Book Review: The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson

The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

On Elise's name-day, a shaft of light embedded a gem in her navel, marking her as the chosen one for her generation, picked by God to do great things. Elise is sure that God has picked the wrong person, until she begins to understand what her service will require of her. When war breaks out, Elise finds her purpose and realizes her potential.

What I found most interesting about The Girl of Fire and Thorns was that the protagonist is heavyset. The realism surrounding her weight--the discomfort of carrying that much extra flesh, people's reactions to her, her reaction to herself--is matched only by the realism of what it's like to suffer from a compulsive eating disorder. Elise begins the story with no sense of self, no self-esteem, and a real problem with food. She eats to comfort herself or because she's bored, completely ignoring the signs from her body that she's eaten too much. As the story progresses, she's forced by circumstances to lose the weight, and as her sense of purpose grows, her dependence on food lessens. Eventually, she's even able to joke about her former weight issue. I appreciated, also, that the circumstances did not involve her husband, Alejandro, locking her up and refusing to feed her or some other cruelty.

The mythology of the story is also very well-developed; it's based on medieval Mediterranean Catholicism with some interesting twists. A real sense of history permeates the culture, and Carson has included different denominations, tales of Godstone bearers who went before Elise, and several manuscripts based on the idea of the Godstone.

I also appreciated Carson's portrayal of Elise's relationship with men. Her husband, King Alejandro, is a weak and selfish, if charming, man, and Elise's reactions to him stay true to her character development. Once she realizes that he is not treating her well, she stops thinking of him as an object of desire and more as an obstacle to get around. Likewise, her relationship with another young man blooms naturally and with a minimum of mooncalfing. Generally, however, Elise does not need either of them, and becomes a fully realized human being on her own terms and through her own strength.

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