The Girl of Fire and Thorns
So, I realised the other day that a certain light had gone out of my life, now that I'm not reading ALL THE BOOKS -[just channeling Hyperbole and a Half there, I never read anything like all the books] for our History Book, and enjoying venting spleen in rants that pretty much wrote themselves. So, must stop being lazy and start talking about more of the books I'm just reading, especially when they're books everyone else has read and I want to join in the conversation - or ones I want to get other people to consider reading.
The Girl of Fire and Thorns is pretty firmly in the former category, at least in the YA-reading world. I'd been waiting for it for ages, because of its pre-publication praise by people I trust. Because I'm still pretty lazy, here's the inside jacket description, copy 'n pasted from Goodreads.
Once a century, one person is chosen for greatness.
Elisa is the chosen one.
But she is also the younger of two princesses, the one who has never done anything remarkable. She can’t see how she ever will.
Now, on her sixteenth birthday, she has become the secret wife of a
handsome and worldly king-a king whose country is in turmoil. A king who
needs the chosen one, not a failure of a princess.
And he’s not the only one who needs her. Savage enemies seething
with dark magic are hunting her. A daring, determined revolutionary
thinks she could be his people’s savior. And he looks at her in a way
that no man has ever looked at her before. Soon it is not just her life,
but her very heart that is at stake.
Elisa could be everything to those who need her most. If the
prophecy is fulfilled. If she finds the power deep within herself. If
she doesn’t die young.
Most of the chosen do.
Okay, "not just her life, but her very heart" isn't how I'd have put it, which is actually significant for one of the things I think is pretty cool about the book - Elisa is very definitely concerned about a lot more than her romantic feelings. Another thing I like also seems somewhat misrepresented in the description, and that is that being the chosen one is not so much being chosen "for greatness" as being chosen for service, as Elisa says many times. When she eventually learns certain things about the chosen ones that have been kept from her, that distinction becomes even clearer, to the point that some chosen ones may die without apparently having had any success at all in life, let alone having achieved "greatness".
Quick little very rough summary of my own, to supplement the book-supplied one. Elisa's feeling that she's a failure is a fairly jumbled consequence of her being fat; being younger sister to a perfect looking and acting princess who (so Elisa thinks) hates Elisa because she (the perfect sister) should have been the chosen one instead of Elisa; she knows lots that you can get from reading books, but nothing much about acting like a ruler; and she's fat. (I'll be coming back to that one, unsurprisingly.) When she meets this king, who's older than she is, a widower and father and very handsome and is nice to her, she's immediately smitten. They set off back to his country, encounter serious danger on the way, at which point Elisa rises to the occasion admirably, while the King - not so much. But when they get to his palace, he won't let her tell his people he's married. Not nice. Then there's a lot of political stuff (both national and international - the marriage having been to form an alliance against a joint enemy which threatens war) in which Elisa becomes involved and is able to use her smarts to good purpose, until she's kidnapped. Dragged off on a massively dangerous desert-crossing by a former maid in the castle and her brother, whose situation relates to the political manoeveuring going on in the castle because their people are the ones already being killed and nobody gives a toss about them. A little romance ensues, though only of the admiring looks variety, and at the end of the trip Elisa realises to her amazement that she's lost a lot of weight. (Coming back to this too.) She also continues brave and wits-using, and is the only one in a position to help her kidnappers' people get some kind of justice. And that's the end of the summary, as I'm not going to give away more.
So, as I said, the very good is the world-building and the serious treatment of politics. Also, a point I liked a lot was made in the Kirkus review of this book: "it's wonderfully refreshing to see a heroine using her brain to win a war rather than strapping on a sword and charging into battle." Couldn't agree more. The enemy's mages were scary in themselves and because of the question of where they get their enormous destructive powers, and the religion was engaging too. On the face of it, a chosen one whose distinguishing feature is a stone in their navel, which sends off soothing heat or warning cold, could be rather laughable, but the spiritual dimension is handled so interestingly that I didn't find it so. I was very glad to see the reappearance of a favourite character toward the end, and might be induced to lay a small bet on his role in the sequels, though it would be a small one, as this wasn't a predictable book for the most part.
And then there's the fatness issue. When I read descriptions of the book that mentioned "pastry-loving Elisa", I was really worried that this book might turn out to be as awful as Princess Ben, which it isn't at all. I think it's been long enough since I've written anything about fatpol that it's time for a quick summary of what I've learned from jadelennox and diceytillerman. (Please correct/refine/add as desired, you two!) If this were a better world, it would be one in which fatness had not been used as a signifier of a variety of undesirable traits running from immaturity and inability to cope emotionally (at best) through laziness through slyness and nastiness to out-and-out evil, repeatedly, unthinkingly, and harmfully. I don't have any idea of stats on this, as to whether or not this happens especially often in children's and teen fantasy, non-fantasy versus adult ditto, but it sure the hell happens way too much in children's and YA. If we were in this world, then A character in a children's book who HAPPENED to lose weight as a natural consequence of something unrelated to weight loss and possibly also HAPPENED to gain more confidence as a result of the something unrelated to weight loss, wouldn't be any kind of a problem. But we don't have that world, and in this one, that character only adds to all the other characters who tell kids that they're fat BECAUSE of their negative character traits, and would be better people if they only lost weight.
