Flame in the Mist

This book could have been so good! But unfortunately Renée Ahdieh just missed the mark on so many different parts of the book it became so lacklustre and disappointing for me. However, the ending was set up very well for the sequel so I ma intrigued!

You can read my full thoughts here: https://moonlitbook.blogspot.com/2019/09/the-flame-in-mist-by-renee-ahdieh-review.html

well, i was prepared to give this a 1/2 star rating until the very end, when i finally started caring about characters/plot/etc. and now will likely read the sequel... if, like the first book, i find a reasonably priced secondhand paperback copy at a local bookstore

my gripes with the writing remain. the constant stop and start of sentences, sentence fragments, and lack of detail in places i'd like there to be/too much detail in places i didn't want there to be made a great chunk of this book painful to read. additionally, i just could not bring myself to care about most of the characters for most of the book, which, on top of the lack of atmosphere/world-building, made it extra painful.

and yet? here we are with a three star rating because my chismosa ass ate up the last 100 pages. why couldn't the entire book have been like the last 100 pages? all that suffering for 300 pages and for why?

I am SHOOKETH.

This story was so good. I love the characters, the relationships, and the setting. I love Renee.

Mariko is an absolute BADASS. Definitely one of my favorite female characters. She undergoes such beautiful character development as well. I really love the message about feminism and women in this book too. It was so wholesome and I am always here for that.

The only thing keeping this from 5 stars is the unnecessary amount of similes and metaphors– just why? Why so many? So many are so unnecessary and there are times when you get hit by like 3 or 4 in a row. Literally.

The ending has me shook. I'm screaming. As soon as I possibly can, I'm going to get the second one and sob as I finish it. I'm just so connected to these characters now.

All great opportunities in life follow some form of struggle.

I enjoyed this book. It had a bit of everything needed in a YA novel. It wasn't heavy on fantasy or romance, but had a mix of everything. The one thing that was mentioned over and over again was the way women were treated and how they were expected to conform to the norms set by the society. This did not just hold true for the Feudal Era setting of the book, but works for the current time period too. So everytime Mariko mentioned the way people expected her to behave because she was a girl, really made my blood boil because I've heard all of those things myself.

So 5/5 for the plot since it's about a woman trying to break free of the mold that society expects her to fit into.

Characters were good. I liked the main trio. The writing was good because I liked the way the author changed the POV whenever needed to show another part of the story to give us a bigger picture of all the scheming behind the plot.

I especially enjoyed how much this book made me want to watch anime again because of the Japanese setting and the terms used throughout the story.

But like, could it have ended on any more of a cliffhanger?!

One extra star for the plot twist, otherwise this would've been a 1★.

There's just TOO MANY incorrect usage of Japanese for me to enjoy this book thoroughly, not to mention the gap between Mariko's image in people's eyes and her actual personality. Everyone keeps saying she's smart and clever, while in reality she tends to be dumb, opens her mouth when she shouldn't, and miscalculates a lot of things.

First of all, there's a glossary in case you are not familiar with Japanese terms. But a lot of the terms listed there are not exactly correct. Here's a few examples:

anate—the command for “fire,” as in “to fire an arrow

HA

boro—patchwork fabric worn by maidservants and peasants

honshō—true

sumimasen—thank you

It's when Mariko lost her virginity to some irrelevant boy to make a statement that her body is hers, and it is her choice what to do with it. In feudal Japan, an umarried woman's virtue is a huge deal so what she did would only bring disgrace to her family. Especially since Mariko is from a warrior family. Women in this era were raised with that in mind, so no one in their right minds would bang some random guy just because IT IS HER BODY SHE CAN DO WHATEVER. That mentality does not exist in that time and place, sorry.

Di usianya yang baru 17 tahun, Mariko dikirim ke istana imperial untuk bertemu dengan tunangannya, putra Kaisar namun bukan pewaris tahta. Tapi, di tengah jalan konvoi Mariko diserang oleh klan hitam, yang disewa untuk membunuh Mariko sebelum dia sampai di istana. Berhasil bertahan hidup, Mariko hampir tidak berhasil kabur dari hutan, di mana dia merencakan pembalasan dendamnya. Berpakaian sebagai laki-laki, dia memutuskan untuk menyusup ke dalam Klan Hitam dan memburu mereka yang bertanggung jawab dalam memburunya.
Akhir2 ini lebih sering kecewa dengan YA fantasy, namun pembuka seri ini sungguh membuat ketagihan. Aku menyukai duologi Miss Ahdieh sebelumnya. seri The Wrath & The Dawn, dan seri keduanya ini justru lebih bagus & seru dibanding yang pertama.
Aku suka bagaimana hubungan antara Mariko & Okami, tdk terkesan insta-love atau terburu-buru seperti Shazi & Khalid. Aku suka dunia samurai yg digambarkan oleh penulis. serta tokoh2 yg diciptakan.

