think he had so much potential! And that is why the romance also fails, we have a girl who is basic and weak, and a guy I don't really remember.
A lot of the other characters in this novel felt underdeveloped too unfortunately. Whilst I understand many of them weren't main characters, I feel like there was some real missed opportunities. Especially surrounding Kenshin and his character arc, which I think could have been explored in greater detail and could have added a lot to this book if it had been, but unfortunately he was neglected. I hope we see more of him in the sequel. There were other characters I hoped we could have seen more of including Yoshi, but hopefully he will feature more in the sequel. I just feel like Renée Ahdieh missed some really good opportunities in exploring a more interesting, and diverse range of characters.
Whilst the characters were lacklustre and at times disappointing, I could have forgiven the author if her world-building and plot had been good but they fell short too. The plot was fairly basic to be honest, which would have been fine if it had been really well done, but it wasn't. The 'plot twist' in this also could be seen a mile away, which is just disapponting. However, whilst the plot in this book was a bit meh, the ending of this book sets up the plot and the characters very well for the second, and it seems like it'll be much more exciting with a far better villain.
But my god, the world-building was dreadful. I don't think I have ever seen world-building done so poorly within the fantasy genre before. There is magic in this world but it's suddenly dropped into the narrative and it's never explained fully, we don't know who can do magic or why, or what the limitations of magic are, or if even there are certain kinds of magic only a few can do. We get no explanation as to where this magic comes from and how it ties into the culture of the people. I still don't fully understand the world either, I don't know how far the emperor's control reaches or how the government system really works. Maybe these things will be explained in further detail in the sequel, but so far I'm just confused.
The worst thing about this however was the writing style. I understand what the author was aiming me for, but christ did it sound stupidly pretentious at times. Here are a couple of examples that take place within a few pages of each other:
'snarling with one another in a ceaseless war' was just used to describe the strips hanging from Maiko's bar in her hair, which I don't think I need to point out how stupid that sounds.
AND THEN Only a few pages later this is used to describe Kenshin 'his topknot was perfect, every strand aligned in elegant submission.'
There are, unfortunately, more examples of this in the book and it's such a shame. It completely distracts from the actual story as it reads like a school student trying to include metaphors and personification in every paragraph of their creative writing assignment - and that's boring. In all seriousness, this writing style may be a problem for Renée as it does detract from what else is going on, because everytime I read something stupidly written I had to sit back, pause and breathe through my nose until the irritation had passed.
Overall, this is not the worst book I've ever read, but it's certainly not one of the best. Whilst I understand what Renée was aiming for with this book I feel like she fell short on most accounts: our female protagonist is not the strong heroine we desired, our love interest isn't anything other than grumpy and mysterious, the plot is lacklustre and the world building needs work (not to mention the writing style). I wouldn't recommend this book, but I will be reading the sequel as I was intrigued by the ending, and I also already own it as it was really cheap on kindle so now I kinda have to read it.
Did anyone else read it? If you did let me know what you thought!
Now, Mariko's love interest was somewhat better. Initially, the character was intriguing and mysterious, and did have an interesting back story, which however as the book went forward I thought was slightly underdeveloped. And whilst I like some of their interactions, others just fell flat and the connection between the two just felt kind of dead - I'm not even sure they should be ending up together. The problem with this character is he's not very memorable, I can't even tell you his name, which is disappointing as I think he had so much potential! And that is why the romance also fails, we have a girl who is basic and weak, and a guy I don't really remember.
A lot of the other characters in this novel felt underdeveloped too unfortunately. Whilst I understand many of them weren't main characters, I feel like there was some real missed opportunities. Especially surrounding Kenshin and his character arc, which I think could have been explored in greater detail and could have added a lot to this book if it had been, but unfortunately he was neglected. I hope we see more of him in the sequel. There were other characters I hoped we could have seen more of including Yoshi, but hopefully he will feature more in the sequel. I just feel like Renée Ahdieh missed some really good opportunities in exploring a more interesting, and diverse range of characters.
Whilst the characters were lacklustre and at times disappointing, I could have forgiven the author if her world-building and plot had been good but they fell short too. The plot was fairly basic to be honest, which would have been fine if it had been really well done, but it wasn't. The 'plot twist' in this also could be seen a mile away, which is just disapponting. However, whilst the plot in this book was a bit meh, the ending of this book sets up the plot and the characters very well for the second, and it seems like it'll be much more exciting with a far better villain.
But my god, the world-building was dreadful. I don't think I have ever seen world-building done so poorly within the fantasy genre before. There is magic in this world but it's suddenly dropped into the narrative and it's never explained fully, we don't know who can do magic or why, or what the limitations of magic are, or if even there are certain kinds of magic only a few can do. We get no explanation as to where this magic comes from and how it ties into the culture of the people. I still don't fully understand the world either, I don't know how far the emperor's control reaches or how the government system really works. Maybe these things will be explained in further detail in the sequel, but so far I'm just confused.
The worst thing about this however was the writing style. I understand what the author was aiming me for, but christ did it sound stupidly pretentious at times. Here are a couple of examples that take place within a few pages of each other:
'snarling with one another in a ceaseless war' was just used to describe the strips hanging from Maiko's bar in her hair, which I don't think I need to point out how stupid that sounds.
AND THEN Only a few pages later this is used to describe Kenshin 'his topknot was perfect, every strand aligned in elegant submission.'
There are, unfortunately, more examples of this in the book and it's such a shame. It completely distracts from the actual story as it reads like a school student trying to include metaphors and personification in every paragraph of their creative writing assignment - and that's boring. In all seriousness, this writing style may be a problem for Renée as it does detract from what else is going on, because everytime I read something stupidly written I had to sit back, pause and breathe through my nose until the irritation had passed.
Overall, this is not the worst book I've ever read, but it's certainly not one of the best. Whilst I understand what Renée was aiming for with this book I feel like she fell short on most accounts: our female protagonist is not the strong heroine we desired, our love interest isn't anything other than grumpy and mysterious, the plot is lacklustre and the world building needs work (not to mention the writing style). I wouldn't recommend this book, but I will be reading the sequel as I was intrigued by the ending, and I also already own it as it was really cheap on kindle so now I kinda have to read it.
Did anyone else read it? If you did let me know what you thought!
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