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Fire

(2009, Fiction - Fantasy, Written by Kristin Cashore)

  • Is it age appropriate?

    About our ratings

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    Not age appropriate for kids under 13, age appropriate for kids over 15; suggested age 15.

  • Is it any good?

    5.0

  • Common Sense says

    Stellar fantasy heroine in mature action-adventure/romance.

Themes in this book include:   family relationships, friendship, growing up

Why We Rated This on for Ages 15 and Up

The good stuff

  • Educational value:

    Not an issue.

  • Messages:

    At heart this is a tale of triumphing over adversity. Fire and Brigan, despite growing up in sumptuous conditions, overcome  tremendous adversity through their perseverance, belief in humanity, and willingness to sacrifice.

  • Role models:

    Fire has a level of resiliency and integrity that we would all love to see in our children. Despite being raised, literally, by a monster, she is loving, forgiving, brave and generous. She is drawn to her love interest by the same qualities present in him.
 

What to watch out for

  • Violence:

    In the first chapter, a young Graceling tortures small animals and murders his father, and then pretty much disappears from the book. Assassinations, war, bloody attacks, non-graphic rape, plots to murder enemies abound. Not a lot of blood and gore though -- mostly political intrigue. Fire has one violent secret in her past that comes to light. Many men are overcome by Fire's beauty and attempt to rape her; she can read their minds and violent intentions even if they do not get physically close to her. Reference is made to drugs used to prevent pregnancies or to end fertility in women; Fire herself is the product of a rape of a human female by a monster male.

  • Sex:

    Fire becomes intimate with her best friend Archer when she is 15. Infidelity is key to the love story and two minor characters become pregnant. One vague allusion to a brief love between Fire and a servant girl.

  • Language:

    Not an issue.

  • Consumerism:

    Not an issue.

  • Drinking, drugs, & smoking:

    Not an issue.
 

What Parents Need to Know

About Fire

Parents need to know that this book has some mature subject matter. There is some sex and some violence, including a young man who murders his father, rapes (barley described), and unplanned pregnancies. The royal family is made up of half-siblings, and Fire herself was fathered by a monster who used mind control over the King to enjoy acts of cruelty and depravity. There are no graphic sex scenes, however, there is much implicit sex in the story.  But the main story is about how Fire overcomes her history and realizes she can be the kind of person she longs to be, and doesn't have to repeat her father's actions.

Did this review help you decide?

Families Can Talk About

  • Families can talk about nature versus nurture: how much of a child's personality or personal qualities are unchangeable, and how much is up to the child?
  • What constitutes a family? The royal family is not technically all one family, and yet they love and support one another as if they were. What other examples are there of chosen families?
  • Would the beauty of a world with these "monsters" be worth the danger they bring?
  • Are people really susceptible to mind control?
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