On Fire

I've never been much for fantasy novels. Aside from maybe the Harry Potter series, I've never really loved anything that I've tried in the genre (like this book, for example). Some people will consider this a sacrilegious thing to say, but I've never felt the need to read or watch the Lord of the Rings series, and even as a kid, I only moderately liked the Narnia series. I was pleasantly surprised, then, when I recently found myself enjoying Fire by Kristen Cashore.

A full-fledged fantasy novel, it's set in a mythical world called The Dells and follows the adventures of a girl named Fire. She's a "monster" girl who has the superhuman ability to read and, if needed, manipulate, other people's thoughts. She warily puts her powers to use on behalf of the King as he wars against rebel factions within the Dells. From that brief summary alone you can probably tell that it's not a book for everyone, but I found myself sucked into the entertaining story. Plus, there's a jacket blurb of praise from the fantastic Junot Diaz, which counts for at least a few bonus points in my book.