Allison

Unlike the some of the other reviewers, I actually enjoyed Fire more than Graceling. There are some big differences between these two books- they almost don't belong to the same series. However, I really liked Fire, the main character, because she wasn't as hot-tempered as Katsa. I really enjoyed the conflicts between the different parts of the Dells (the country). I found this book to be engrossing, exciting, and smoother overall than Graceling.

I took basic high school chemistry, but that's it. Although this book goes through a lot of background, I found that it was too technical for me to thoroughly enjoy. I did like all of the stories about elements being used throughout history, and I gleaned a lot of conversation starters from this book. However, when listening to this in the car, I had whole stretches of 15-20 minutes where I lost interest in the audiobook. There were some fun parts to this book, but I would recommend it to someone with a bit more chemistry background for it to be fully enjoyable.

I was definitely not expecting to enjoy this book. The description was all about drug lords and clones and such, totally not my cup of tea. I was pleasantly surprised! This is a strange but interesting book about a boy coming of age. He is shunned by most of the people around him and treated like an animal because he is the clone of a very affluent and influential man (who just happens to be a drug lord). You'll be entranced once you start reading this futuristic book.