Book Review: Flame in the Mist by Renee Ahdieh (Spoilers Included)
Renee Ahdieh’s Flame in the Mist is a young adult fantasy novel that strikes the perfect balance between fantasy and reality, fact and fiction, and romance and action/adventure. Set in Feudal Japan, the novel follows Mariko Hatori, a young noblewoman from a renowned samurai family, who survives an unsuccessful assassination attack and decides to figure out who tried to kill her. For this plan to work, she dresses up as a boy, infiltrates a group of bandits, and forsakes her original path of becoming the bride of the Emperor’s second son. Unlike most books I read, this novel had a lot of highs and very few lows.
Mariko’s Intellectuality: From the beginning of the novel, Mariko is deemed as a curious scientist whose imagination and persistence endear her to the Black Clan. At the same time, the author points out how her intellect is both a blessing and a curse. For example, she builds a dangerous weapon, the smoke bomb, that is later used in a raid on her family’s lands. At the same time, she is so focused on thinking that moments, where immediate action is necessary, leaves her blank.
Progression of Events: Renee Ahdieh puts a good amount of work into foreshadowing and revealing/linking pieces together. She uses small events or moments for big reveals that when looking back, I wasn’t even expecting that to happen. For example, a small outing to Hanami leaves Mariko excited and hopeful to learn more weaknesses of the Black Clan. A calm evening quickly goes to hell once the Emperor’s sons and her brother show up. I was surprised by this because a quiet evening soon turns into a desperate moment of decisions and battle. I think this progression occurred because the readers and I are swept up in Mariko’s perspective, learning more about the Black Clan. Even though she was able to learn how the Black Clan are feudal day Robin Hoods, it becomes a secondary discovery and it wasn’t what she was hoping to find.
Mariko x Okami: This pairing was, for me, very surprising. Throughout the novel, they bickered and physically fought. Of course, there were moments where Mariko noted how handsome he was, but she brushed off those comments as coming from the perspective of a girl, which she currently isn’t. I sincerely thought she was going to end up with Ranmaru, especially after she finds out about his unrequited love for Yumi. In an ironic fashion, it is interesting how a hunt for mushrooms turned into a hunt for poisonous flowers to use against the Clan turned into a love scene. This is what I’m talking about when I say Renee Ahdeih is literally the pivot queen.
The one burning question I have left is: How did Okami get his powers????
Growing up, I was an avid reader and dedicating time towards it. When I got older, it got more difficult to go to the library, pick out books, and read often especially with school and college. Despite this, I promised myself that this year I will try to get back into the habit of reading even if it's one book per week. Audiobooks and mobile library borrowing services like OverDrive and Libby have made it easier to stick with this goal. I enjoyed listening to the novel voiced by Nancy Wu. In the next coming part of the duology, I am eager to see how Ahdieh manages to build and expand this world she has created.
