Poudelivre

The problem with finding a really good series is that you usually need to do some waiting between each book. I read the first novel in Josephine Angelini’s Worldwalker trilogy, Trial by fire, in January, which was about half a year after its release date. Which meant I only had to wait until September for the sequel, Firewalker. Which, now, sadly, means I have to wait a whole long year for the conclusion.

Trial by fire ends abruptly and with a huge cliffhanger. Lily and Rowan together on the pyre in the middle of a war in a universe parallel to the one Lily grew up in. As the witch she is, she’s been fueling her army in battle against her parallel universe-double, Lillian. In the midst of everything, Lily worldjumps and she takes Rowan with her. It’s here that Trial by fire ends and Firewalker begins. Lily, now back in her own universe, is badly burned and taken to her house by her sister Juliet, her mother and Rowan only to discover that she might’ve escaped Lillian and the war in the alternate Salem, but something equally pressing is waiting for her at home.

Since her disappearing three months ago the FBI has been connected to the case and it has been assumed that Lily was dead. Now she’s back but she can’t tell the truth about where she’s been and who Rowan really is. Her friends and family at home have all been effected by her sudden disappearance and her best friend, Tristan, more than anyone. When Lily goes back to school and meets two people he’s been hanging out with since she left, Una and Breakfast, and Rowan notices how they’re all drawn to her which simply is because they all have talents to become a witch’s mechanic, Lily decides to tell them the truth. They all believe her as well as agrees to join her and build up her new coven. For the truth is, just because Lily is back in her world doesn’t mean Lillian won’t come after her. She never got what she wanted from Lily and it’s widely known that Lillian always gets her way. But without anyone knowing, Lily and Lillian has been communicating and Lily slowly gets to see why Lillian made the choices she did. Lily is surprised to find out that Lillian might not be the villain she thought her to be, after all.

This is a book I’ve been longing for since I finished the first installment and I was almost afraid of reading it when I finally got it because I thought it might not live up to my high expectations. It didn’t quite, but I believe that’s based in the fact that I had no idea what would happen. Lily is back home and with Rowan at her side. It seemed like that would be enough to end the story and let them live a long and happy life. But of course not, since it’s a trilogy. I actually hadn’t given much thought to how Lily’s disappearance would affect the people around her but a lot of her friends and family members got harassed by an FBI agent in search for answers and Tristan in particular was believed to have harmed her. Lily’s sudden appearance again didn’t really help matters either, because that raised new questions like where she had been and why she hadn’t told anyone where she was the past months. It was all complicated, nicely done on the author’s part, but a little dull and boring to read, I’m not going to lie. I was afraid that the novel might suffer from second-book syndrome, but it turned out that was not the case.

Things heat up after around a third of the novel and Lily’s new coven is created. With that comes more complications and dangers and it is, in the end, unavoidable not to return to Rowan’s universe. Once there, Lily has to find out more about the reason for Lillian’s change while at the same time calm a brewing storm. And she stumble’s over an interesting discovery that might just change everything.

It might sound complicated with the parallel universes and the fact that there are, at times, two sets of characters, one in each world, but it’s actually not that strange. The ones that have a double are still set apart by some personality trait that the double lacks, some doesn’t have the same name and some doesn’t look entirely like the other, though it is a little confusing when the two Tristan meet.

There was never a character that outright bothered me but I have to say that I disliked the name of Una and Breakfast, two people Tristan (in Lily’s world) hangs out with while Lily is missing and later becomes her mechanics. Una is an unusual name but Breakfast is just downright weird. It may be a nickname but not one I liked at all. Just reading it made me annoyed and I was surprised that the characters themselves didn’t see how silly it was calling him that or just laughing at the sound of it. I would’ve been more comfortable reading had the names been different.

I found that, in terms of plot, the story was good. The first part was a little slow, however sweet, but slow. Then it heats up and they all worldjumps into Rowan’s world and once there things just seem to happen in a very fast pace, one thing after the other until it all abruptly ends, again. At time it could be a little repetitive which bored me and some choices made by the characters didn’t quite make me neither happy nor content, but rather annoyed. There were even a moment when a character I really liked did something that made me outright disgusted. Now I won’t say who or what, but the ability to make me feel that way for that reason is a compliment to Angelini.

Overall, Firewalker didn’t keep the same high standard as the first installment but it wasn’t in any way bad. I just found Trial by Fire to be richer in most departments, not least the landscape. Not that Firewalker wasn’t beautifully written, but not quite like its predecessor. The ending, however, is something I won’t get over for a while. The cliffhanger didn’t bother me but what happened just before that last page is something that scarred me and that I know I will be thinking about a lot. It might just keep me away from rereading Firewalker, if not for ever then at least for a long time. I am curious about the last installment, Traitor’s Pyre, but I really hope that there’s more to the ending in the second book then what I glimpsed before it was over. Unfortunately there’s another year-long wait for the conclusion but I suppose that’s the upside with a series. Having something to look forward to.