Once upon a time, I used to write armature book reviews. I am a book lover at heart, though I have reading spurts. Sometimes those reading spurts are organic, and other times I force it. This is me forcing it. Fair warning, I read this first book, Bright Smoke, Cold Fire by Rosamund Hodge over a year ago. Fortunately, most of what I read is still fresh in my mind.
Rosamund Hodge is one of my favorite authors. If you read my last review of her books, Cruel Beauty and Crimson Bound, you saw how I gush about her prose. Hodge has a classic writing style that is easily read. If you never perused her books before, I would suggest reading Cruel Beauty or Crimson Bound first before cutting your teeth on Bright Smoke, Cold Fire.
The Bright Smoke, Cold Fire series is based off Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. (I hear the distant groaning of Shakespeare haters). Fear not, if you like slightly challenging prose yet hate the classics responsible for a good deal of the English language and pithy clichés, then this book is for you.
The setting is not the fair city of Verona, but in a place called Viyara. I get a sense this is the past of an alternate dimension. Juliet is a name handed down to a special woman raised to protect the Catresou family. To help curb the tide of revenants, a special sect of sisters sacrifice people to strengthen the walls that protect the city. Time is running out for the city where all the special walls and sacrifices will not save it from being overrun and attacked by revenants and reapers.
In the book, Juliet has not gained her birthright of being The Juliet when she meets Romeo from the rival Mahyanai family. The two fall in love and try to discover the truth of the revenant matter before Juliet gains the mantel of her fate. My personal rule of thumb is to give the book at least three chapters before making any judgements. For Bright Smoke, Cold Fire, I would recommend reading the whole book. Readers should be lenient on first books in a series as these books are building a world and characters for the readers. The more different a world is, the longer a writer takes to establish the intricacies of the world. The book is a page turner in the middle when the reader amassed serious questions about the city and people of Viyara. Hodge gives the reader enough answers to birth more questions and the book does end tragically on a cliffhanger. Given the play the book is based, I thought the end of the first book was the actual end until I saw the second book on goodreads.
Fair warning: The second and last book in the series, Endless Water, Starless Sky, is mostly depressing. Given what readers learn in the first book and the fate of Juliet and Romeo, everything looks very bleak, especially the fate of Viyara. Our heroes still try to save the city in big and small ways through most of the book. Souls are not crossing over to the afterlife meaning more loved ones are returning as revenants. Juliet is enslaved and Romeo is dealing with tremendous guilt.
Personally, I found the second book hard to read. This maybe the first time I liked the first book better. For Bright Smoke, Cold Fire, the book picks up in the middle. Endless Water, Starless Sky – at least for me – picked up in the last third of the book. I understand she wanted this second book to be extra dramatic like Romeo and Juliet. (Teenagers such as Romeo and Juliet can be extra dramatic at times especially in the face of adversity from their families and the end of the world – though, in this case, understandable). At times, reading the book was like trudging through thick mud. The last line broke my heart to write, yet it is my truth. Perhaps, I am oddly adverse to excess drama.
Hodge stayed true to the famous Shakspearian Tragedy with standard elements of Greek plays and high Elizabethan-ish teenage drama. At least she did not pull a Disney’s the Little Mermaid and turn a classically tragic ending into a completely inappropriate happy ending – Hans Christian Anderson must still be rolling in his grave. The ending of this book was more like a compromise between tragedy and happy.
While my surprising aversion to super Drama made my feelings for the second book lackluster at best, my feelings do not stop me from wholeheartedly recommending these books to lovers of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, super dramatic books, and Shakspearian Tragedies.
Past Book Reviews
What common sense? 