Cannonball Read 11

Sticking it to Cancer One Book at a Time

Search This Site

  • Home
  • About
    • About CBR
    • FAQ
    • #CannonBookClub
    • Fan Mail
    • AlabamaPink’s Book Reviews
    • Book Bingo Reading Challenge
  • Team
    • The CBR Team
    • Leaderboard
    • Recent Comments
    • CBR Interviews
    • Our Volunteers
    • Meet MsWas
  • Genres
    • Review Genres
    • Tags
  • Fight Cancer
    • How We Fight Cancer
    • How You Can Donate
    • CBR Merchandise
    • Supporters and Friends of CBR
  • Contact
    • Contact Form
    • Newsletter Sign Up
    • Newsletter Archive
    • Follow Us

Can’t Believe It Took Me This Long To Pick This One Up

The Girl of Fire and Thorn by Rae Carson

July 31, 2019 by Jen K 1 Comment

Bingo Square: And So It Begins

I remember reading multiple positive reviews of this years ago, and yet I somehow never quite got around to it.  I think when it originally came out, I was reading YA but I was trying not to overindulge in it, and it wasn’t one that people continued to talk about even years later like the Lainie Taylor novels or Lunar Chronicles or others. And really, this novel was quite good so I am glad I finally added it to my list!

Elisa is the novel’s narrator, and she has been raised with the knowledge that she is the Chosen One of her generation. Every hundred years or so, one child is chosen by God and marked with a blue stone in its navel as the Chosen One.  These Chosen Ones have a special task to complete in their life time though it is not always very clear what that task will be, and sometimes, history has not captured that generation’s Chosen One or their acts, or the Chosen One died before completing the task.  There is very little direction in the religious texts and historical texts, but Elisa knows many of them die young.  Compared to many other YA novels, Elisa is a much more pious and religiously oriented heroine but it makes sense given the concept of the Chosen One within this universe. While I am not very religious or spiritual, I did not mind reading about Elisa’s devotion, and she was a different and welcome approach to the usual YA heroine.

Elisa is timid and shy, she loves to eat and has a body that shows it, and she is not the type of heroine that could fight her way out of a situation. However, she is also incredibly loyal, inspires great loyalty in those that know her best, kind-hearted, fair minded and intelligent. She is the younger princess, and the novel begins when she is married off to the king of a neighboring country on her 16th birthday. She struggles with finding her place in the new court, but gains the respect of some important people in the palace during various situations where she is tested.  While she might not be a social butterfly, when she is thrust into certain situations, she keeps a level head, and makes intelligent decisions.

Leaving her father’s court gives her an opportunity to learn new perspectives on her status as Chosen One and provides her access to more texts that she had not seen before allowing her to learn more of her potential purpose.  However, when she is kidnapped, Elisa finally has a chance to truly grow into herself, and develop into the leader she needs to be to serve as queen and fulfill her mission as the Chosen One.

Being a YA novel, Carson includes an obligatory love triangle, with both men having very different aspects and appeals to Elisa.  However, she does something rather unexpected in her handling of the triangle which I quite appreciated it, and it never takes the spotlight of the narrative – the purpose is always Elisa’s status as a leader and Chosen One, not simply her romantic life. I read the entire trilogy in a two days in mid June so I don’t want to get too much further into the details because they are slightly hazy, and I don’t want to accidentally let any of the plot development of the later novels influence what I say. However, the trilogy as a whole holds up, so I feel comfortable recommending this novel since the follow ups will not be a let down. Also, I felt like these countries had a slightly Spanish influenced vibe to them based on the descriptions of food and some of the religious aspects reminding me of Catholicism. I thought that was a nice touch compared to the slightly British fantasy settings that seem more typical.

Bingo Square: And So It Begins

Filed Under: Fantasy, Fiction, Young Adult Tagged With: And So It Begins, cbr11bingo, chosen one, rae carson, the girl of fire and thorns, trilogy

Help Support Cannonball Read

Buy the following on Amazon and help our mission to stick it to cancer, one book at a time:

  • The Girl of Fire and Thorn by Rae Carson

We pay for our website first, and then all proceeds above and beyond those fees are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name. Find out how else you can help support our mission.