I found The Girl of Fire and Thorns a bit frustrating in this respect, because I felt it came a lot closer to being fat-accepting than many books do, without actually managing to be so. One of the things that made it closer, to my mind, is that Elisa discovers that the reactions to her she saw in people around her at home, which she had attributed to her being fat, had nothing to do with that, but with knowledge quite unrelated to her appearance or character, that they believed they had to keep from her. How true does that ring? Well, obviously most of us don't have the experience of being a chosen one, but that someone might think everyone disdained them for being fat when they in fact didn't at all. And of course Elisa has already commenced her achievement of emotional maturity by midway through her journey from her home to her husband's home, long before she loses any weight. But those two mitigating factors don't overcome the treatment of her weight loss. Here's the passage where Elisa realises the effect of that long desert march: [I apologise for the lack of indenting - rich text no longer seems to offer blockquote/indent and it's late to switch to HTML posting]
I've been wrapped in shapeless robes and camel-hair chaps for nearly a month. Breathing hard, I peer -- hesitatingly -- at my navel. I'm shocked to see the winking blue of my Godstone peering back. I raise an arm and admire the curving shape of it, the way my upper arm tapers so naturally into my forearm, like they were meant to live together. I run my hands across my breasts, down my sides, over my buttocks, around to my thighs. Then tears spring to my eyes as I do it again.
I am not even close to thin. Certainly not beautiful like Alodia or Cosmé. But I don't have to part my breasts or press into my stomach to see my Godstone. I still crave honey pastries, but my head doesn't pound to think of them. I can walk all day without getting a rash.
I can walk all day.
This would have been perfect if everything except "I can walk all day" had been cut, and that had been the realisation that brought tears to Elisa's eyes. And that would have worked, beautifully. The food on this march could have been unpalatable but designed to pack in sustaining energy for the rigours of the journey and Elisa wouldn't have to have lost an ounce to feel happy about her body's hard-won ability to move. The fact that the two wonderful male characters who admire Elisa's looks (though not only her looks, of course, or I wouldn't consider them wonderful) admire her before she loses weight is further evidence of the book's being closer-than-many to fat positive, but again, the admiration of others isn't enough to compensate for the positive depiction of weight loss.
[LJ is being obnoxious, and I may have to post this unedited - apologies for rough-draftness. I think it's the third day I've been trying to work on this and now the keyboard seems to be packing it in too.]
In case it's not clear, there was much I loved about this book,and I'm very much looking forward to the sequel, due out next October.
The Girl of Fire and Thorns is pretty firmly in the former category, at least in the YA-reading world. I'd been waiting for it for ages, because of its pre-publication praise by people I trust. Because I'm still pretty lazy, here's the inside jacket description, copy 'n pasted from Goodreads.
Once a century, one person is chosen for greatness.
Elisa is the chosen one.
But she is also the younger of two princesses, the one who has never done anything remarkable. She can’t see how she ever will.
Now, on her sixteenth birthday, she has become the secret wife of a
handsome and worldly king-a king whose country is in turmoil. A king who
needs the chosen one, not a failure of a princess.
And he’s not the only one who needs her. Savage enemies seething
with dark magic are hunting her. A daring, determined revolutionary
thinks she could be his people’s savior. And he looks at her in a way
that no man has ever looked at her before. Soon it is not just her life,
but her very heart that is at stake.
Elisa could be everything to those who need her most. If the
prophecy is fulfilled. If she finds the power deep within herself. If
she doesn’t die young.
Most of the chosen do.
Okay, "not just her life, but her very heart" isn't how I'd have put it, which is actually significant for one of the things I think is pretty cool about the book - Elisa is very definitely concerned about a lot more than her romantic feelings. Another thing I like also seems somewhat misrepresented in the description, and that is that being the chosen one is not so much being chosen "for greatness" as being chosen for service, as Elisa says many times. When she eventually learns certain things about the chosen ones that have been kept from her, that distinction becomes even clearer, to the point that some chosen ones may die without apparently having had any success at all in life, let alone having achieved "greatness".
Quick little very rough summary of my own, to supplement the book-supplied one. Elisa's feeling that she's a failure is a fairly jumbled consequence of her being fat; being younger sister to a perfect looking and acting princess who (so Elisa thinks) hates Elisa because she (the perfect sister) should have been the chosen one instead of Elisa; she knows lots that you can get from reading books, but nothing much about acting like a ruler; and she's fat. (I'll be coming back to that one, unsurprisingly.) When she meets this king, who's older than she is, a widower and father and very handsome and is nice to her, she's immediately smitten. They set off back to his country, encounter serious danger on the way, at which point Elisa rises to the occasion admirably, while the King - not so much. But when they get to his palace, he won't let her tell his people he's married. Not nice. Then there's a lot of political stuff (both national and international - the marriage having been to form an alliance against a joint enemy which threatens war) in which Elisa becomes involved and is able to use her smarts to good purpose, until she's kidnapped. Dragged off on a massively dangerous desert-crossing by a former maid in the castle and her brother, whose situation relates to the political manoeveuring going on in the castle because their people are the ones already being killed and nobody gives a toss about them. A little romance ensues, though only of the admiring looks variety, and at the end of the trip Elisa realises to her amazement that she's lost a lot of weight. (Coming back to this too.) She also continues brave and wits-using, and is the only one in a position to help her kidnappers' people get some kind of justice. And that's the end of the summary, as I'm not going to give away more.
