Poudelivre

I’m sure there are few things better than waiting months to read a certain book, just to get it, to finally hold it in your hands and then sit down and read it. And come to the conclusion that it was even better than expected, better than you hoped, better than you dreamed it would be. Yeah. I’m sure there are few things better than that.

Lily Proctor is attending high school and she has a really hard time. Not because it’s high school, but because she’s she. All her life, Lily has been sick thanks to her allergies. She’s practically always sick. But she goes to school with her best friend Tristan, a guy every girl seem to be in love with and Lily is not an exception. But lately she’s started to wonder if maybe he returns her feelings. Maybe he can stop dating a string of girls and start a relationship with her, his oldest friend. Tristan has always stood by Lily, through her family problems and all that her sickness brings to the table. Surely a relationship between the two wouldn’t be impossible.

But after attending her first high school party, Lily realizes that Tristan will never change. She’s in the middle of wondering what her life will be like now that he’s not in it anymore when a voice in her head asks her if she want to leave it all. Lily, thinking she’s going crazy like her mother, says yes. Before she knows it she’s been transferred through time and space, to an alternate universe so unlike her own. Monstrous creatures’ raid outside the city gates but the insides isn’t much better, because that’s where all the witches are. The most powerful one of all is Lillian, Lily’s other self, and she’s the very reason Lily is there. And that’s when the real story begins.

I had high hopes for this one. Very high. It seemed to be great even when I first heard of it, months ago, but reading it… Trial by Fire is a masterpiece. The world Josephine Angelini has created, both the Salem Lily comes from and, especially, New Salem, is magnificent. I’ve read few books with a setting as well created as in this novel. You could smell the fire, the smoke, feel the sun, taste the food. The world which Angelini throws her readers into is so real. It’s everything I look for when it comes to world building. Absolutely brilliant.

Besides the world building, then? Well, we have Lily, a sick girl in her last year of high school who’ve always had a crush on her best friend and spends a lot of time in bed or at the hospital. But when she comes to New Salem, she changes. What’s always made her different and weak in her world makes her strong here. She lives, she thrives, in a way she’s never done before. She’s strong and stubborn, refuses to give up and always tries her hardest. She’s a real inspiration. At her side is Rowan, a young man who helps her survive in this new and very different world, and who also teaches her about magic. He is equally strong and stubborn and it’s a delight to read every time they clash in a battle of will.

Other characters is Tristan, Lily’s best friend who appears in both universes, as well as Caleb, a friend of Rowan and later Lily. Juliet, Lily’s sister who also appears in both universes and isn’t quite different. And, of course, Lily’s other self, Lillian. She is the villain, the cruel dictator over New Salem who very clearly is plotting something, but it’s hard to figure out exactly what.

And right there is another thing that I absolutely loved with this novel. You know from the beginning that Lily will end up in an alternate universe, but after that it was pretty much blank. I had a lot of theories, for all the questions that popped up along the way, but I’m please to say that nothing unfolded like I thought it would. I usually know what will happen in the book, because I can follow the authors’ line of thoughts. That can be fun sometimes, but for the most part it’s just boring. So it was wonderful to not know. And even the things I kind of figured out didn’t really unfold like I’d thought. Sometimes, in books, the questions gets so big that the answer doesn’t live up to the expectations. Here, it surely did. Every question had an answer that was more than enough to settle my curiosity. Except some questions that wasn’t answered at all. I very much look forward to the sequel!

There was one part of the novel, though, were I just got stuck. It felt thick and on the brink of boring. I didn’t really feel like sitting down to read it. I’m not sure if it was just a heavy part of the book itself, or if it was just me. But when I got thorough that I literally couldn’t stop. I just kept reading until there was nothing more to read and then I got sad because I realized that the second part won’t come out until September. So I guess I just have to sit back, roll my thumbs and wait for September and hope that the second installment is as good as the first one. I have every reason to believe that it will.