Incendiary (Hollow Crown)

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Unlike the book, the film received poor reviews, receiving 23% of approval in the site Rotten Tomatoes. I also agree with Catherine (above), “The Other Hand” should be required reading, particularly as a foil to inflammatory journalism.

but because fine writing -- and Incendiary is a very fine example -- is such an eloquent human instrument. When that happens, there’s always a fear that the next book you pick up will be the one to break the positive run. I had a lot of proplems with the majority of the book but one or two passages about grief I did recognise.

Right at page 316, I was kind of losing my shit as I finally started to get where this book was going. Chris Cleave’s debut is two different novels jammed together: a thrillerish yarn about a British 9/11, and a tale of manipulative toffs exploiting an innocent. Every day, I was with your book in my hand, and page after page I started thinking that even the city I love the most isn’t perfect. Another stylistic change of pace you employee, that I find refreshing, is lack of use of quotation marks. I am not one who attends book groups and discusses the book, because most books I read are kind of like popcorn…you enjoy it while you’re eating it, but it’s not an experience that stays with you or stands out in your memory.

I read The Other Hand first and was very moved by the story – it is thought provoking and sad and I felt on finishing it that the story would stay with me. Having lived outside of Manhattan on 9/11, it was very understandable that this could happen but perhaps so painful to understand how quickly it could happen. There were definitely aspects of the book I enjoyed, the magic system was pretty cool and I liked the writing style, but the plot was incredibly slow paced and the characters weren’t as fleshed out as I would have liked them to be. While I am not a literary critic or I educated in all the fineries of writing, I would like to posit a few thoughts about the story. The narrator offers counterpoints with sympathy for the Muslims she knows, hard-working people like herself, a danger to no one.

Memories are stolen, minds are read, illusions are cast and people are persuaded to do things against their will, but it’s Ren’s internal battle – one between her head and her heart – that propels the story forward. I am not saying Muslims didn't get a lot of unfair backlash but I am saying that truth needs to read as truth, not your agenda driven attempt at getting me to react to something. As Renata grows more deeply embedded in the royal court, she uncovers a secret that could change the fate of the entire kingdom – and end the war that has cost her everything. I am from a small town in Alabama (I’m saying this so you may have some kind of understanding of my surroundings and as an American).

I)f one is going to sneer at over-the-top displays of patriotism or hero-worship, one had better avoid over-the-top displays altogether. Córdova builds up action in subtle moments in the background, but her focus is always on our complex and intriguing heroine, who I am excited to see grow even more in the sequel. When Dez, the commander of her unit, is taken captive by the notorious Sangrado Prince, Renata will do anything to save the boy whose love makes her place among the Whispers bearable.Thank you to Hodder and Stoughton and Netgalley for allowing me to read this book early, this in no way affected my opinion of it. Now, having just finished Incendiary, I think I’ve no choice but to be a Chris Cleave pusher all around! A brilliant novel, yes it's based on some fantasy tropes, but "Incendiary" by Zoraida Córdova delivers the action, intrigue and twists that make it a refreshing read. They’ say Osama is dead and this current aggression and hopelessness is from a young indigenous people with nothing to lose – one is fiction and one is reality – or is ti?

With the ferocity of series like Ember in the Ashes and Throne of Glass and loosely based on 15th century Spain, INCENDIARY explores the double-edged sword of memory and the triumph of hope in the midst of fear and oppression. There are, eventually, two semi-decent plot-twists -- though perhaps they just seem that way because something finally happens in this surprisingly dull narrative. The author tried to make up for it by throwing lots of surprising twists and turns in the end and they really worked. Part of the problem seems to be that Cleave can't decide whether she should be mourning (and dealing, as best she can, with her loss) or denying it (as suggested by her constantly thinking she's found her darling little boy again).I remember the panic, the sorrow, the intense feeling of both grief and despair as if that event occurred yesterday. I really did enjoy Zoraida Cordova’s writing style, it hooked me instantly from the beginning and was probably what kept me reading even when the plot was feeling very slow.