FIRE AND BONE by Rachel A. Marks – Review

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Fire and Bone by Rachel A. Marks
Series: Otherborn #1
Published by Skyscape on February 20 2018
Genres: Young adult, Urban fantasy
Pages: 413
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
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The nitty-gritty: A great mix of contemporary urban fantasy and old-fashioned mythology, with a snarky teen character who won me over.

A few years ago I had the pleasure of reading Rachel A. Marks’ debut, Darkness Brutal, and I was very happy to meet her at San Diego Comic Con sometime after that. Rachel was so nice and I remember her daughter was with her and she had really cool hair. (The things you remember, right??) When she contacted me and asked if I’d like to read her latest, I immediately said yes. Fire and Bone was such a page-turner and a great start to a new series, and I can honestly say that I’m really looking forward to the next book. If you’re a fan of Cassandra Clare’s The Mortal Instruments series, you’ll probably love this book.

Sage is a down-on-her-luck homeless teen, living on the streets of Los Angeles after having finally escaped the foster system. Life is pretty rough, she’s skin and bones and has to beg for food, but it’s her life and she’s making all her own choices. Until the fateful Halloween night that her friends Ziggy and Star drag her to a swanky party across town and give her something strange to drink. Suddenly, Sage finds herself living a completely new life, with a new identity, new responsibilities, and worst of all, the power to conjure fire. According to her new “friends,” Sage is an Otherborn, a demigoddess descended from the goddess Brighid, and her appearance in this world could tip the balance of power among the five houses of the Penta. A demigod named Faelan is assigned to train Sage and help her adjust to her new powers, in preparation for the Emergence ceremony, when Sage must choose which house to stand behind.

But another demigod named Kieran has his sights set on winning Sage over to his house, Morrígan, and he’s playing dirty in order to make that happen. Sage is caught between the annoyingly attractive Faelan and the dangerous Kieran, who she finds herself drawn to against her will. And on top of all the confusion about her shiny new life, Sage is having disturbing dreams that she doesn’t understand. With the date of her Emergence ceremony drawing closer and closer, Sage must see past the drama and figure out where she belongs, before someone gets hurt.

Fire and Bone is told in several first person narratives, mostly from the POV of Sage and Faelan (with a couple of Kieran chapters thrown in here and there), and Marks’ present tense prose gives the story a sense of urgency that I loved. Sage is a great character. Her driving motivation in all this is that she wants to choose for herself and live the life she wants, not the life that Faelan, Kieran and the rest want for her. Unfortunately, her status as a demigoddess comes with some big responsibilities, which she fights against for a big chunk of the story. It was this feisty spirit that grew on me. I actually wanted Sage to turn her back on her destiny as a magical being and go back to the streets! )Although I guess that wouldn’t be such a great story to read.)

And of course, because this is YA, there is romance aplenty, or at least the possibility of romance. I knew that Sage and Faelan would develop feelings for each other, but there are also several other romances brewing in the background. Kieran is obsessed with Sage, Faelan has a crazy ex who won’t leave him alone, and Sage herself seems torn between Faelan and Kieran at times, although her “feelings” towards Kieran appear to be something she can’t control. There is an odd way that the demis “feed” off each other. Through touch, they can draw out another’s essence, which can be dangerous if it isn’t controlled. (There’s that word again!) There’s a sexual overtone to the process of feeding which I actually enjoyed, although depending on the age of the reader it might not work.

One of Rachel’s biggest strengths is her dialogue. I could read it all day, it’s that funny. In fact, she would be great at writing screenplays or teleplays because she has the teen generation down to a T. Sage spends the first half of the book in denial, trying to figure a way out of the mess she’s found herself in. All she wants is to be normal, and even living on the streets sounds better than being a demigoddess and embracing a completely new lifestyle. And so her snarky attitude was hysterically funny, because it takes a while for it to sink in that she’s a demigoddess, with a weird power to draw fire from her body and burn things.

There is a lot going on in this story. Marks’ world-building is vivid, and I loved the way she combines Irish mythology and supernatural creatures, but it does tend to get a bit overwhelming at times. In addition to the gods, goddesses, demigods and demigoddesses, there are pixies, vampires, druids, witches and more. Each of the five houses of the Penta represents a different element, and that is how they get their powers. Faelan’s gains his strength through plant life, and while it’s very difficult to kill a demigod, when Faelan is gravely injured at one point he must go into “hibernation” with a pixie in order to recover. I sort of had a hard time wrapping my head around this idea, especially when Sage catches him (literally) in bed with a pixie and gets jealous. And on top of all this are Sage’s dreams, which hearken back hundreds of years before and explain the origins of what’s happening in the present day. By the end of the story I understood what the dreams meant, and it’s pretty cool, but it was confusing at first.

The other issue I had a bit of trouble with was the fact that Sage is literally a slave throughout most of the story. She’s made to wear a “torque” around her neck which reigns in her powers. It’s supposed to help teach her control, but the fact that the only person who can remove the torque is the one who put it on her rubbed me the wrong way. (And during the story she wears two different torques, both applied by men.) There’s also a slightly disturbing scene during one of Faelan’s chapters where he notices how beautiful Sage has become since she started feeding off him. When we meet Sage, she’s dirty, skinny, and her hair is a mess. But after a few weeks of hanging out with the Otherborn crowd, she’s suddenly got shiny hair, glowing skin, and best of all, her boobs have grown! I’m not sure this is the best message to send to young girls—feed off the essence of a cute boy and you can transform your looks!—although Sage certainly isn’t complaining about her upgrades!

But despite these issues I had a bunch of fun reading Fire and Bone. Marks ends on a huge cliffhanger which I wasn’t expecting, but one which thankfully gives Sage her power back (her metaphorical power, not her actual ability to set things on fire). I’m so curious to see what happens next, so sign me up for the sequel!

Big thanks to the author and the publisher for supplying a review copy.