Wow was this book stupid and disappointing! It read like the script for a B movie. It had NONE of the heart of the original. This sequel was completely disingenuous to the ending of the first: Why does William get TWO magic wishes AND a sparkly Welcome to the North Pole song in his honor, and Brenda gets bupkiss? Brenda literally disarmed a shooter with a snowball, saving the lives of William, Bob, Santa, and Christmasaurus. Brenda the Bad@$$ should get the royal treatment FOR LIFE! Also, Brenda was a lot quicker to accept her new family than William was; if anything WILLIAM is the one who needed a lesson in learning to make space in his heart/life for someone new. The book barely addresses at all what it's like for this budding blended family to butt heads over traditions and love languages. THAT would have made AN AMAZING sequel! Instead we got... poop jokes... A lot of poop jokes... And some timey-wimey nonsense that would make even Doctor Who cringe.

ALSO, the book starts with a literal war on Christmas......... I don't consider Tom Fletcher to be a tone deaf author. Quite the opposite, I'm usually proud of how emotionally intelligent and inclusive Tom Fletcher's writing is. So where did THIS book come from?! The war on Christmas? WAR ON CHRISTMAS?!?! The conflict of this book is that there's a future ban on Christmas?!?!? Come oooon!!!

Finally, I was annoyed by the /writing/ and the misuse of words in this book. Like, someone drinking a "frozen liquid". YOU CAN'T! Those are two entirely different states of matter! You could be crunching a snowcone, or sipping a cold brew, or slurping a slushie, but you cannot call something that is not frozen solid "frozen"! Or, people were supposed to /believe/ in Santa, not /know/ that he was truly real, but in this book they treated Santa's workshop like it was just a rival toy store that had gone out of fashion, and when everyone invested in Payne's toys instead, Santa poofed out of existence. THAT'S NOT FAITH! That's economics!!! OR, Brenda initially traveled a few days into the past to stop herself from sharing Santa's magic with her greedy father, but then she changed her mind and went back to THE DAWN OF TIME to ensure that EVERY SINGLE CHRISTMAS would happen without fail...Whyyyyy?! None of the Christmases before you narced to your dad were in any danger, Brenda! They had already happened!!! AND, close the time loop, you can either have already stopped yourself and no bad future ever happened, OR you can change a future by interacting with the past, BUT YOU CAN'T DO BOTH!!! GYAH!!!!

I am raging at a children's book and hate myself right now. But please, Tom Fletcher.... There was a seed at the center of this book that /wanted/ to sprout into a good story! William, the wheelchair-bound boy who ends up in charge of Santa's sleigh, and Brenda, the former bully with a champion snowball throwing arm becoming The Winter Witch... Two people with very different pasts, traditions, expectations, anxieties, and temperaments suddenly thrust together for their first holiday as a family... This could have been the story of how, even if we all celebrate the holidays a little bit differently, we all believe in kindness and goodwill, and our hearts are big enough to hold past, present, and future simultaneously... COME ON!!!! IT WAS RIGHT THERE!!! Please, can I beg and petition for a redo? I want the family dynamics and multiple-holiday origin stories this book SHOULD have been about.

"I confess myself disappointed."

This book resolved one of the problems of its predecessors: The Christmasaurus was finally a central figure in his own book XD. He wasn't outshined by William.... But that's because William and his family drama aren't in this book. William gets a tiny, short story with the Christmasaurus at the very end of the book, but in large part this is not a proper threequel. This is a crossover book of short stories, featuring the children from another book series: Danger Gang. I personally can't stand when a series spends its time marketing the spinoff instead of focusing on the A plot of the main series. Abandoning the opportunity to showcase William's family dynamics YET AGAIN, and filling up a book with a parade of filler adventures, where the reader has to endure the same intro over and over - AH, a d-d-dinosaur! - got really tedious, and put a nail in the Christmasaurus series for me. Which is a bummer, because if short stories about multiple children needing a little Christmas magic and a friendly dinosaur had been the format of the series FROM THE BEGINNING, it would have made a great TV show or series of picture books. But coming in to an established series, it just feels messy and a little cash-grabby.

ALSO also, this book gave off major Boomer vibes XD. Of the children on The Naughty List: One is in trouble for too much screen time instead of outdoor or family fun; One is in trouble for being a starlet who wants to constantly make videos of herself singing or command attention by performing live; And one girl who won't eat vegetables isn't in trouble for not eating veggies (she's in trouble for sneaking out of the house), but the author seems to have some opinions on her vegetarian mother who is literally named Mrs. A Noying.

