Review: Firelight

Firelight by Sophie Jordan
Series: Firelight #1
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆

Marked as special at an early age, Jacinda knows her every move is watched. But she longs for freedom to make her own choices. When she breaks the most sacred tenet among her kind, she nearly pays with her life. Until a beautiful stranger saves her. A stranger who was sent to hunt those like her. For Jacinda is a draki, a descendant of dragons whose greatest defense is her secret ability to shift into human form.

Forced to flee into the mortal world with her family, Jacinda struggles to adapt to her new surroundings. The only bright light is Will. Gorgeous, elusive Will who stirs her inner draki to life. Although she is irresistibly drawn to him, Jacinda knows Will’s dark secret: He and his family are hunters. She should avoid him at all costs. But her inner draki is slowly slipping away;if it dies she will be left as a human forever. She’ll do anything to prevent that. Even if it means getting closer to her most dangerous enemy.

Mythical powers and breathtaking romance ignite in this story of a girl who defies all expectations and whose love crosses an ancient divide.

His black T-shirt is a second skin, plastered to his lean chest. In our shadowed cave, his wet hair looks nearly black. It could be lighter when dry. Medium brown or even a dark blond. But it’s his eyes that hold me. Deeply set beneath thick brows, they drill into me with a stark intensity, scanning me, all of me.

In that single moment we connected. Somehow it happened.

Oh, god save us all from insta-love.

The plot is dumb because the stupid little emo rhymes-with-itch main character, Jacinda, is dumb as shit. It essentially goes like this: special dragon-girl is special. She doesn’t want to be special, but can’t help it. She’s practically engaged to the prince of her people because she’s so special. She has to hide the fact that she’s a dragon (because people kill dragons, more specifically, Hunters kill dragons). I guess dragon parts are like rhinoceros horns, they’re aphrodisiac and shit, which is confusing because whenever I read about Jacinda interacting with her insta-love, I don’t feel turned on, I feel like puking. Despite knowing she has to hide, Jacinda breaks the rules, turns into a dragon and flies at dawn because SHE WANTS TO FEEL THE SUNLIGHT ON HER SKIN (no, really, that’s why she endangers her entire species). Her mom freaks out because she feels that her daughters are being raised in a dangerous cult and brings Jacinda and her non-dragon-turning twin sister Tamra into the Real World (not the MTV show). Tamra is happy. Jacinda is miserable and spends the rest of the book whining and being emo and a gigantic brat about how HER MOM’S RUINING HER LIFE. Like every single teenager ever. Oh, and she falls into insta-love with the one guy who’s part of theHunters (in case you guys don’t remember, Hunters are the ones who want to kill all the dragons and chop them up for parts).

Brilliant, right?

In case you guys didn’t get the drift from my introductory sentence, this book was fucking terrible. We’ve got the holy trifecta of YA idiocy. Insta love (see above), a speshul, speshul Mary Sue who’s SO DIFFERENT AND UNIQUE AND RARE!

I breathe fire. The only fire-breather in the pride in more than four hundred years. It’s made me more popular than I want to be.

Well, whaddya know, such a thing has never happened before in YA literature. Annnnnnnnnnd the final part in the holy trifecta of idiocy, falling in love with your enemy.

“Jace! You’re glowing!”
That jerks my attention back. I glance down at my arms. My skin blurs in and out, shimmering faintly, like I’ve been dusted with gold.
The draki in me stirs, tingling, yearning to come out.
“God, get a grip, jeez!” Tamra hisses, leaning closer. “You see a hot guy and start to manifest? Have some control.”

Who, is, of course, the most best wonderfulest most chastestest boy in the whole wide world who, naturally, remains completely pure and uncatchable until he *clasps my heart* sees her!!!1!one

“Well. Will…” A wistful smile curves her mouth. “He’s elusive. None of the girls here interest him.” She rolls her magnificent eyes and sighs dramatically. “Course that just makes us want him harder.”
Stupid delight flutters inside my chest.

So original. So surprising.

But yeah. This book is dumb. Have I said that before? I might have. There’s so much fucking insta-love.

But I still feel him. Yearn for him. Know he’s there even when I no longer see him.

FOR FUCK’S SAKES, YOU KNEW HIM FOR 30 SECONDS. For the rest of the book, Will is mentioned CONSTANTLY. How dreamy he is. How much she thinks about him. Their secret, unknown, impossible connection!

His words echo inside me. You should stay away from me. Something I already know, but sitting in the front seat of his car, I’m not quite succeeding at that. I wish I could. Wish I didn’t feel this pull, this constant tug toward him. Wish my draki didn’t revive around him.

Fuck me.

She does stupid shit to get herself in danger, like, oh, ALMOST SHOWING HER TRUE FORM AT HER HUMAN SCHOOL BECAUSE A BOY MADE HER PANTIES MOIST.

Even hunters don’t know draki manifest into human form. It’s been our most carefully guarded secret. Our greatest defense. And it’s not like I was unfurling my wings in the hallway. Not quite, anyway.

Oh, right, she only almost did it. So much better. Falling in love with the enemy is such a conflicting thing, isn’t it?

When it comes to Will, my feelings are terrible and confusing. To want him safely back one moment, but pray that whatever draki he hunts is safe and free in the next. The two wishes conflict.

Will is so wonderful. So caring that he finds out where she lives without her knowledge.

“It’s not hard to find out. Your address is on file in the school office.”
“You broke into the school office?”
“No. I know one of the office aides. She got me your address that first day.”
My first day. He’s had my address all this time.

So romantic! And there’s nothing better than forbidden love. Especially forbidden love of which Jacinda reminds us every, oh, 15 seconds.

Every moment with Will, I feel at risk, exposed. Danger hangs close, as tangible as the heavy mists I’ve left behind. And I can’t get enough of it. Of him. I crave his nearness still. Like a drug needed to survive, to get by each day. An addiction. A powerful, consuming thing.

The characters are so one dimensional. Jacinda really doesn’t give a shit about anyone but her wish to be a dragon and Will. Her relationship with her twin sister is flat. She ignores her mom. The side characters, like the kids in school, are just stereotypical portrayals, the bitch, the jock, the creepers. The entire book revolves around Jacinda, and god help us if any one else gets their own moment in the spotlight. Every single girl is portrayed poorly.

Don’t waste your time with this book.