THE FIRE WISH
By Amber Lough
~Book Review~
Warning! Spoilers!
WHEN ROBIN WILLIAMS RECENTLY PASSED, I had flashback
childhood images of a man wearing a woman’s wig and grandmother clothes, a
crazy bat, a bangarang Peter Pan, and of course a big blue genie. I have always
been curious about genies, their interpretations, and the mythology behind
them. I’ve read Jonathan Stroud’s Bartimaeus
books starring a very clever djinn and loved them. What wonderful tale would
Amber Lough spin about the warring humans of Baghdad and the mysterious beings
made of smokeless fire, the jinni? A human princess captures an enemy jinni and
orders her to switch places with her to avoid a marriage? What can’t go wrong
with this set-up?
The execution, I’m afraid. The heart of the story was
missing because there were no memorable characters to win the readers’ hearts.
The world-building was there, the imagery crept up and absorbed you, but as you
looked around for the characters to bring this classic “switch places” story to
life, there were none to be found. Zayele, the human betrothed to Prince Kamal,
and Najwa, the jinni spy who can break through human wards, are more alike than
just appearance—their first person voice sounds too similar as well. The girls
had rather bland personalities; Zayele was vaguely a rebellious princess trope,
and Najwa seemed as invisible as the Shatabi
spell, and not in a good way. I kept questioning how someone who seemed as weak
backboned as her would be enlisted for a high-pressure spying mission on the
enemy. What really irritated me about her was that she kept getting distracted
from her mission by a certain hawt prince in the Baghdad Palace. Really, your
people are at risk and you’re busy thinking of a human guy you’ve barely spoken
to? Being “jinni” by itself isn’t a personality; for an example, look at
Bartimaeus in Jonathan Stroud’s books and how easily his humor, cowardice, and
clever usage of weapons of the weak makes him memorable and beloved by readers.
Zayele is marginally better, but she just seemed like a
slightly more outspoken version of Najwa. It doesn’t help that the supporting
characters are forgettable tropes we’ve seen in fantasy books before—evil
vizier, brooding prince, wise teacher, bitchy girl rival, ect. I was being told
a story, and I was being told about the chemistry between the characters, but I
didn’t feel it. However, do read this
story for how to do prose. The imagery is gorgeous, and for the first tenth of
the book, I was really excited for how this story would turn out. An excerpt
describing the jinni’s home, the Cavern:
“The Lake of Fire
swept along the side of the Cavern, lapping at the crystal spears on the edge.
Unlike in the human stories, it wasn’t a lake of molten rock. It was decorated
in fire. Gases bubbled to the surface, where they caught fire, sending licks of
flame dancing across the shallow waves. The flames were blue-hot, but harmless.
Wishlights lined the streets and the crescent wall that curved along the lake…”
(Chapter 5).
Oh, and in the human palace:
“I felt too many eyes
on me. I looked up to avoid them and found myself beneath a sky of glass
lanterns. They hung from the mosaic ceiling like spiders from their webs.
Glowing, smoking spiders.” (Chapter 35)
I don’t know
about you, but spiders have never sounded so beautiful. Also, the story’s pace
does pick up toward the end, and things are wrapped up neatly. You could read
this book and be done with the series, or you could read on in the next
installment. I don’t know whether I’ll continue, since sympathetic characters
are a large part of why I fall in love with a series. Maybe Lough won’t play it
quite as safe in the next one.
Recommended for
fans of: Laini Taylor, Maggie Stiefvater, Brenna Yovanoff
Upcoming
Book Review: Prophecy by Ellen Oh