At least the book's message overall was better than The Winter Witch: It's nice to be nice. It is, there is joy in being generous, or spending time with friends and family, and giving someone else what they want/need. A giving heart creates exponential love, the true spirit of Christmas. And a book of short stories showcasing a diverse cast IS a nice addition to the Christmas collection. But I'm once again let down. This could have been MORE. And instead it just...was. Kind of cute, but also kind of vapid and redundant. What a pity.

A moody classic! This was probably the first shifter romance I ever read. It was the perfect gateway drug, because it focuses so much on a girl's coming of age, and all the teenage angst and body dismorphia. How do you reach for love when you're still learning to love yourself?

This book tackles a lot of painful topics poignantly: The grief cycle, generational trauma, cultural erasure, PTSD, and in general the daily pain of being treated Other in America.

BUT the fantasy elements were very green, very Debut Novel. The stakes were often too easy, the plot was too obvious, and there were tropes galore.
- Mighty Whitey is the bad guy?!?! You don't say!

Captivating and surprisingly ahead of its time

I love that this book uses empathy as a superpower (and the lack thereof as the deadliest weapon). It's a coming of age story, sure, and - in the way of classic high fantasy - does a lot of telling and summarizing and focusing on food or seasons more than dialogue. BUT the story also perfectly captures the adolescent narrator: his naivety, the visceral impact of depression or betrayal, his longing/loneliness, his wanderlust... There is also some GoT level intrigue happening between the lines of this book. Truly, a masterful story, and a study in being human, in having or lacking perspective or community. A little rushed at the end; after 400+ pages I found myself still enthralled and wishing for more time with these characters.

Nobody warned me that the antagonist in this story was Gaslighting!!!

I'm being generous, I actually felt this book was more of a 3.5

It's a sorrowful story, about all the shame, grief, and violence we endure in life, just to scrape a fleeting moment's peace or comfort. The book did not shy away from trigger words or horrifying details; this book was meant as a love letter to survivors of all kinds. You are Seen, and your pain is shared.

Some parts hit too close to home, like the use of the word "monster" to label beautiful people as Other and dangerous. It reminds me vividly, and uncomfortably, of the words "savage", "bestial", or "exotic" being used to Other non-white people throughout history. (And "witch", in the case of women in history). The invasion and violence of a gaze or a word, and the violation that another's unwanted opinions for what is "right" for a woman to be and do, are all very real traumas we've gone through a staggering, tiring, de-humanizing amount of times. #MeToo Fire.

But other parts of the story did not hit as intended. Fire represents many women whose cultures insist that they cover up, because otherwise her beauty would be too distracting; the women are faulted for what is natural, instead of the men being taught to respect another. BUT, in Fire's case, that danger is not a faulty, patriarchal perspective; she LITERALLY enthralls people with her natural beauty. It was cringey. The book didn't condone rape by any means! But it did seem to imply that Boys Will Be Boys, and girls should forgive them for turning into horny animals from time to time.

Also cringey: Fire finds a way to use her powers to heal rather than harm, and she makes peace with her unwanted inheritance. But she never stops feeling shame for being a "monster". She never meets a secret community of "monsters" who have a totally different name for themselves, and use their power benevolently. She never denies the label herself, and celebrates the person she has become. Her isolation and shame may be accurate for the themes of the book, but it sends a weird message to the audience: "The racists are right, you shouldn't love yourself, you are a freak if you're Other." Fire believes the racist assumption that her power is a corruption SO MUCH that she STERILIZES HERSELF, so as not to pass her race on to another generation. Criiiiinge!

And in hindsight, for all that the book did well in making a story about Survivors... it really wasn't much of a STORY! There's next to no plot. The "romantic leads" are rarely in the same space for more than an hour/a paragraph at a time. The "found family" never really hits home, because all the family members are insufferably judgmental and paranoid. And in what little plot there is, the leads keep getting separated from said scenes! Archer goes rogue, Fire is kidnapped, Brigan is called away to the battlefield, and none of them are present for the WAR coming to a head at the capital!!! All the build up, all the political intrigue, and the greatest action, the scariest sacrifices, are all made OFF PAGE!!! This book is more mood than story.

Lastly, this book made me retroactively mad at Sarah J. Maas, AGAIN! XD It's clear she read this book and was like, "I can fix this, it just needs more sex and a big battle scene!" Then she wrote A Court of Mist and Fury. I hate that Maas clearly stole ideas from this book... And I hate that I kind of agree with her XD. I always get mad at Maas for seemingly being tone-deaf, morphing from a scene of grieving or dealing with PTSD into an erotic scene with little to no transition. But in Fire, I kept waiting for the usual arcs of self-discovery, triumph, "taking back one's power".... and I didn't get it. The book just stayed sad, hopeless, and impotent. The happy ending felt rushed and disingenuous. Fire didn't grow. The country didn't really change. The losses all seem for naught. And the book seems to want to say, "That's right. Losses just happen, it's a part of the life cycle. Deal with it. Be sad. You are flawed, everyone around you is flawed, your world is flawed, you will get occasional, microscopic, fleeting improvements, and then one day you'll all die." Very... very "Goth kids" way of looking at a fantasy realm...

