Fire Review

 

I have finally finished the Engelsfors trilogy, one year later! 

Fire picks up some time after The Circle. It starts with Linnea's POV which was great as she's my favourite. At first, I got bothered that Ida didn't have a full chapter, but later on she had. I wanted to know more about her and we do get to see more of her life.

We get to know more about the circle's family lives - almost all bad except for Vanessa's- as well as more about magic and how it started.

The girls are getting more and more powerful but also more worried. There is a new evil in town...or two. It takes the shape of 'Positive Engelsfors' a sect like club where they preach that if only you are positive, everything will be well. A lot of people seem to be brainwashed. There is a plot twist as to who was behind PE.

In town arrive also Alexander and his son Viktor who are members of the Council and are investigating Anna Karin's breach to the three laws of the council.

The others seem to stick together, even Ida. Now Ida, was actually one of my favorites! I wanted to know about her because the person that appears more 'cold' usually has reasons, and seeing her family life you understand why. Her personal life isn't that great either. She supports Linnea when something happens. I think in the end, where I was shouting 'NOooooooo' she redeems herself for all her past bullying.

Vanessa was ever sweet and kickass especially with her friendship with Linnea. Her family life improves which is great and she also gets a new job which was hilarious.

Minoo and Anna Karin also develop their friendship further. Which I thought left Ida sidelined. Rebecka and Elias, although dead still play a part in the series.

Another point in the story which I felt wasn't just a sub-plot, was one character's feelings for another. This doesn't involve just the two of them but the others get involved.

Adriana and Nicolaus who both were trying to protect the girls, still continue to do so but Nicolaus left town after he got his memories and Adriana couldn't help them much with the council in town. The council's motto apparently is control over magic.

Overall, the writing was superb. It does multiple POVs justice and I realized that I cannot tell whether Mats or Sara are writing.

Libyrinth Review

This book was such an exquisite read! It's for Bibliophiles and very realistic.

It contains a lot of quotes that are very timely and make you want to read the other books- of which there is a list at the end.

It was interesting to read a bout the various cultures- they are so different but also complimentary. There are the people of the Libyrinth with value the written word and are equal in treatment of women and men. There is the Singers who value the song and are mostly patriarchal. And there are the people of Ilysies which like books but are also warriors and like the good life and are mainly matriarchal. Anthropologically this book is appealing. Even ebing so different, they had some things the same and this shows that the environmental context does affect culture.

It was interesting to see these cultures and that people look different. There is an Earth-culture element combined with new. It was also nice to see how there is no concrete bad vs. concrete good. Everyone and every group was not perfect, they all made mistakes. It was interesting to see how they all came together and in the end did not base their existence solely on old knowledge but strived to make up new knowledge by working together. It was also good that they admitted their mistakes and saw how things got twisted along the way.

There was the element of how both practice and theory are needed and this is something that reminds me of ancient Greeks. There was also the element of one-ness which reminds me of Hindu philosophy.

I felt that things mentioned, like vaccines and eggs were not mentioned for nothing but were later tied in the story. Although then some things remain a mystery such as what happened to Scio- maybe this is brought up in the second book.

It was interesting to see that Haly, Selene (who was my favourite) and Clauda all did not want to lead or be seen - although Clauda and Haly were happy to have their value noticed- but they all do what they must and there was a lot of creative thinking to do this.

It was also interesting to see how the various sexualities- mainly of Haly and Clauda were treated. Although I am still curious about Selene and Clauda!