Book Review: Fate of Flames

Summary: Four girls with the power to control the elements and save the world from a terrible evil must come together in the first epic novel in a brand-new series.

When Phantoms—massive beasts made from nightmares and darkness—suddenly appeared and began terrorizing the world, four girls, the Effigies, each gained a unique power to control one of the classical elements: earth, air, fire, and water. Since then, four girls across the world have continually fought against the Phantoms, fulfilling their cosmic duty. And when one Effigy dies, another girl gains her power as a replacement.

But now, with technologies in place to protect the world’s major cities from Phantom attacks, the Effigies have stopped defending humanity and, instead, have become international celebrities, with their heroic feats ranked, televised, and talked about in online fandoms.

Until the day that New York City’s protection against the Phantoms fails, a man seems to be able to control them by sheer force of will, and Maia, a high school student, unexpectedly becomes the Fire Effigy.

Now Maia has been thrown into battle with three girls who want nothing to do with one another. But with the first human villain that the girls have ever faced, and an army of Phantoms preparing for attack, there isn’t much time for the Effigies to learn how to work together.

Can the girls take control of their destinies before the world is destroyed forever?



First off, a disclaimer: Fate of Flames is scheduled to be released this November. The copy of it that I read is an ARC, which I obtained at Barnes & Noble's Book-Fest. Legally, I am not allowed to quote this book, only review it in my own words. That's what I always do, but I felt I should note this somewhere in the post.

Now, onto the review.

Fate of Flames is sort of a weird book for me. First, it's a contemporary fantasy about a girl who gains special powers. There are certain tropes and clichés associated with such a story, and Fate of Flames plays right into some of those. There are others that it plays with or subverts, which makes the book as a whole both conventional and inventive at the same time.

On the conventional side, it's a coming-of-age story about a high school girl--Maia Finley--who gains the ability to control fire. As the Fire Effigy, she's thrown into a world where she's expected to team up with three other Effigies--her personal heroes--and fight the monsters that have been attacking the world since the 1800's. But there's a twist--Maia is terrified of fire, ever since a house fire killed her parents and twin sister. And there's something suspicious about the death of her predecessor...

The story itself, at least for three fourths of the book, is pretty conventional. Coming of age story--check. Relatable teenage protagonist--check. Mysterious hot love interest man--check. Shadowy governmental organization--check. Monsters the world must be defended from--check.

But that's not all there is to the book, and that's the part that makes it unique. Yes, it's a coming of age story--but it's one that doesn't shy away from the psychological effect constant fighting has on teenaged soldiers. The relatable teen girl protagonist has many weaknesses and genuinely doesn't know what's going on a lot of the time--there's no way she could've made it through the plot of the book without the help of the other three Effigies (Belle, Chae Rin, and Lake). All three of these other girls also have their own flaws and weaknesses, yet none of them are demonized or set up as one-dimensional rivals for Maia. In the end, they find strength by working together. The mysterious love interest guy is a member of the shadowy governmental organization--and as it turns out, both of them were probably lying to Maia all along. There are only three prominent male characters in the book, and one of them is a government agent with nasty secrets, one of them is a government agent with zero morals, and one is a villain with multiple personalities in his head. He's able to control the monsters that have been attacking the world for over a century.

So there's a lot going on in this book. The plot and characters are a smooth blend of the cliché and the atypical. That sort of threw me in the first half of the book--I never knew what to expect, even when I thought I did. But by the second half, I got to liking it. Fate of Flames is a well-written book with good characters and a lot of interesting concepts. And it's the first in a series, so I'm definitely looking forward to seeing where the story goes.

So that's my opinion of the book. I've still got one more thing to add: back by popular demand, it's the star rating system that I used to use for movies. I'll be using it to rate this book, and presumably a few more books after it; if like it or think I could use a better system, please let me know!

I'm giving Fate of Flames three and a half stars.

Fate of Flames hasn't been released yet, so I guess there aren't a lot of people out there to discuss it with me. But suffice to say, it's a good book and I'm looking forward to enjoying the rest of the series. In my opinion, any author who can blend cliché and originality with this amount of skill is someone whose books I'll be keeping up with.