Title: Trial by Fire (The Worldwalker Trilogy #1)
Author: Josephine Angelini
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Release date: September 2nd 2014
Goodreads summary: This world is trying to kill Lily Proctor. Her life-threatening allergies keep her from enjoying experiences that others in her hometown of Salem take for granted, which is why she is determined to enjoy her first high school party with her best friend and longtime crush, Tristan. But after a humiliating incident in front of half her graduating class, Lily wishes she could just disappear.
Suddenly, Lily is in a different Salem—one overrun with horrifying creatures and ruled by powerful women called Crucibles. Strongest and cruelest of them all is Lillian . . . Lily's other self in this alternate universe.
What makes Lily weak at home is what makes her extraordinary in New Salem. In this confusing world, Lily is torn between responsibilities she can't hope to shoulder alone and a love she never expected.
REVIEW
"Lily
girl? Are you dead yet?" the shaman asked. The sound of his voice warmed
her and gave her strength. She might be in the dark, but at least she wasn't
alone.
"Not
yet," Lily answered, smiling.
"Then
let's get back to work. You've got a lot to learn."
Everyone
seems to either love or dislike this book, I thought I would fall in the latter
category, but boy I was wrong. For me, Trial by Fire was a very unique read and
I can't wait to read the sequel, Firewalker, who will be released September
1st.
This book
started as a typical contemporary: Lily starts to go out with her best friend,
Tristan, but he's a total player and while they're at a party, things go wrong.
Lily also has family issues 1) she seems to be allergic to EVERYTHING 2) her
mom is crazy 3) her dad left and didn't divorce because he doesn't want to be
stuck with her. When everything in her life starts to suck, Lily follows a
voice in her head and leave. Then, she's is another world.
She's in
another Salem, who seems medieval in some ways but futuristic in others. There,
witchcraft rules the world, with Lillian at its head, which means… Lily 'evil'
double. Here, science is punishable by death and no one knows why...But
Lillian.
"Magic
is a science only people who are born with a particular talent can do,"
Rowan said. He poured maple syrup on Lily's pancakes. "Actual science can
be done by anyone. And there's no way for Lillian to control what people do
with it or how far it spreads."
Caleb
guffawed. "Like Tristan said. She's a power-hungry bitch who wants to rule
the world with an iron-fist."
I really
like this world, how much Angelini explained the way magic worked, but at the
same time, it felt a little like info-dumping sometimes, it was hard to process
all these informations.
For the
characters, I thought that in the beginning, Lily was a little too much naïve,
but she got through a lot of character development, I liked her a lot more at
the end of the novel. Something I really liked about her was her relationship
with Juliet, like her mom said "there is no Juliet who doesn't love
you", it was such a strong relationship! However, I'm not sure about the
romance, it was a little obvious and will be complicated in the second book, is
their love strong enough? I'm not sure… I liked the three boys, Rowan, Tristan
and Caleb, especially the dynamics they had together.
The plot
was well executed and unpredictable, even if in the beginning, it seemed to be
a classical learning and fighting the villain. Speaking of which, I found
Lillian to be really interesting, the kind of villain who wants to do 'the
right thing' but doesn't back up and can kill to achieve her goal. Lily could
easily cross the line and end up like her, we'll see in the next book.
Overall,
I really enjoyed this story, I'm not really familiar with parallel worlds, now
I want to read more books about that. I liked the dynamics between the
characters, not particularly the romance, but maybe it'll improve in the next
one. The ending makes me want to jump right into the next book.
Rating: 4/5
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