Waking Fire

Title: Waking Fire

Author: Jean Louise

Genre: YA fantasy

Thank you, NetGalley, for this book.

I love a good YA high fantasy book, but I am very particular about them. They absolutely must have depth. Books like The Fifth Season trilogy, Shadow and Bone books, and the Bones to the Wind duology fit that bill. They all have well-thought-out plots, characters with depth and intelligence, and excellent world-building. Unfortunately, Waking Fire has none of those.

From Goodreads: Naira Khoum has only known life in Lagusa, a quiet village at the desert’s end. But to the rest of the world, Lagusa is a myth, its location shrouded in secrecy. While war rages to the north led by power-hungry Sothpike and his army of undead monsters called Dambi, Naira’s people live in peace.

Until the impossible happens—Lagusa is attacked by a Mistress sent to do Sothpike’s bidding with a hoard of Dambi under her control. The Mistress is looking for something, and she’s willing to let her Dambi destroy Lagusa to get it.

Desperate to protect her home, Naira convinces her twin brother Nez and handsome refugee Kal to join the newly formed resistance with her. Together, they’ll have to figure out what the Mistress wants—before there’s nothing left of Lagusa to save.

As much as I like Naira, she never really learned anything or changed. All the characters were static and one-dimensional. Even though this is a YA book, they were often more juvenile than necessary. The plot had potential, but it lacked any depth. The book starts with a bang but bizarrely abandons the first few scenes and hardly touches upon them in the book ever again. I gave this three stars, which was generous. I didn’t dislike it, but I also don’t want to read the sequel.