![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Shiva's Fire
May. 7th, 2025 02:40 pmFrom the cover art, colour palette and blurb on the back, I thought Shiva's Fire by Suzanne Fisher Staples was going to be a YA paranormal romance...
But, in the first 50 pages, there's a natural disaster that kills thousands of people, followed by disease in the refugee camps that kills a lot more - and then tigers start coming out of the forest and snatching kids... And that all takes place in the first six weeks of the protagonist's life...
The story does then take quite a dramatic shift in tone to a more YA coming-of-age (with some supernatural stuff) tale, with Parvati growing up and going to the spiritual dance academy.
But the main aspect from the blurb on the back doesn't happen until 50 pages before the end, and isn't actually resolved by the conclusion of the story, which was quite annoying.
It's a bit of a non-ending - but I didn't mind that.
Overall, though, it's a short book and not all that much actually happens. It's very remote and folk-tale-like at the start and, while it does pick up in the second half, it's all a bit nebulous.
Engaging enough in the end, but not one that's going to stay with me.
But, in the first 50 pages, there's a natural disaster that kills thousands of people, followed by disease in the refugee camps that kills a lot more - and then tigers start coming out of the forest and snatching kids... And that all takes place in the first six weeks of the protagonist's life...
The story does then take quite a dramatic shift in tone to a more YA coming-of-age (with some supernatural stuff) tale, with Parvati growing up and going to the spiritual dance academy.
But the main aspect from the blurb on the back doesn't happen until 50 pages before the end, and isn't actually resolved by the conclusion of the story, which was quite annoying.
It's a bit of a non-ending - but I didn't mind that.
Overall, though, it's a short book and not all that much actually happens. It's very remote and folk-tale-like at the start and, while it does pick up in the second half, it's all a bit nebulous.
Engaging enough in the end, but not one that's going to stay with me.
