Lovely fantasy!

Lovely writing, rich settings, detailed characters, great story! The first few hours were a little slow, but once things got going I didn’t want to stop listening! This surprised me several times, which is a very good thing. I really want to gab about this book so it’s going to be hard to discuss without giving too much away!

This is a fantasy first and foremost, and like many fantasies it’s also a coming of age story. On her sixteenth birthday, Princess Elisa is married to the king of a neighboring kingdom, and she realizes she doesn’t really know why the marriage needed to take place and that no one thought to tell her (and we readers notice she didn’t think to ask!). She begins to take steps towards adulthood by asserting herself and making some of her own decisions. It’s not long before the plot takes a dramatic turn and Elisa takes great leaps along with it. That’s when things start to really get good! Magic, political power struggles, war, adventure… Expect plot turns and a good dose of girl power!

I loved that Elisa is full-figured and not shy about enjoying food. As the story moves along she learns more about balance, but her body image and self-confidence issues made her very easy to relate to. I also loved that none of the characters were perfect on close examination. You could tell the author really knew everything about her characters and her beautiful settings – everything's so well detailed!

The magic and sorcery elements in the storyline come from the story's religion. Princess Elisa was “chosen” to carry a magic gemstone in her naval soon after she was born (okay, the naval bit is a little funny), and through it she’s in very slight communication to higher powers and possibly magics. Praying and sacred texts show up a lot, but in a way that moves the story forward rather than slowing the pace. The author took some elements from Christianity to start this fantasy religion and then totally went her own way with it. If that doesn’t sound like your thing, then this probably isn’t the book for you! Also, to any die hard romance novel readers out there, this is NOT a “girl meets boy and of course he’s her fated true love and they live happily ever after” story. There are romantic elements, but Elisa is the main focus instead of her romantic life, if that makes sense. Her story isn’t over. So pass on this one if that will be a deal-breaker for you.

This is the first book in a series but you could read it as a stand-alone. No terrible cliffhangers loom at the end, this gets to a reasonable conclusion with room for more to come later. I’ll definitely be getting the next books! Jennifer Ikeda reads beautifully. Once and a while her pace seemed a little more measured than I’d prefer, but she’s wonderful with voices and accents, and I’ll always be glad to see her name listed as narrator.

Highly recommended for lovers of fantasies and coming of age stories about girls you can really root for!

40 people found this helpful

Very religious

The story is alright if you don't mind it being completely centered around God and praying. The performance was great though.

31 people found this helpful

Moral of the story: Heroines can't be overweight.

This is, by far, the worst book I've encountered on Audible.

The storytelling was weak, the dialogue was uninteresting, and the characters weren't relatable.

I found myself unable to root for the protagonist because I couldn't like her. That's not to say she was unsympathetic. That would be giving Rae Carson too much credit. Instead, we are faced with a protagonist who never seems to display realistic human emotions (other than brief moments of teenage angst).
My biggest complaint, however, is the way Carson addresses body image. At the beginning of the story, Elisa is overweight, lazy, apathetic, and generally useless. Apart from being the "chosen one," she has no qualities that would make a reader invest in her. She spends a great deal of her time thinking about how fat and ugly she is. A protagonist with body image issues could make for a very compelling story, but that's where Carson goes totally wrong.

Rather than learning to accept herself for who she is, Elisa mopes around being completely useless, until she is literally forced to lose weight. And how is this accomplished? Through starvation and rigorous exercise. Yes, diet and exercise are important for one's health, but this change in her lifestyle comes from outside forces, rather than any inner strength.
Finally, after enough starvation, and a whole bunch of walking, Elisa loses weight. Once she is no longer fat, she suddenly gains confidence, tenacity, and leadership skills.

Remember, the target audience for this story is primarily teenage girls (many of whom have body image issues of their own). The message they are receiving seems to be "If you lose a lot of weight, your life will automatically improve. If you starve yourself, people will admire you."

Even if this story hadn't been sub-par, the underlying message would have been enough to drive me away.

25 people found this helpful

Ugh...

This book...

It's not very good at all. DNF. I wish she would learn to accept herself and realize this king does not have to complete her. Honestly...I just...
I saw another review that says she sheds her weight by pretty much starving herself and only then does she feel worthy. If this book is meant for teen girls, I can't believe that this would be a good book for them to read. ESPECIALLY if it leads to said young women feeling like it's okay to have self-deprecating thoughts.

Also, I'm not a Christian and this book has a lot of Christian overtones. Not that I don't respect the religion. I'm just not interested in listening to it in a fantasy novel.

However, I LOVE Jennifer Ikeda's narrations. She does such a good job. That's the only reason this book got 3 stars. If it was a narrator that wasn't as good, the book would be a 1 star.

20 people found this helpful

Really too bad!

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

Although the story had potential, it was subpar. The descriptives of geography and environment were wonderful, as was the detail of the meals prepared. But the narrative just plodded along until some well written exciting events occured. My biggest criticism is that the book had a tremendous religious/Christian bent. This should have been part of the description because i would not have purchased it if I had known. If I had heard the phrase "I touched my fingertips to the Godstone..." one more time, I was going to scream. The author did tease nicely developing the "love interests" but in the end seriously disappointed the reader.
I liked the implication of magic or sorcery, and the history of the region.