So, as I said, the very good is the world-building and the serious treatment of politics. Also, a point I liked a lot was made in the Kirkus review of this book: "it's wonderfully refreshing to see a heroine using her brain to win a war rather than strapping on a sword and charging into battle." Couldn't agree more. The enemy's mages were scary in themselves and because of the question of where they get their enormous destructive powers, and the religion was engaging too. On the face of it, a chosen one whose distinguishing feature is a stone in their navel, which sends off soothing heat or warning cold, could be rather laughable, but the spiritual dimension is handled so interestingly that I didn't find it so. I was very glad to see the reappearance of a favourite character toward the end, and might be induced to lay a small bet on his role in the sequels, though it would be a small one, as this wasn't a predictable book for the most part.
And then there's the fatness issue. When I read descriptions of the book that mentioned "pastry-loving Elisa", I was really worried that this book might turn out to be as awful as Princess Ben, which it isn't at all. I think it's been long enough since I've written anything about fatpol that it's time for a quick summary of what I've learned from jadelennox and diceytillerman. (Please correct/refine/add as desired, you two!) If this were a better world, it would be one in which fatness had not been used as a signifier of a variety of undesirable traits running from immaturity and inability to cope emotionally (at best) through laziness through slyness and nastiness to out-and-out evil, repeatedly, unthinkingly, and harmfully. I don't have any idea of stats on this, as to whether or not this happens especially often in children's and teen fantasy, non-fantasy versus adult ditto, but it sure the hell happens way too much in children's and YA. If we were in this world, then A character in a children's book who HAPPENED to lose weight as a natural consequence of something unrelated to weight loss and possibly also HAPPENED to gain more confidence as a result of the something unrelated to weight loss, wouldn't be any kind of a problem. But we don't have that world, and in this one, that character only adds to all the other characters who tell kids that they're fat BECAUSE of their negative character traits, and would be better people if they only lost weight.
I found The Girl of Fire and Thorns a bit frustrating in this respect, because I felt it came a lot closer to being fat-accepting than many books do, without actually managing to be so. One of the things that made it closer, to my mind, is that Elisa discovers that the reactions to her she saw in people around her at home, which she had attributed to her being fat, had nothing to do with that, but with knowledge quite unrelated to her appearance or character, that they believed they had to keep from her. How true does that ring? Well, obviously most of us don't have the experience of being a chosen one, but that someone might think everyone disdained them for being fat when they in fact didn't at all. And of course Elisa has already commenced her achievement of emotional maturity by midway through her journey from her home to her husband's home, long before she loses any weight. But those two mitigating factors don't overcome the treatment of her weight loss. Here's the passage where Elisa realises the effect of that long desert march: [I apologise for the lack of indenting - rich text no longer seems to offer blockquote/indent and it's late to switch to HTML posting]
I've been wrapped in shapeless robes and camel-hair chaps for nearly a month. Breathing hard, I peer -- hesitatingly -- at my navel. I'm shocked to see the winking blue of my Godstone peering back. I raise an arm and admire the curving shape of it, the way my upper arm tapers so naturally into my forearm, like they were meant to live together. I run my hands across my breasts, down my sides, over my buttocks, around to my thighs. Then tears spring to my eyes as I do it again.
I am not even close to thin. Certainly not beautiful like Alodia or Cosmé. But I don't have to part my breasts or press into my stomach to see my Godstone. I still crave honey pastries, but my head doesn't pound to think of them. I can walk all day without getting a rash.
I can walk all day.
This would have been perfect if everything except "I can walk all day" had been cut, and that had been the realisation that brought tears to Elisa's eyes. And that would have worked, beautifully. The food on this march could have been unpalatable but designed to pack in sustaining energy for the rigours of the journey and Elisa wouldn't have to have lost an ounce to feel happy about her body's hard-won ability to move. The fact that the two wonderful male characters who admire Elisa's looks (though not only her looks, of course, or I wouldn't consider them wonderful) admire her before she loses weight is further evidence of the book's being closer-than-many to fat positive, but again, the admiration of others isn't enough to compensate for the positive depiction of weight loss.
[LJ is being obnoxious, and I may have to post this unedited - apologies for rough-draftness. I think it's the third day I've been trying to work on this and now the keyboard seems to be packing it in too.]
In case it's not clear, there was much I loved about this book,and I'm very much looking forward to the sequel, due out next October.