Reviews with content warning for Injury/Injury detail - We Set the Dark on Fire

I’ve had my eye on these rainbow books for a while now. The concept sounded so good, and I heard a rumor that it featured a lovely gay storyline between the two many female characters. So one day, after getting a shot and not passing out (I’m afraid of needles okay?) I treated myself to a trip to the bookstore and picked both books up.

Obviously this review is going to be for only the first book, as while I’m writing this I’m reading the second one, but I wanted to get it out as soon as I could.

“You will find a way to make a life you love.”

This story follows Dani, who has forged papers showing she lives on the ‘right’ side of the wall, and those papers have brought her all the way as the top graduate from Medio’s school for Girls. She’s set to marry the man in line to be president, and finally help her family get higher in life than they were before. But more than one wrench comes into play.

The rebellious La Voz knows her secret and blackmails her to spy on her new husband, and now she is married alongside her school-yard enemy who she may or may not have feelings for. What will Dani do? What won’t she do to protect herself and do what is right? But which way is right?

This book was filled with less action than you’d think, but what it does have is the inner turmoil of a woman who is just starting to get to know herself, and the truth of her world. She can’t run from her past, she has to fight for it to matter. Mixed in with Latinx representation, neck-aching twists, and a love story you can’t help but cheer for.

I really liked the way the world was built, it made me nostalgic for like the kind of classic dystopian world where the rich got to be up on the top with cars and guards while the poor lived on the edge of society in squalor, but they also have the fire in their hearts to fight. While this book was a fiction tale, the way the rebellion and the rich interacted, along with the actions of the police force, was very similar to some of the things we see in the world today. Which is sad to say but very interesting to also see in a book written right before it all got really bad, but during a time that this has been happening for a while now.

“Freedom has a price. People who want easy & pretty stay in their cages.”

I also liked the characters in this book because I felt each one was written so well to work on their own and mixed in with others around them.

For this book I rated it 4 out of 5 stars. I loved the intrigue, the story, and the romance within the book and how each one had its own level of danger, all intertwined together for an even more dangerous world for Dani to navigate. I hope that I’m able to get time to finish the next one before the month is up.

the fact that not only was it a forced marriage, but forced polygamy at that was a unique concept; having each wife serve a different purpose also helped to give a level of control over them that neither could connect with the other, just what was the same.

I wanted to punch BOTH Mateo and Sota, I just didn’t like either of them and I don’t trust them

the amount of double-agent-ness between both Carmen & Jasmin was crazy to me because how many more women within the rich and healthy are spies for La Voz?

I straight up thought Dani was going to die at the end, like she’s be able to kiss a girl and feel love and then die by FIRE, I was ready to mourn</spoiler

After when Carmen did, and all the Dani was dragged through, I don’t know if I’d trust ever again or help either side to do anything

Content Warnings

missh3ll's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

Content Warnings

criticalgayze's review

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adventurous challenging dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Allow me to start by saying that I do feel a little unfair in rating this book. I read this for a grad school course where I had to finish it; otherwise, I would have DNF'ed a third of the way in. I don't feel that any of my problems with the book are the fault of the story or author necessarily, but as a group member put it, "this is the kind of book I would've loved as a freshman in high school." In that way, I think the book is a fine piece for its intended audience; however, since I read it, I am going to go ahead with a review.

My biggest hurdle was that the book relied so much on two of my least favorite things in YA literature: indecisive teenage angst and the unearned "perfect chosen one" trope. Think of it like a Divergent or an Eragon in that it has a narrator who seems to just be the very best at what she has to do, and she constantly repeats this fact, so it is not lost on the audience. However, also like those texts, all we ever seem to see is the MC messing up, which leaves you confused on how she was ever the "best." It does not help that there is little exposition, so we do not get to see her go through a "training phase" montage.

Furthermore, it feels like much of what is here is underwritten. The novel will go long stretches where tensions are very low while the MC is snooping around only to be ratcheted up with little warning. Meanwhile, our MC is taking part in a same sex love affair with her husband's other wife with little real explanation as to the social politics of such a thing. On top of that, the greater context is lacking nuance, so the reader is unsure whether this is an urban fantasy or a dystopia as there is no sense of temporal and global placement of the events despite modern technology and use of intermittent Latinx culture and the Spanish language.

This book is not bad for what it is supposed to be. Unfortunately, that product is also just not for me.

Content Warnings

averyrembish's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

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