Share the post "Can’t Believe It Took Me This Long To Pick This One Up"

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Google+
  • E-mail
  • Tumblr
  • Reddit
7/31/2019 | Jen K's CBR11 Review No: 16 |
Rating:
| Tags: And So It Begins, cbr11bingo, chosen one, rae carson, the girl of fire and thorns, trilogy | Category: Fantasy, Fiction, Young Adult | 1 Comment

Jen K

World traveler. Cat owner.

CBR11 participantCBR11 CommentsCBR11 LevelsCBR10 participantCBR 8CBR 7CBR 6CBR 5CBR 3CBR 2

Recent Reviews:

  • CBR Book Exchange! Thank you!
  • I Really Need to Find a Trivia Team
  • Stories Bring Communities Together
  • View all reviews by Jen K»

Comments

  1. Liz Gotauco says

    August 1, 2019 at 7:07 pm

    I love this book! I’ll keep an eye out for your reviews of the other two if you pick them up (I haven’t read the follow ups). I also love this edition, thinking I’ll have to upgrade the old ones we have at the library.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.



Thirty Three Days of Giving!

Thanks to everyone who donated to support our mission of sticking it to cancer one book at a time! We welcome donations year-round.
Created using the Donation Thermometer plugin https://wordpress.org/plugins/donation-thermometer/.$2,000Raised $1,750 towards the $2,000 target.$1,750Raised $1,750 towards the $2,000 target.88%

We raised $1,750 out of our $2,000 goal!

The winner of the donor raffle drawing is elemenopee!

Recent Comments

  • emmalita on A perfect storm of human greed and opportunityTheranos is a good example of how many people can get caught up in the sunk cost fallacy. And yes, this was an excellent book....
  • Jen K on Book Friends are the Best Kind, Book Friends of Long Standing are Even BetterYay! So glad everything made it! Your tree is adorable.
  • narfna on Books about murders that aren’t about murders at allYes, another convert! I'm excited for you to read Trespasser and Witch Elm. I think she also has another one coming in Fall 2020, but...
  • narfna on Book Friends are the Best Kind, Book Friends of Long Standing are Even BetterI am very curious to see what you think about Starless Sea. I have yet to put my thoughts together on it.
  • BlackRaven on Do Tell – Submit Your Best and Worst Books of CBR11!I'm taking a chance that I do not find a better one (or even a worse one, but I somehow doubt I'd find a worse...
See More Recent Comments »

Follow Us

CBR Facebook Page. Follow us on Twitter. Follow us on Instagram. CBR on Goodreads CBR on Pinterest.

Support CBR

Give Today. Cannonball Read donates all profits from the site to the American Cancer Society. Help us fight cancer!
Donate Today »

Review Genres

  • Biography/Memoir
  • Book Club
  • Children's
  • Comedy/Humor
  • Cooking/Food
  • Fantasy
  • Fiction
  • Graphic Novel/Comic
  • Health
  • History
  • Horror
  • Mystery
  • News from MsWas
  • Non-Fiction
  • Poetry
  • Religion
  • Romance
  • Science Fiction
  • Short Stories
  • Speculative Fiction
  • Sports
  • Suspense
  • Uncategorized
  • Western
  • Young Adult

Book Ratings


a favorite


a great book


a good book


an ok book


a book
you didn't like

Need Help?

Visit our FAQs to find out how to add stars, select genres, and more. Drop us a line if you can't find your answer.

Shop on Amazon and Support CBR

One of CBR11's #CannonBookClubs will be about Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett to coincide with the BBC Miniseries.
Buy it on Amazon today, get a head start, and help us stick it to cancer, one book at a time!

Shop on Amazon and Support CBR

Buy Original Cannonballer Prisco's book and help CBR!

Ad Partner

© 2019 Cannonball Read | Log in