Would you ever listen to anything by Rae Carson again?

No. I couldn't get past the obsession with praying constantly, but this was likely the author's intention: pray and pray more and your prayers will generally go unanswered while you suffer incredible pain and loss. Then maybe if you make it through all that, there will be an answer that you never would have considered.

What three words best describe Jennifer Ikeda’s performance?

ok, but diappointing. Jennifer Ikeda was phenomenal in Discovery of Witches series. She is bland and does not use her extraordinary verbal talent, accents, tone, character, etc. Very disappointed with this one.

Any additional comments?

Audible - please provide better categories or descriptions of books.

16 people found this helpful

A fabulously well done fantasy!

Any additional comments?

This book totally rocked! And also sucked (in a good way)! I know, that doesn’t sound right…but it does in my head.

When I first started reading The Girl of Fire and Thorns, I was shocked to discover pretty much in the very beginning of the book that the main character Elisa is getting married…like literally getting dressed for the big matrimonial event! I’ve read books where a girl was going to get married, or gets married later on, or even gets married in the beginning but quickly thereafter the marriage ends, but Elisa actually gets married in the very beginning of a YA book! Like for real! And it was an arranged marriage because of her royal status. I was shocked! Can you tell? And I was immediately so intrigued about where this story was going to go, that I was stuck!

But it wasn’t just the beginning of the book that had me intrigued to keep on reading; I also think Rae Carson did a fabulous job creating a totally compelling main character, Elisa. We are basically informed in the very first scene of The Girl of Fire and Thorns that Elisa is overweight. But I was determined to discover “how” overweight she was. And being in Elisa’s head was very entertaining. Her whole thought process and her perception of everything going on around her was very fun. It was a lot of fun watching Elisa grow on the inside and shrink on the outside. Wait…did I say that? Spoiler! And then her obsession with food and all the times she would get hungry was just hilarious! OH! And the one thing that I discuss the most with everyone after I read this book is…the Godstone! I had a really hard time picturing this stone that’s imbedded into Elisa’s stomach, and all I kept thinking about was those Troll Dolls that have a jewel in their stomach. Boy was that distracting. Oh! And I can't forget that kick butt scene her nurse did out of no where! You've got to read it to see what I mean.

I’m not even going to dive in to the whole love interest thing because that could possibly be a major spoiler! Or maybe not…

Not only was this book fun and entertaining to read, but there were some pretty crazy things happening throughout the book as well. It’s not very far into the story when there is a big plot twist and then everything changes in Elisa’s life. It was awesome! And then there is the tragedy(ies)! Yep!!! I cried a couple times in this book.

Pretty much everything that happened in this book was unexpected, but I for sure didn’t expect that it would end the way it did, and I started The Crown of Embers the very moment I finished The Girl of Fire and Thorns.

13 people found this helpful

I bought it for the narrator

What would have made The Girl of Fire and Thorns better?

I think teenagers would really like this story, It wasn't for me. I bought it because of Jennifer Ikeda.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

The story was detailed and the characters developed. I just couldn't stick with it. I tried a couple times.

What does Jennifer Ikeda bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

She is one of my top three narrators!

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

Detailed story.

Any additional comments?

For me, it was immature.

12 people found this helpful

Worth a listen

I took many of these reviews to heart, but decided to give this a listen anyway.
I think the underlying message about body image is, in the end, positive, mostly because her sense of self and worth by the end is no longer manifested in how she views and treats her body. It becomes a tool, as she becomes a tool. There is a subtle but telling foil of those that love her because her appearance has changed, and those that have loved her through the process of her becoming a humble, flawed, and powerful ruler, completely apart from what she does or doesn’t look like.
I enjoyed the Iberian undertones, and there was a fun little nod to liberation theology as well. It’s a religion that resembles a real one more than others I’ve seen in YA fantasy, but in treating it as just that—fantasy, metaphor—I didn’t find it as distracting as I expected to, given the other reviews.

6 people found this helpful

Do Not Read!

What did you like best about The Girl of Fire and Thorns? What did you like least?

I hated this book. It was very boring.

What was most disappointing about Rae Carson’s story?

The main girl never did anything, she would just go around being mad and fat.

Which character – as performed by Jennifer Ikeda – was your favorite?

I don't have one.

Did The Girl of Fire and Thorns inspire you to do anything?

No.

Any additional comments?

No.

5 people found this helpful

Why was it SO LONG!!!

Is there anything you would change about this book?

Yes. I would have had an editor do a better job. It was far too long.

Which character – as performed by Jennifer Ikeda – was your favorite?

They were all fine. But it was odd that she would slip characters before that character was done speaking. For example, Conde Trevino would be talking, and wham, there's the Elisa voice. However, it was still Conde Trevino's words. It was very confusing. There was a director involved, they should have caught this.

Any additional comments?

Just not exciting enough for me. It could have been though. Too long. Needed more action.

5 people found this helpful