Reviewed by Amber (The Literary Phoenix) on
Mariko is a driven character and I appreciated that so much about her. One of my pet peeves is that in a lot of YA fantasy, characters get tied up in their romantic subplots and a lot of the action gets put to the side. Flame in the Mist balances that SO WELL. Mariko always came back to her main goal, and when it was revealed that she was mistaken about some stuff, her reaction was totally appropriate. And she wasn't rash or ridiculous. I believed the outcomes, instead of rolling my eyes at them. It was great.
The one thing I could have used a little less of here was the repetition in the internal monologues. Like I said, I really enjoyed the vengeance storyline and the focus, but some details kept getting repeated and repeated until it felt like beating a dead horse. Sometimes, I felt like the revenge plots were stagnating because of it. It could have trimmed down a little of the fat in the novel, but otherwise, I really have no complaints.
Well, except the narrator? Wasn't a fan. Her tone felt like a slow, upkill climb to rising action and it just got exhausting. But that's an audiobook-only problem!
I will say that a lot of the people flailed over the ending? I actually thought the ending was PERFECT. It's dramatic and BIG and absolutely ideal for the story. Loved it.
Reading updates
- Started reading
- 11 January, 2019: Finished reading
- 11 January, 2019: Reviewed