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A review by loang
The Flames of Hope by Tui T. Sutherland
2.0
Rating: 4 out of 10
If I close my eyes and concentrate very hard, I can almost believe this was just a late April Fools’ joke and the actual book is going to come out any day now.
What a disappointment.
If you want to enjoy this book, I’d say just don’t go with any expectations whatsoever. Because all those things you think are going to happen and are so excited about? Nah. They just don’t.
The thing about this book is that nothing that does happen in it is necessarily bad, it’s what doesn’t happen that bothers me so much. Blue is almost nonexistent in this book, Luna doesn’t use her flamesilk for anything more useful than making lights, and worst of all, there’s no big battle at the end! (there is a battle, but it happens pretty much off-screen and doesn’t last that much). It’s all just too easy!
It wasn’t all bad, though. I enjoyed the bits about the Scorching, some of the new characters (love you Dusky), the friendship between Luna and Cricket, etc. The overall idea for the book was good: it just wasn’t right for the ending of this arc.
And I think that’s my main problem with The Flames of Hope: it’s not a bad story, but it is a bad conclusion. It doesn’t tie up any loose ends and at times it just pretends that previous books or characters never existed or had any relevance at all. For example, while Freedom’s (who was just recently introduced) character arc was great, Wasp (who was the main villain for the first half of the arc) didn’t even have a proper ending to her character (she was literally just sent to jail. Offscreen. It still hurts to think about).
This arc was decidedly the messiest Wings of Fire’s ever had. The first three books established a clear plot, villain, and objective, but then the fourth one came out and it seemed like one very long spin-off. I enjoyed it, though, despite the fact that I knew it would only further complicate things for the arc going forward. And turns out I was right! ‘Losing’ that book really took a toll on the overall arc quality; the ending was rushed and did a terrible job at closing any previous plots.
And now here’s the part where, despite everything I’ve talked about, I explain how excited I am for the next arc anyway. Because I can’t stop myself.
But really, this is just Darkness of Dragons all over again. All I can hope for is that these disappointing arc endings don’t end up becoming a habit.
If I close my eyes and concentrate very hard, I can almost believe this was just a late April Fools’ joke and the actual book is going to come out any day now.
What a disappointment.
If you want to enjoy this book, I’d say just don’t go with any expectations whatsoever. Because all those things you think are going to happen and are so excited about? Nah. They just don’t.
The thing about this book is that nothing that does happen in it is necessarily bad, it’s what doesn’t happen that bothers me so much. Blue is almost nonexistent in this book, Luna doesn’t use her flamesilk for anything more useful than making lights, and worst of all, there’s no big battle at the end! (there is a battle, but it happens pretty much off-screen and doesn’t last that much). It’s all just too easy!
It wasn’t all bad, though. I enjoyed the bits about the Scorching, some of the new characters (love you Dusky), the friendship between Luna and Cricket, etc. The overall idea for the book was good: it just wasn’t right for the ending of this arc.
And I think that’s my main problem with The Flames of Hope: it’s not a bad story, but it is a bad conclusion. It doesn’t tie up any loose ends and at times it just pretends that previous books or characters never existed or had any relevance at all. For example, while Freedom’s (who was just recently introduced) character arc was great, Wasp (who was the main villain for the first half of the arc) didn’t even have a proper ending to her character (she was literally just sent to jail. Offscreen. It still hurts to think about).
This arc was decidedly the messiest Wings of Fire’s ever had. The first three books established a clear plot, villain, and objective, but then the fourth one came out and it seemed like one very long spin-off. I enjoyed it, though, despite the fact that I knew it would only further complicate things for the arc going forward. And turns out I was right! ‘Losing’ that book really took a toll on the overall arc quality; the ending was rushed and did a terrible job at closing any previous plots.
And now here’s the part where, despite everything I’ve talked about, I explain how excited I am for the next arc anyway. Because I can’t stop myself.
But really, this is just Darkness of Dragons all over again. All I can hope for is that these disappointing arc endings don’t end up becoming a habit.