A review by katielvk
For a Muse of Fire by Heidi Heilig
3.0
Not Quite There for Me
"For A Muse of Fire," by Heidi Heilig
I chose this book because the cover is gloriously beautiful, and because I wanted to switch up genres a little bit, having been mostly reading romance. And while there is a touch of romance in this one, it is the slowly unfurling petal of young love.
This book follows the journey of three shadow puppeteers, the Ros Nai: Jetta, the daughter, the puppeteer; Samrin, her father and singer; and Meliss, her mother and accompanist on flute and drums.
Following the Hunger Years, they travel to make money and hopefully play well enough to win the good graces of the king. But around them is war, famine, fear, and racism. And Jetta has a secret.
Never show, never tell.
The format of this book was very interesting, switching between stage direction formatting, telegrams for communication, letters, songs, and poems. The majority of the story was written as a normal book, but I thought the other formats were fun little sprinkles. I liked the story, but it didn't suck me into the world like I wanted it to. I didn't feel connected to Jetta, which could have just been because of the nature of YA post-apocalyptic/war novels, at least for me.
⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
"For A Muse of Fire," by Heidi Heilig
I chose this book because the cover is gloriously beautiful, and because I wanted to switch up genres a little bit, having been mostly reading romance. And while there is a touch of romance in this one, it is the slowly unfurling petal of young love.
This book follows the journey of three shadow puppeteers, the Ros Nai: Jetta, the daughter, the puppeteer; Samrin, her father and singer; and Meliss, her mother and accompanist on flute and drums.
Following the Hunger Years, they travel to make money and hopefully play well enough to win the good graces of the king. But around them is war, famine, fear, and racism. And Jetta has a secret.
Never show, never tell.
The format of this book was very interesting, switching between stage direction formatting, telegrams for communication, letters, songs, and poems. The majority of the story was written as a normal book, but I thought the other formats were fun little sprinkles. I liked the story, but it didn't suck me into the world like I wanted it to. I didn't feel connected to Jetta, which could have just been because of the nature of YA post-apocalyptic/war novels, at least for me.
⭐️⭐️⭐️/5