Fire (2009)

I may not have been in the right frame of mind to read this book by Kristin Cashore and maybe I was too distracted but I found this book a real muddle of characters and it was hard to discern a plot. In this world there are regular humans and animals and "monster" humans and animals. It is easy to tell which ones are monsters since they are brilliantly colored and the regular humans are shooting arrows at them. Fire is half human and half monster. She has rainbow colored hair which she has to keep covered when outdoors to avoid attracting the attention of monster raptors. Since her scent is pronounced when she is menstrating, we are kept apprised of her cycles (ad naseum). She is able to read people's minds and persuade them to do things and perceive things like the fact that they have no pain from the arrow impaling them.

Fire is so beautiful that it seems that every male in her vicinity is head over heels in love with her, to the extent that it's a wonder any thing gets done since all they can do is stand around with their tongues hanging out.

There is a mysterious being called a Graceling who appears in the beginning and later in the book who can influence people with his voice but why he appears and then disappears is a mystery to me.

I am in the minority with my opinion of this book. The companion book Graceling has glowing reviews. Fantasy fans would probably get more out of this book than I.

My rating for this book: ++ 1/2