Four Reasons Why I Love Rae Carson’s The Girl of Fire and Thorns Trilogy

If I have recommended books to you in the past several months, there’s a very high likelihood that Rae Carson’s The Girl of Fire and Thorns was one of them.  And with the release of the trilogy’s final installment, The Bitter Kingdom, I’ve taking my raving to a whole new level the past couple of weeks.  This series is just so good, and I cannot say enough good things about it.

The series focuses on Elisa.  Elisa is a princess, and also the bearer of a Godstone – a stone embedded in her navel that shows she is marked by God to do some great service in her world.  But mostly, Elisa is the fat, awkward, younger sister, continually at odds with her perfect older sister.  And then she is married off to a neighboring king, and leaves for a new life in the desert country of Joya d’Arena.  There, Elisa is swept up into politics, rebellion, and war, where her prodigious intelligence and her compassionate heart stand her in good stead.  But she also discovers true friendships, true loves, and her own power and strength.  The first book of the series, The Girl of Fire and Thorns, focuses on Elisa’s personal journey into strength and power.  The second book, The Crown of Embers, delves more into politics and Elisa’s struggles as queen of Joya d’Arena.  And The Bitter Kingdom…well, The Bitter Kingdom has it all.  Elisa growing in strength, action and adventure, war, politics, personal growth, romance, friendship.  All three books are wonderful, but The Bitter Kingdom has cemented this trilogy’s place as truly great fantasy, and one of my favorite series.

There are tons and tons of rave reviews of The Girl of Fire and Thorns series online.  And if I tried to write one, it would probably devolve into more nearly-incoherent raving like above.  So instead of doing a full review, I’m going to tell you about four of the many (MANY) reasons I love this trilogy.

1.)  Elisa is fat.  And the way this is portrayed is, I think, wonderful.  At the beginning of the series, Elisa is self-conscious about her size, sedentary, and has an extremely unhealthy relationship with food.  But by the end of the first book, and even more as the series progresses, this has changed.  Forced physical activity helps Elisa grow strong and active.  And as she gets stronger and more confident, her relationship with food changes.  But here’s the thing – yes, Elisa loses weight.  Yes, she stops eating her feelings.  Yes, she gains some physical abilities she didn’t have before.  But at the end of the series, she’s not a skinny girl.  She’s still chubby and curvaceous.  She still loves sweet foods.  But her relationship with food and her body has improved immeasurably.  I loved that this book shows us a heroine who learns to love and embrace her body and her physicality without transforming her into a skinny girl who stops loving her favorite foods.  (Not that there’s anything wrong with skinny girls or liking different foods…it’s just not particularly realistic, and sends a seriously wrong-headed message to readers.)

2.)  #GoodGuyHector.  Hector is one of Elisa’s first friends in Joya d’Arena, and her eventual love interest.  And he’s a good guy.  And not part of a love triangle.  And not a “bad boy.”  And not forbidden to Elisa in some way.  Yes, I’ve read books where love triangles and bad boys and forbidden loves work really well.  But they are all way overused plot and character devices, and it was a breath of fresh air to read this love story.  Hector is an upstanding, hardworking man.  He is Captain of the King and Queen’s guard in Joya d’Arena, and is outstanding at his job.  He is loyal, brave, and always, always, respectful of Elisa.  He is never threatened by her power, never irrationally angry at her, and he never tries to create drama.  Their love story is realistic and engaging.  Not once did I have any desire to smack either of them because of how they interacted with and treated each other (a common problem when I’m reading a lot of love stories).  And their love story was really, really good.  It was engaging and heartwarming and sexy and made me melt into a puddle many times over.

3.)  Not everyone is white.  Actually, most of the main characters are explicitly not white.  And reading a wonderful, successful YA fantasy series featuring a cast of a variety of races and ethnicities, primarily non-white, was awesome.  There’s really not much else to say about this, it’s just fantastic.

4.)  Plot, Character, World-Building.  No, I’m not going back on my word and delving into a real review here.  What I’m getting at is the perfect balance of all these elements.  The Girl of Fire and Thorns trilogy is fast-paced and exciting, with intricate and fascinating plotting.  But the plot never gets in the way of the development of characters and their relationships – the two are perfectly wed.  The character development is under-stated and realistic enough to not take over.  And the world-building is excellent, without being boring and info-dumpy.  Carson manages to meld these three integral parts of good fantasy into a perfectly balanced and perfectly wonderful trilogy.

As I said, there are many more reasons I love this trilogy, and I will gladly talk your ears off about them.  But I hope I have convinced you to go out and read the books yourselves.  Then we can rave about them together!