So, in short, props to this book for highlighting Survivors... But I'm disheartened now, kind of want to cuddle a puppy and never pick up another Kristin Cashore book, if they're all going to make me this sad.... Buuuut if you need a good cry, read this book. You're not alone.

Imagine if Sanderson's books were angrier.
Or if Kill Bill were systemic in scope.
Imagine if Fight Club's Tyler Durden weren't a separate personality, but an actual living, breathing partner.
What if Starship Troopers really was anti-fascist.
If Red Rising, instead of having a Roman aesthetic, were inspired by Chinese history and myths.
If Katniss, Gale and Peeta from The Hunger Games were a loving throuple.

This BOOOOOOOOK, my dudes! THIS BOOK! This. Book!

Yes, it's a tale of bloody revenge... but it's so much more. This book commands us to question our status quo and basic beliefs. What's rumor, or bias, or imposed by flawed systems? This book is a love letter to - by which I mean a howling, cathartic scream across the void of space and time for - all the generations who have been traumatized by traditional gender roles: The subjugation of, and violence against, women; the militarization of men; the lack of allowance for queer space; the cyclical nature of raising children to be sacrificed "for nation" or "for family" or "for honor"; the stagnation of a people whose government attempts to intimidate them into obedience, rather than celebrating the lives they should hold as their sacred charge. There is also a deep grief in this book, for the things which ARE beautiful in a people's (in this case, not-so-faux China's) history, and are outnumbered by the mistakes and cruelties committed by those same people; the tragedy of What We Could Have Been had we encouraged, rather than stifled, our own people. This book makes injustice and trauma its focus, does not apologize for being angry or unkind, and calls on the audience to recognize why sometimes a big, loud, disturbance to status quo IS necessary.

Vive la revolution!!!!

I CANNOT wait to plunge into book 2!

It's a shame that this book should have been entertaining. There is, at its core, a penny dreadful or a classic horror crossed with a classic mystery, the kind that makes you question whether reality is scientifically empirical, paranormal, or divinely predetermined, and complex in ways humans cannot even conceive. It should have been the kind of book that fans of Stranger Things, His Dark Materials, and Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children would have flocked to. BUT, this book is soooo poorly executed. It is bloated, redundant, and surprisingly both shocking and boring. It was almost as if I were reading the script for a 10 episode Netflix series, instead of one solid book, because the plot meanders and splinters so much, and the reader is distracted with unnecessary backstory to "fill the run time".

The pacing of the story might be what killed it for me, but I'll get into the body horror and sexism first. Spoilers ahead. If you're squeamish or easily triggered, this book is definitely not for you, and don't bother with the rest of this review. Enjoy the rest of your day!

I should have heeded all of the reviews that gave trigger warnings. The setting and timing of this story is brilliant: A lot of scientific discovery and theories were being made about evolution, mutations, anatomy, genetics (though they didn't have that word yet), etc etc, and the study of bodies lends itself perfectly to body horror stories. BUT, for all that the setting was a cool playground for a horror story, it was still insensitive, jarring and disgusting the way that anecdotes about fetuses in jars, forced Cesareans, failed abortions, miscarriages, and rape were just thrown in as set decoration. These were not presented as traumatic events that the mother was struggling with (emotionally, morally, and physically). There was little to no prose given over how these events made women feel. Rather, they were included in a list of things which simply are. She wore gloves, she had a doily on her desk, and she had a stillbirth some ten years ago, but all that was behind her now. WHAT?!?! No offense to male authors, because some of you write women WONDERFULLY, but I immediately clocked that J.M. Miro was a dude because of the lack of emotional depth given to the women in this book who endured sexual trauma. Fellas.... There is a distinction between physical violence and sexual violence. In an R rated movie, let's say, you can be sensational about injuries and murder, it gives a cathartic thrill. But sexual violence is not thrilling, it is not cathartic. Quite the opposite, it is often weighty with grief, shame, anxiety, powerlessness, resentment, etc. It is the difference between our hero claiming power, and our hero having power stolen from them. There is nothing triumphant in enduring sexual violence, not like the reward for winning a fight or a battle. And sexual violence is not a brief wound which can be physically mended; it lives on under the skin in triggers and reminders of the trauma endured. If the audience is meant to identify with and sympathize with the character, then misrepresenting a heavy burden of suffering as a fleeting shocking moment, is not only disingenuous to your character and the story you want to tell, but it's hurtful to your audience.

