Rating: ✮✮✮
Genres: Young-Adult, Retelling.
Pages Count: 393.
Summary:
The only daughter of a prominent samurai, Mariko has always known she’d been raised for one purpose and one purpose only: to marry. Never mind her cunning, which rivals that of her twin brother, Kenshin, or her skills as an accomplished alchemist. Since Mariko was not born a boy, her fate was sealed the moment she drew her first breath.
So, at just seventeen years old, Mariko is sent to the imperial palace to meet her betrothed, a man she did not choose, for the very first time. But the journey is cut short when Mariko’s convoy is viciously attacked by the Black Clan, a dangerous group of bandits who’ve been hired to kill Mariko before she reaches the palace.
The lone survivor, Mariko narrowly escapes to the woods, where she plots her revenge. Dressed as a peasant boy, she sets out to infiltrate the Black Clan and hunt down those responsible for the target on her back. Once she’s within their ranks, though, Mariko finds for the first time she’s appreciated for her intellect and abilities. She even finds herself falling in love—a love that will force her to question everything she’s ever known about her family, her purpose, and her deepest desires.
“I will not be bandied about by men any longer. I am not a prize to be bought or sold.”
Rating Flame in the mist wasn’t an easy decision. At first look, it’s definitely 4 stars but then you start thinking and noticing imperfections and you realize the fun alone is not enough.
It had so much potential and I expected more (considering my love for Mulan & Japanese culture).
All her life, Mariko wanted to be something, more than just a noble’s daughter. Life as a girl wasn’t satisfying, especially now that she’s betrothed to the emperor’s son.
On her way to the capital, she escapes an ambush leaving her the only survivor. Therefore, she tries to infiltrate the Black Clan, her assassins, to discover their motives, she can’t go back or she’ll be a shame to her family. Dressed as a boy, she succeeds and meets Takeda Ranmaru, and his second-in-command, his best friend Okami. Soon, she discovers that the truth is way more complicated and starts questioning what she knew all her life.
Meanwhile, her twin Kenshin will do anything to retrieve his sister.
I enjoyed reading Flame in the Mist a lot. It was one of my most anticipated books in 2017. I wasn’t a big of the Wrath and the Dawn but come on, this is set in Japan. And here’s the thing, I’m obsessed about Japan, especially the Edo period. So this is a Mulan retelling (one of my favorite Disney movies), set in the old Japan times, and with a promising summary, what’s there not love?
It doesn’t stop there. While reading this book, there are so many Japanese elements I liked:
✓ Samurais. I love Samurais (watched many anime about them) and oh, the heroine’s brother is a Samurai named Kenshin. Seriously, that’s so awesome.
✓ Geishassssssssss.
✓ Japanese words. So I didn’t know about the glossary until I was done (it wasn’t in my copy anyway), so make sure to not forget it. At first, it was cool when I recognized many words. It stopped being cool when they became too many. But hey, we always have google.
✓ A demonic forest (with yokai, even if it’s a myth, because what if it wasn’t?).
“Our greatest enemy can often be found within.”
However, when I look more closely, I realize that no matter how much appreciate these things, it’s not enough. There were many things I didn’t like. At all. You’ll notice btw a great amount of which reminds me in this review.
► Mariko.
✔ She didn’t annoy me (believe me, it’s something). She was likable and I liked how she always wanted to be someone more than her society allowed her to.
✘ She sounds so badass and smartass. That’s it. Sounds. We are told all the time how smart she is but like everyone already said, show instead of telling. Eventually, we get tired of hearing what a genius she is while taking illogical decisions. So she’s making these super cool weapons… to the people who tried to kill her. She claims to make them trust her. But if she’s so intelligent, she’ll notice that she’s helping more than hurting.* Don’t get me wrong, I liked her but I just wanted cleverer actions on her part. Later, she starts repeating herself. We hear the same ideas all time. No, I shouldn’t do that or I’ll be a traitor and dozens of other similar words. It gets tiring. I also didn’t understand if she can’t go back because it’ll be a shame, then why stay longer in the forest and try to discover your murders intentions? If she goes back, it’ll be a bigger shame, right?
► The love relationship:
✔ It was so cute. I don’t mind hate to love relationships no matter how cliche they are. I also liked the love interest, no, not saying his name! The tension build up was so sexy that’ll make you root for them. I hoped we had even less romance, though.
✘ It’s so similar to the wrath and the dawn. The whole book is, for that matter. Sure, another setting but the events and characters are at the core the same. I should mention that I liked this more than the Wrath and the Dawn (wasn’t a fan of Shazi in the first book). So I’m pretty sure the fans of her other duology will love this one. Now this one is a huge spoiler concerning the romance and the end so if you’re planning on reading this book, please don’t read it. **
► The writing:
✔ It’s pretty, and easy to follow. Renee painted the picture in my mind leaving a space for my own imagination.
✘ It became too much sometimes, too many descriptions for obvious things. Even though I like the concept, we hear about the Furinkazan more than necessary (it doesn’t make the book more Asian if it was repeated all the time, you know. Which is NOT even Jap).
► Her past life.
✘ So she has a brother, a twin. We barely know anything about Mariko and Kenshin’s relationship. How he treats, for example. Yeah, sure he was always protective and stuff. But is adding few memories too much? I’d liked to know more about her relationship with her family members. She only tells us that she’s mistreated because a girl but never how. I was disappointed when then this topic was poorly handled. I also didn’t like him much.
► The secondary characters.
✔ One of the best things about this book! I liked to know more about them! Yoshi, Ren, Yumi, and everyone. It was nice to see her spending time with other people who had their own personalities, not just fillers. I also liked Kenshin and Amaya’s relationship but wished more depth in his character.
✘ So we have a name, Okami. Aka Wolf. Ironically, I read Scarlet this week and the literal meaning of the word annoyed me then. Still annoying here.
***
► The feminist aspect
✔ I liked how even in those hard times, she was trying to prove herself and value as a woman.
“I’ve never been angry to have been born a woman. There have been times I’ve been angry at how the world treats us, but I see being a woman as a challenge I must fight. Like being born under a stormy sky. Some people are lucky enough to be born on a bright summer’s day. Maybe we were born under clouds. No wind. No rain. Just a mountain of clouds we must climb each morning so that we may see the sun.”
Briefly, if you enjoyed TWATD, then I’m sure you’ll like this one. If you didn’t, well, I don’t recommend it. It doesn’t end with a cliffhanger, not a major one at least. I will be reading the sequel of course, even though this book had many problems, it’s still set in Japan. It was also so fun. And oh, I don’t think it’s a Mulan retelling, only dressing up as a boy is a common thing.
This book was far from being perfect and it could’ve been better but I liked it.
Spoilers:
*And then we are told what genius she is for inventing a weapon (which is dynamite, I think?
**I didn’t mention that Okami is the love interest because I doubted it until it was too obvious to ignore. Why? Easy, I couldn’t believe Mariko will fall in love with the second in command and not the boss. Although I swear, I felt that the lazy boy will be the love interest from the start but it couldn’t be! It’s too good to be true. Why? Because for once, the heroine isn’t in love with the leader. Eventually, I knew that he is the head of the Black Clan, I hoped my suspicions won’t be confirmed but of course, they were. The end reminded of ACOMAF for some reason, kinda similar . So yeah, I was disappointed.
***I’m including this in secondary characters because I’m not sure where else it fits. We have shapeshifters? Anyway, Mariko never once wondered about their origin even when she meets one. I found it so lacking. The fox reminded of Kurama in Yu Yu Hakusho (and the yokai too). Anyway that’s why I think these people are yokai which is not a myth
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