Book Review: Incendiary by Zoraida Cordova

First Thoughts:

This book is fast and high staked from page one. Setting is well written and easy to set into. The fantasy magics of the Moria and rebellion Whispers was unique. The only irritations I faced from the start was the main character, Ren(ata) who was one of those characters that is annoying with her "poor me, I'm such a terrible person and deserve no love or happiness - but I'm not going to do much about that other than wallow in my own pitty". She was all self-absorbed emotion with no thought to her surroundings, consequences, or others. Initially reminded me of Marie Lu's Young Elite series.

"Celeste San Marina dug a grave that night."

Writing:

With a comparison to other novels (such as above mentioned and SJM's Throne of Glass), this does not at all reflect on Zoraida Cordova's originality. She created a high staked SPANISH series that is beautiful, highly unique and intriguing. It is definitely on the younger scale of the young-adult genre. Cordova hooks you with an easy and smooth writing style. For this being a duology, she does a great job of developing her world building quickly without leaving too much room for error or open ended questions.

Plot:

The Moria are magically gifted civilians in this Spanish fantasy, outcasted by the kingdom rulers. The Whispers are the rebellion to this ruthless dominion, constantly hunted or used for his own terrible devices. These magics consist of the illusionari - those who can conduct illusions, persuari - those who can persuade other's by use of their emotions, ventari - those who can read the minds of others, and the robari - those who can steal the memories of others and the most rare.

There are many things that go on this book. Obviously you deal with the corrupt kingdom and the rebellions attempts to fight back, regain control, and just stay alive. You have our main character's grey. She is a robari who can remember every memory she has ever stolen but not much of her own. Figuring out her own missing memories and struggle to reign in her power is key to the story. The palace and its rulers secrets/interworkings is key #3. First we deal with the rebellion and all of Renata's insecurities. Quickly, we change routes and enter the lion's mouth itself after major happenings in the first 1/4 of the book.

Personally, I enjoyed the book more once we reached the 3/4 section of the book. The deep dive into the palace, rulers, and secrets was most interesting and I feel most thought out. There was just enough drama happening and the tension was high. I was waiting for covers to be bust open at any moment. Right at page 316, I was kind of losing my shit as I finally started to get where this book was going.

"This is what the king and his justice do. They twist the truth to make us out to be villains-the force behind all the raids and the scorched towns, the reason the kingdom is suffering."

P.S. the flamenco scene gave me so much life!!! The entire sSpanish representation was life itself for me!!!

Characters:

At the beginning, the characters fell extremely short for me. Renata was terrible and whiny. Half of her patrol group hated her, the other half didn't deserve her. They lost all their effect and meaning for the first half of the book. That being said, everything, and I mean everything picked up by the half-way point. The characters we were introduced to were more interesting and served more purpose. Therefore, my investment in everyone of them increased. Leo was the side character this book needed. By this point, Renata herself finally started to settle with me and lose the majority of all annoyance I originally felt towards her.

"I am the thing that everyone fears. The creature in the shadows, the warning whispered on lips across the entire court and kingdom."

Romance:

The romance we get is the driving source for Renata's journey. Her journey was self love and learning to let go of her notion that she was undeserving. We get romance at the beginning but it dies off about 2/4 of the way in. I feel like there will be struggle here in the next installment.

"'I know what it's like to lose your love, but you don't have to lose yourself along the way.'"

Overall:

This book was a bit iffy for me starting out. I had no thoughts of possibly not finishing it. I knew I was going to finish it. I just didn't expect me to like it as much as I did by the end. Although it was fast paced from the start, I didn't find myself desperate to flip as many pages as possible until the last quarter. I couldn't drink this book fast enough at that point. I am definitely excited to read its conclusion. I had been wanting to read from Zoraida Cordova since her debut but barely got around to it now. I am extremely glad I got to. She has made me a fan out of her from this book. The fact that she is a huge Latinx representative is even better. I loved the representation!!