3 stars! This book was like a better version of Robin Hood and Maid Marian- with samurai and lies and secrets.

There were multiple povs, which I would usually find very off-putting in a book- but I found it great in this book. I also now have a desperate need for book two- which comes out this year!
In the meantime, I'll just read everything else the author has written, Lol.

I Buddy Read this with Amanda, and I'll be putting a review for it soon on my blog: https://bookswithnoel.blogspot.com/

“Flame in the Mist” is the first in a duology, written by Renee Ahdieh. The novel follows a Japanese, seventeen-year-old, named Mariko who was raised one purpose and one purpose only: to marry. On her way to her betrothed, her journey is cut short when Mariko's party is savagely attacked by the Black Clan, which is a dangerous group of outlaws who have been hired to kill Mariko before she reaches the palace. As a survivor of the attack, she dresses as a peasant boy to infiltrate the Black Clan.

The novel was interesting, and enjoyable. I thought Mariko was a strong character. There is romance in the novel, that was okay. The novel is not a Mulan Retelling! I gave the novel a 3/5 Stars.

Robin hood and Mulan (with a twilight obsession) in Japan.

This was a dnf. It sounded great, but I couldn't stand the main character. How is a princess, that has never fought in her life able to infiltrate a clan of scoundrels?... How does she magically know how to wield a knife. She gets way too lucky. Maybe I'm getting too old for YA novels. This was just ridiculous.

Flame in the Mist most closely resembles Rurouni Kenshin fanfiction, except for some samurai anime I didn't watch.
Mariko is the super special Mary Sue. Her twin is an awesome samurai, her betrothed is an awesome samurai, and the two hot guys she ends up hanging out with are awesome ronin. In a story of samurai, she single handedly invents the ninja. Seriously, she invents the shuriken and smoke bomb in the span of a month.Pigeon Japanese is sprinkled throughout the dialog along with cultural trivia like what kind of socks they're wearing or tea ceremony in excruciating detail. The sort of thing you'd expect from fanfic.

THIS WAS AWESOME!!

Am I a bit biased because of this book being set in feudal Japan? Probably, but considering how well the author wrote it, I think it shouldn't matter. I am in such love with this book.

What to say about how much I loved this book...

Let's start with Mariko who seriously holds her own. I loved reading from her perspective and seeing how she stumbled with what she knew and ‘what she thought she knew' and also trying to be a boy. I loved how she was stubborn and intelligent– quick to learn and invent things. She is so cool. I didn't like how she kept blindly blaming her attempted murder on a group without evidence or even trying to find more evidence.... I get she was waiting, but it was getting frustrating.

The Black Clan was intriguing. At first I thought of them as an older group of thieves, but by the end of the book they seemed more like Peter Pan's Lost Boys (hahaha). Also Wolf? Honestly, so cool. I really do want to learn more about his power and how he received it. I do hope we also get more of the Black Clan and their leader.

On the topic of magic though, let me back up, I will say this is something I really wished the book delved into a little more. There are only two people in the book I truly know that have magic, but we don't know how magic works in this world or why they are the only ones with it. Also, the magic they use is very different. This was one of the only things I felt let down on, because I didn't understand it, but at the same time, that might be the point? I'm hoping we will know more in book #2.

Let me give a shout out to Kenshin real quick, who I really liked as a character, as well. I'm glad we got his POV occasionally, and I hope we see him redeem himself and become a better samurai.

I thought the plot was well written and, while it may seem slow looking back on it, this is a book so well written, so full of suspense, that I read every single paragraph wanting to absorb more, while also trying to read faster as I was dying to know what would happen next.

I would recommend this to people who don't mind a little fantasy in a historically placed fiction, to people who enjoy Japan culture, and (yes) people who like Mulan and Tamora Pierce– not just because of the gender-bending, but because of how the story is written around a girl wanting to be more than she is allowed to be.

After four years I decide to reread this book. And boy... Why did I do this?
I disliked the story even more than I did four years ago. I feel so bad about it, because I really wanted to like it! I really enjoy Ahdieh's other works.

This book just fell flat for me. The main character is annoying and keeps saying how amazing she is. Well, why don't you show it instead of talking about how great you are. It was repetitive.

