Review: I wish it was longer
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 03 9, 2013
If you haven't read A Girl of Fire and Thorns, I would recommend reading it first. I was glad I had read both it and Crown of Embers before reading this as the portrayal of Elisa might make you think you wouldn't like her in the full-length books. This story is from Alodia's perspective, and she certainly has a limited view of her sister, at least initially. I understood that the point was to show her view develop into a more positive one, but I'm not sure the story does that very successfully. Alodia's changed view is noted, but the explanation for the change wasn't that convincing to me as a reader. It was too rushed. The title is also a bit disappointing as I thought it would be about something a bit more exciting than it turned out to be. The true mystery/curse wasn't really explained fully - I just kind of made a guess about what was being done to the land. It felt a bit like a hint that was dropped. Maybe some of this will come into play in book three? It just felt like an unfinished, not fleshed-out story idea. Nice to read because of the tie-in to characters that I love, but it didn't feel like it added a lot to the story world for me. Other writers, such as Lauren Oliver, who have provided short stories from their story universes, are better at crafting a satisfying short story. Given the length and quality of this story (about 70% of the Kindle file for it is actually the story - the rest is excerpts from the novels), I don't think three dollars is a fair price. A dollar would be better.