Trial by Fire by
Josephine Angelini
Publisher/year: 2014
PanMacmillian
Genre: Fantasy/
Sci-fi
What’s it about?
Lily Proctor is
allergic to virtually everything, and growing up in Salem she’s never been able
to do the things her friends take for granted... which is why she’s determined
to enjoy her first (and perhaps only) high-school party. But Lily’s life never
goes according to plan, and after a humiliating incident in front of half her
graduating class when she wishes she could just disappear – she does.
Suddenly Lily is in a
different Salem- a terrifying new world where she is overwhelmed by new desires
and new experiences, and her weakness is replaced with extraordinary power. She
soon discovers that this world is ruled by dark and powerful witches, and that
the strongest and cruellest of all is LIlian... Lily’s identical other self in
this alternate universe. Trown into war she doesn’t understand, Lily is torn
between responsibilities she can’t hope to shoulder alone, and a love she never
expected.
But how can Lily be
the saviour of this world when she is literally her own worst enemy?
The Review
There comes a day when every girl loses the stars in her eyes. And then
she can see clearly.
This is Lily’s day.
Unlike the quote above
I can not exactly pin point when the stars in my eyes were lost while reading
this book but I can confidently guess that it had been somewhere in the
beginning. I’m strangely disappointed that I didn’t like this book and it’s not
because it was badly written or just plain horrible because it was none of the
above it just wasn’t for me I guess.
The story was weird
but interesting! I’ve always found witchy books to be AMALZING! (Yes I know it’s
spelled wrong, but doesn’t that just sound better?NO?OK) Witches are bad ass
and if they existed I think feminism would never even have played a role in our
society but alas they’re not real and feminism does exist. I digress. Witches!
Yes they are awesome but even though this book is set in two different Salem’s
and instead of witches being wrongly persecuted scientists and doctors were I didn’t
really get the whole witchy vibe.
This might be because
Trial by Fire was both a fantasy and a science fiction book and although I
admire the fact that Josephine tried something different the two just didn’t match.
The Setting:
The novel was set up in two different Salems but most of the story took place
in the second Salem after Lily, the main character, stupidly agreed to leave
her world for another because of a boy. Leaving behind her sister, Juliet, to
manage on her own with their sick mother. Sigh, I’ll get to them later! Anyway,
the first Salem was basically just a normal town in the 21st century
but the second... I have no idea where that was supposed to be and neither did
our protagonist. People were wearing gowns like kings and queens in the olden
days while there were genetically engineered monsters running about? Ok so the
monsters, also known as the Woven, weren’t created through science but still it
didn’t mesh well. The setting and the costumes almost made it seem like the author
wasn’t really sure what to do so she basically just did everything that popped
into her head. Uhm confused much? Because I am!
The characters:
Ahh Lilly. I don’t know where to start with this one. Our protagonist does have
some redeeming qualities but all through out the novel her childishness and
fragility worked on my nerves. Even when she lost the right to be called
fragile she still managed to hang on to the title of number one damsel in
distress which is not something I appreciated. I absolutely loathed her double Lillian
but at least she had some back bone. Lilly was described as stubborn but she
was almost stupidly stubborn and I honestly couldn’t deal! Over all I found it
hard to really connect with the characters. Most of the characters were very
one dimensional. If a character was bad you rarely saw any other side of them
which bothered me because as we all know people are rarely born bad and neither
are characters! It’s good to show both sides or just the origin of the assy-ness.
Am I wrong?
Romance: This
was not an ista-love kinda book which I appreciated but you pretty much knew
off the bat who Lilly would be falling for and as most YA love stories begin
for some reason it started out of a mutual fiery hate. Rowan, also known as Mr.
Love is the typical brooding but handsome love interest. This didn’t surprise
me at all and once the obvious chemistry, which was a tad bit forced, reached
its maximum peek their love was down right irritating. Edward and Bella anyone?
Sigh, and it started out so promising. (Bows head in defeat)
And if the love
between those two wasn’t forced enough they had to throw in a second Mr. Love
who is the double of Lilly’s best friend back in her own world. I suppose this
was made with the intent to have us thinking will they won’t they but it did
nothing of the sort. He could have just been a friend Josephine!
Final thoughts:
As I mentioned earlier guys I really did want to like this book but getting
through it was more like a chore than anything else I went back to reading the
first chapter of Fangirl simply for enjoyments sake. Trial by Fire had a very
interesting concept, I’m just bummed that it wasn’t carried out better. Because
this was the first book of the World Walker Trilogy there was way too much
explaining going on and the worst part is even after all the explaining I was
still scratching my head like what? The book wasn’t written badly though and I
do think that others might enjoy it a lot more than I did. I looked up a few
other reviews and some people were really into it so I guess this one is more
of a personal preference read. Sadly I will not be continuing with this
trilogy.
Who Should Read this Book?
This book is for people who like very
complicated worlds that don’t really care whether they make sense or not (the
characters are what they are after) and enjoy reading books where there is a
strong over arching love interest where you are teased until you basically want
to smash their faces together out of frustration. If you liked reading The Maze Runner by James
Dashner you will find the familiarity of the Woven quite comforting and you
will enjoy this book
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