The Girl of Fire and Thorns

Once a century, one person is chosen for greatness.

Elisa is the chosen one. 

But she is also the younger of two princesses, the one who has never done anything remarkable. She can't see how she ever will. 

Now, on her sixteenth birthday, she has become the secret wife of a handsome and worldly king—a king whose country is in turmoil. A king who needs the chosen one, not a failure of a princess.

And he's not the only one who seeks her. Savage enemies seething with dark magic are hunting her. A daring, determined revolutionary thinks she could be his people's savior. And he looks at her in a way that no man has ever looked at her before. Soon it is not just her life, but her very heart that is at stake.

Elisa could be everything to those who need her most. If the prophecy is fulfilled. If she finds the power deep within herself. If she doesn’t die young.

Most of the chosen do. (from Goodreads)

This book was amazing. It was a historical fiction/fantasy, which you don't see a lot of in YA, and it was one that was well done. Really well done. It's the kind of well done that makes me give the whole paranormal contingent the stink eye. 

All YA paranormal writers of today should read this book and take a lesson from it. And I'm being serious. Because she got the one thing that so many writers today forget. As Gail Carson Levine put it, 'it takes a mean author to write a good book.'  And Rae Carson understands that. She has enough confidence in her MC and in her plot to make bad things happen. Laugh at me all you want for ranting about this, but it's true. The Hunger Games wouldn't be so popular if all that happened was Katniss sitting around, watching Prim die in the arena and hunting with Gale in the woods. I'll say it again: bad things make a good plot. That aside, there were so many other great aspects of this book.

Elisa herself was probably my favorite part of this book. First off, kudos to Carson for going a non-cliche route - she has dark skin in a kingdom of mostly fair-skinned people, and she's fat. Not your usual I'm-going-to-say-I'm-not-pretty-even-though-I-am-just-to-make-me-seem-humble main character. It's clear here that Carson has enough confidence in herself and her writing to get away from cliches and all that. It's also clear that I'm going to read her future books.

The whole Godstone mythology was pretty interesting, and even though it dragged down the plot at times, I liked it. The only thing that bothered me a little bit was the fact that Elisa wondered how her enemies could worship the same god she did, as though they were too unclean and savage for that. Most religions, at least the ones of today, want more people to worship with them, not the other way around.

The secondary characters were just as developed as Elisa herself, but very few fell into stereotypes. There were characters that turned around and surprised me, characters that grabbed my heart instantly, and characters that made me ache for them to turn around and undo their mistakes. There was such a diverse cast of characters, and I think that's what sets this book apart from its counterparts.

Will I be reading The Crown of Embers? OH HELL YEAH.