Tell the Wind and Fire

by Sarah Rees Brennan

[empressbrooke]

A Tales of Two Cities is one of my favorite books, so when I heard that this was a retelling set in a contemporary world with magic, I was all, "Sign me up!" Half the fun of reading it was picking out all of the references. It definitely isn't required to have brushed up on Dickens before reading it, but it certainly does add on another layer of enjoyment. The world that the author created was cleverly set up with peoples' affinity for either Light or Dark magic being the basis for what socioeconomic class they're in, and she did a very good job demonstrating throughout the book that the division was based on nothing but manmade assumptions and artificial lines drawn in the sand designed to keep the powerful in power.

There were a few things that kept it from earning another star from me. First, the end gets bogged down in endless paragraphs of internal dialogue from the main character in which she waxes poetic about what she's learned over the course of the book. It isn't consistent with the rest of the book and feels like the author was just pouring everything out to get to the end. Second, the "surprise" villain that pops up near the end is cartoonish in how single-mindedly evil they are. This person is supposed to be a counterpart to the family who rules the Light city, but she's drawn with far less nuance. And finally, the main character has this supposedly "best" friend who only pops up or is thought about when the plot calls for it.

Ultimately, it was a really fun read, with a few flaws that kept it from being great.