Ignite: motifs & themes in Kara's Swanson's latest book.
an ARC review
I’m an emotional person, but not neccesarily an emotional reader. I can count on one hand the books that have made me tear up, and Ignite makes the list. I’ve been sharing a little about this book in some of my newsletters as part of Kara’s street team, and then I was selected to review an ARC (advanced reader copy) to give an honest review. 👀 🔥
I was a little skeptical during the first few chapters because the book started kinda slow and confusing. Now, I don’t read a ton of fantasy, and this book had many fantasy and complex world building elements. This made it tricky to follow. The start of the book feels like a dream, a little disjointed at first. But being stubborn as I am, I pressed on, and at Chapter 19 I found myself truly invested. Additionally, the fragmented introduction led well into the character arc. (And by Chapter 58 I was tearing up a little bit.)
Motifs
Rocks. Ice. Fire. Blood. These are important elements throughout the story.
🪨 Mara lives in a frozen world of rock and ice. Her flock (found family) of phoenixes takes shelter in abandoned magma tubes. This rock is shelter, but just enough shelter to survive.
❄️While the ice/cold doesn't directly affect the phoenixes as much as it does other species, it is a hostile force that threatens the food supply and takes a gradual toll on all the living beings trying to survive. We also see beings with ice-cold hearts and personalities.
🔥 The blood that runs in phoenix veins is liquid fire, and is used for warmth in the dying world. Mara’s emotions through the story behave like fire, threatening to consume her at times. Some beings have warm hearts and personalities, others have firey ones. Other places the fire motif shows up is where warmth should be but isn’t. The sun is supposed to be warm but is dying. The volcanic magma tunnels only hold a lingering, fading warmth.
🩸 There is a significant amount of blood in this book, so sensitive readers should be warned. Blood symbolizes life, sacrifice, and family. The phoenixes’ feathers are hardened blood, which is the only substance that can is hard enough to injure them.
Themes
Family. Survival vs. Healing/Rebirth. Emotional control. Learning new perspectives.
The book presents a bleak world, in which emotional and physical pain is a normal part of existance. But the phoenixes regenerate and heal in cycles, which is displayed with a verisimilitude to how human life is cyclical.
I was worried this book would be some “don’t discriminate against people you don’t know they’ll end up being super nice” but it wasn’t that kind of book and it stayed far far away from being preachy at all.
The complexity of this book was a form of honesty. Different emotions, people groups, and perspectives were never portrayed as all good or all bad. Sometimes Mara needed to control her emotions and sometimes it was appropriate to let them out.
Content labels
Significant amounts of non-gratuitous blood/gore/violence. Occurances of emotional/physical abuse.
Mentions of “gods” and human sacrifice.
Recommended age: 15+
Rating
I’d give this book five stars. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Sound like a book you’d enjoy? Preorder here ^
