Ignite (The Phoenix Flame book 1) by Kara Swanson

Young Llama Thoughts
  • Adventurous
  • Christian Friendly
  • Easy Reading
  • Humerous
  • Youth Appropriate
Overall
1.3 Llamas

Review

I despise this book… I got it simply because I really enjoyed the Neverland series by this author. (And the cover was pretty cool looking) But when I started reading it, I pretty much gave up chapter 1… (Soooo glad I got it from the library, can’t wait to throw this one in the return bin)

This book is about Mara, a young women who is part of the phoenix race that has fiery blood in their veins. And in a world of ice and ruin where the sun is dying out, that blood is valuable. So when her flock rests to heal their wounds, Mara is stuck awake since she can not control her fire. But when her people mysteriously vanish, Mara will have to trust the very kind who sell her blood… The Hollows… But maybe these “humans” aren’t the villains she thought. And maybe her people aren’t the victims she was lead to believe…

Sounds interesting right? A little dark, yeah there’s mention of blood, but overall I thought the book would be a pretty interesting sci-fi… Wrong! It is a VERY dark, kind-of gross book. The plot line is pretty straight forward, find her family. But the mysteries in the novel have kind-of dark endings. The world is written ok, and the characters are fine; but this is a Christian novel that just feels way to dark.

It’s violent. Like really violent. I thought the whole fire blood thing would be brought up here and there… Also wrong! Every other page there is blood! Whether it’s an injury, or a fight scene or people who harm themselves, it comes up continuity. Also, the book is not uplifting. It is dark and gets darker. To spoil it for you, Mara had her wings “took” from her. And every-time they grow back, her father taught her how to “take” them again. And at the end of the book, she finally gets her wings back to then have them sawed from her by these phoenix’s who think their gods and then they throw her in a volcano so they can live forever off her life fire… And she is still alive, because there will be a book 2… Yeah that chapter was majorly dark. And gross and disturbing… The talk of muscles, bones and blood is nauseating by itself, but add in the dark theme of the book and then it’s just too much.

Overall, I am glad I read it. Now it’s out of my system and you all are aware of this books issues. It didn’t feel like a joyful, Christian book. It felt like a book of darkness and nightmares… Aren’t you all glad that my website exists so you don’t have to read this junk?!?! -The Young Llama Reader.

Pros

  • The cover is nice? (Kind-of don’t have any pros…)

Cons

  • Violent and dark…
  • No happy ending…
  • Not a good read…

In a frozen wasteland suffocating beneath a dying sun, Mara is a young phoenix raised by her father to explode at his command. He’s the only one who can help her control her fire, and Mara desperately follows his orders to protect their phoenix family from relentless human hunters.

Her sheltered existence is shattered when her family mysteriously vanishes, thrusting Mara into a perilous quest to find them. Along the way, she unravels a devastating truth: her people may not be the innocent victims she’s been taught to believe.

When she comes face-to-face with the kindhearted Eli, she begins to wonder if the humans aren’t the monsters she’s always feared. What if the greatest danger doesn’t lie in the icy world outside—but in the truth of who Mara really is?

Fire and ice collide in this thrilling tale of a phoenix girl born with the power of a dying sun

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