The story itself lacked depth and it felt illogical at points. :c

I've waited to write this review to give myself time to digest the story and really decided what my thoughts were. Hopefully I'm able to accurately portray them now. Going into this book I had a whole lot of expectations. The two most prominent were the writing style and the retelling aspect. Renee Ahdieh has a unique writing style that was apparent in [b:The Wrath & the Dawn 18798983 The Wrath & the Dawn (The Wrath & the Dawn, #1) Renee Ahdieh https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1417956963s/18798983.jpg 26724902]. If you remember, I had a slight problem with what I would call her obsession with describing eyes of the characters. Now this book did not have the problem for me (now it is very possible it was still there, I just did not notice it with this book). As for the retelling, this was touted as a Mulan retelling. Now Mulan is my favorite Disney movie, both now and growing up, and I did not want to be disappointed with this book. Spoiler: I was not. As for the actual book it was incredibly enjoyable and I loved the pace and how the story progressed. I never felt like we were spending too much time going through backstory or world building. I loved watching Mariko's views on her family, the empire, and the Black Clan change and evolve and she learned more and became more independent. We got to see her grow as a person both physically as well as growing in her understanding of why people do some of the things they do and the motivation behind every person's actions and choices. For me the strength of this book was its characters. I loved Mariko and her band of “friends”. They each had a vital part to play in her journey through the forest as well as her personal journey learning who she truly is. The banter between Mariko, Okami, and Ranmaru was spot on and I loved how they relationships all came to fruition and we learned why past decisions had been made.That being said, this book left so many unanswered questions, is struggle to see how this can all be answered in only one more book. But I'm sure Renee has something up her sleeve. I cannot wait to see what happens with Mariko and the Black Clan going forward and how her family reacts to the decisions she made in this book.

4/5 stars “Be as swift as the wind. As silent as the forest. As fierce as the fire. As unshakable as the mountain.” You might be saying to yourself, “Wow? A review for Mist in the Flame? Didn't you promise to post this three weeks ago?” Actually, you aren't, but I'm going to pretend you actually care and are. Which I reply to you. Yes. I was. But I got lazy. It happens. But better late than never. First just a huge thank you for Penguin Teen sending me an arc of this book. You guys are the coolest. If there's any other arc you wanna send my way, please don't hold back. So now that I got all that out of the way. I just wanna say that this review isn't just a review. It's also my eulogy. Because this book actually killed me. R.I.P EmiJune 1998-May 2017.She died doing what she loves. Crying over fictional characters. I've been dead for three weeks and y'all didn't even notice. Rude. But I'm gonna forgive you if you pick up this book and join me here in the afterlife. This book is just so awesome? It makes me wanna run into the forest and join a group outlaws. Do they even exist anymore? Do they accept emotionally unstable introverts? If you like action, beautiful covers, girls who are better than you, and some other stuff, this book is just what you are looking for. It's also really informational? Before reading this, all I knew about Samurai is pretty much nothing and I learned so much about their history. obviously, I will never be an expert, but it's nice to read about a topic that isn't taught in schools very often. The writing is also so beautiful. [a:Renee Ahdieh 4600197 Renee Ahdieh https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1487663209p2/4600197.jpg] is establishing herself as a very consistent author which is great and all but she's also incredibly gorgeous so I'm very much intimidated by her entire life. [b:The Wrath & the Dawn 18798983 The Wrath & the Dawn (The Wrath & the Dawn, #1) Renee Ahdieh https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1417956963s/18798983.jpg 26724902] is still higher on my favorites list then this one, but this was a great follow-up to that series. So if you didn't know what this book is about. It's marketed as a Mulan meets 47 Ronin. I am unfamiliar on 47 Ronin, so I don't know how accurate that is. But the Mulan part. It's a pretty good comparison. However, if you are going into this book expecting the entire plot of Mulan conveyed using the English alphabet and paper, you are wrong. It's there, but this book is its own separate entity. At the beginning of this book, Mariko, who's father is this big bad Samurai, is being sent off to marry some dude she doesn't love. Pretty stereotypical. But when she was traveling to go get married off, her party is attacked and everyone dies. But she manages to get away. Mariko figures that this group called the Black Clan was responsible because they wanted to kill her. So, instead of running the opposite direction like any sane person would, she disguises herself as a boy and goes undercover in the Black Clan to figure out why the hell they wanted to assassinate her.I'll be honest. The first part of this book is kinda slow. There is just a lot of haning around, not doing much in the woods. But once you prevail into the last part, everything becomes worth it. Let's talk characters. Shall we? It's been awhile since I finished this book, so I don't remember too many details. But I'll try. Markio. Can I be her? I want to be her. She's better than you. My only complaint is that she's supposed to be like this mastermind with scientific stuff, but we don't get to see that a lot. Okami. I wasn't paying any attention to his character, to be honest. I didn't think he would be important. Then Ahdieh went in a direction I didn't expect with him and I regretted barely giving him a second glance. Don't be me. Appreciate him throughout the entire novel. Ranmaru. I'm gonna be honest with you. I kinda don't remember his character very much? He reminded me of Robin Hood though. Kenshin. He's Markio brother and he's kind of an asshole. But I'm not really surprised. But I did really love how much he loved his sister? But would your brother work as hard as he did to find you? He set the brotherly love bar really high. I'm thinking about disappearing to see if mine would. He probably wouldn't even know I was gone. In conclusion. This book is amazing and you should read it. Honestly, I don't know how you are reading this and just ignoring the beautiful cover. Except, is it a peacock or a phoenix on the cover? I just can't figure it out.

Actual rating: 2.5 stars, rounded up.