Bright Smoke, Cold Fire by Rosamund Hodge

 

"I liked it... until I didn't." You can put that on my tombstone when I die. I was sooooo excited to get this book because I'm a huge fan of Rosamund Hodge. Her books usually have the perfect blend of romance, danger, and hot bad guys, which is a MUST in YA. And even though Romeo and Juliet is one of my least favorite plays, I totally looked forward to seeing what she did with it.

And for like 30% of this book, I was on board. Seriously. Cults and revenants and cursed cities-- I am SO DOWN. It was like the author read THE FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH and thought to herself, "Cool, but let's make it high fantasy and also everyone is playing Machiavellian power games." Like, how could that not be 5+++?

Well, I got bored. I feel like maybe this was just too ambitious and confusing. I was worried when so many of my friends didn't like it but it's not like I've ever let anyone stop me from reading something I want to (my mom likes to say that I'm a contrarian). It's beautifully written and has some really fun ideas, but it's just SO MUCH and I got bored and now I don't want to read anymore. Boo.

Maybe it was the mind-control.

2 to 2.5 out of 5 stars