Review of Wildefire by Karsten Knight

Wildefire (Wildefire #1) by Karsten Knight

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Release Date: July 26th 2011

Pages: 393 (Hardcover)

Reading Level: Young Adult

Challenge: 100 Books in a Year, Debut Author Challenge

Source: Received ARC from author for honest review

Buy the Book: Wildefire

Ashline Wilde is having a rough sophomore year. She’s struggling to find her place as the only Polynesian girl in school, her boyfriend just cheated on her, and now her runaway sister, Eve, has decided to barge back into her life. When Eve’s violent behavior escalates and she does the unthinkable, Ash transfers to a remote private school nestled in California’s redwoods, hoping to put the tragedy behind her. But her fresh start at Blackwood Academy doesn’t go as planned. Just as Ash is beginning to enjoy the perks of her new school—being captain of the tennis team, a steamy romance with a hot, local park ranger—Ash discovers that a group of gods and goddesses have mysteriously enrolled at Blackwood…and she’s one of them. To make matters worse, Eve has resurfaced to haunt Ash, and she’s got some strange abilities of her own. With a war between the gods looming over campus, Ash must master the new fire smoldering within before she clashes with her sister one more time… And when warm and cold fronts collide, there’s guaranteed to be a storm.

My thoughts...

What a wicked book! The story revolves around gods and goddesses - something I hadn't read about before. I liked that Knight was able to write about an every day girl and then bring in the element of myth without it sounding too far fetched. Ashline is just as confused as the reader about all of this, which made it seem more realistic to me.

Also, I enjoyed the group of characters this story features. Rolfe, Raja, Ade, and Lily were all unique in their own ways, and it was interesting to find out their back stories. I felt like the author put a lot of work into developing each character in their own way.

I guess the downfall I had with this book was that I got confused at some parts. Like when Ashline finally started to figure out what was going on, I was still left in the dark. Maybe it's just me, but I wish the whole issue had been better explained... It felt like it sped by and I was left behind.

Knight's writing is intriguing and kept me reading. I wanted to find out what was happening, why it was happening, and who was involved.

In the end though, I was slightly disappointed. While there is a nice and surprising twist on the last page, I was still a bit confused about what had happened to those black oily creatures, and also the little girl in the jungle, and the fate of the whole group?? Hard to explain if you haven't read the book, and I don't want to spoil anything, but basically the ending left me confused. (If anyone's read this and feels like explaining it to me, please email me @ chloe.hope.bookie@gmail.com!!! I would really appreciate it!).

Overall...

I think the beginning and middle of this book were better than the end, where I feel everything was just quickly tied off. Still worth a read though, mainly for characters and myth!

4 birds

Chloe