Flame in the Mist by Renee Ahdieh

Flame in the Mist (Flame in the Mist, #1)

by Renée Ahdieh

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Wrath and the Dawn, comes a sweeping, action-packed YA adventure set against the backdrop of Feudal Japan.

Mariko has always known that being a woman means she's not in control of her own fate. But Mariko is the daughter of a prominent samurai and a cunning alchemist in her own right, and she refuses to be ignored. When she is ambushed by a group of bandits known as the Black Clan enroute to a political marriage to Minamoto Raiden - the emperor's son - Mariko realises she has two choices: she can wait to be rescued... or she can take matters into her own hands, hunt down the clan and find the person who wants her dead.

Disguising herself as a peasant boy, Mariko infiltrates the Black Clan's hideout and befriends their leader, the rebel ronin Ranmaru, and his second-in-command, Okami. Ranmaru and Okami warm to Mariko, impressed by her intellect and ingenuity. But as Mariko gets closer to the Black Clan, she uncovers a dark history of secrets that will force her to question everything she's ever known.

Reviewed by Amber (The Literary Phoenix) on

4 of 5 stars

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Generally speaking, I really enjoyed this book. I liked the characters and the writing... oh my goose y'all, the writing is just BEAUTIFUL. This is my first book by Renee Ahdieh and I'm sold. There's such a good balance of vivid descriptions and conversation. I really liked it.

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.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 11 January, 2019: Finished reading
  • 11 January, 2019: Reviewed