J.M. struggled to write women in general. This book would not pass The Bechdel test. Most of the female characters were flat and identical in motivation: There was some man in their lives whom they admired and wanted to serve/avenge/flirt with, and their time with other women was spent talking about the mutual male acquaintances in their lives or being suspicious of one another. Secondly, this book fell into the trope for "a strong woman means she uses weapons, right?" Nope! Strength is measured in character, not weaponry, and a strong female lead doesn't outsource her moral scales to the man in her life. "Ooo, I have my misgivings about all the dead babies and missing orphans in Dr. B's care, BUT, he's the man in charge, so I trust him!" Finally, most of the women weirdly had latent maternal instincts which would kick in when they were around Marlowe. Maybe that was part of Marlowe's magic, because, as a mother of two, I am still waiting for those "maternal instincts" to kick in. FELLAS!!!.... Women are not predisposed to be nurturing any more or less than you are. Having empathy is just a basic human skill set you learn. It is not an animal instinct brought on by hormones. It is a choice you must make, to be mindful of another person. Anyone can do it, and women can most certainly fail at it when we're stressed, or have not had a lot of experience being patient with others (read as: with children). She does not transform into Mom Mode just because of her proximity to a small stranger. (Likewise, a child is not necessarily, inherently docile or ingratiating! Why would a child defer to the nearest female stranger for safety?) A woman being near a child is not like two strong magnets pulling together, they do not naturally gravitate toward one another. Temperament, personal history, the chemistry between the two people - you know, BASIC CHARACTERIZATION - matter!

Speaking of characterization... The final nail in the coffin for this book was its pacing, which was largely bloated because the author gave DETAILED backstories to EVERYONE, and repeated those details every time that character reappeared in the book. It was as if the author didn't trust us to remember the character chapter to chapter (episode to episode), so he would give us a "fun" little recap on who their parents were, who had died in their family, where they grew up, how they new about the Cairndale Institute, what their magical powers were, ETC! It was mind-numbing!!! Imagine if in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Harry didn't get to Hogwarts for 300 pages, because the author kept stopping to tell us that Hagrid's mom left and his dad died when he was young, he was expelled and framed for murder in his teens, and he frequently drinks himself into a stupor because he blames himself for borrowing Sirius Black's bike and riding off with baby Harry instead of clobbering Black for betraying the Order of the Phoenix!.... WHOSE. BOOK. IS IT?!?! It's not titled Rubeus Hagrid and the Sorcerer's Stone! These are all facets of Hagrid's character that are interesting to know, and even relevant to later plot... But there IS a plot, and THE MAIN CHARACTERS have to embark on it, take part in some shenanigans, exchange some witty banter, tug at the heartstrings of the reader... Too much backstory retracts from the NOW, from the central thread of the book. Were the backstory being extolled in pieces, like a puzzle, to give us a different understanding of the world from our hero's bias take on their reality, or even to underscore a theme (ex. History Repeats Itself, or the classic Hero's Not So Different From the Villain, or even This Tragedy Was Avoidable, Ahhhh, Heartbreak, Dramatic Irony!) then A LITTLE goes a looong way. But not EVERY character should get a full biography, complete with their parents sexual history, as a cheat sheet for introductions or characterization. Much more can be learned about that character by just having them interact with other characters or their environment. Save the bios for the appendix, Tolkien! XD

A poor understanding of violence and trauma, and a poor understanding of at least half of humanity, make for a VERY poor horror story. In my opinion, horror is at its best when the story reveals something about humanity. Can we trust our perception of reality? To what depths will we sink, or delude ourselves into believing are acceptable? What physical horror is science, nature, God, or the human body capable of? Where is the veil between life and death? All fun concepts that have been explored more effectively and succinctly by V.E. Schwab, H.P. Lovecraft, Joseph Conrad, Pierce Brown, Jay Kristoff, J.K. Rowling, Edgar Allan Poe, Leigh Bardugo...

What I'm saying is, go pick up another book. ;P

This story has major Disney channel energy XD. I can so clearly see the commercial break graphic of Ember shoving her boys playfully, then crossing her arms and popping her hip, her eyes flaring up draconically. The premise of this book is not goofy, it's kid soldiers and raids on refugees and sexual assault and racism/able-ism.... But the execution of that premise is sooooo goofy, these dragons and soldiers going surfing, grabbing smoothies and pizza, playing arcade games, getting butterflies in their tummies XD. This book, for all that it wants to have moodiness and heart, is actually pretty fluffy: Manic pixie dream punk meets awkward quiet conservative boy and they inspire each other to be Real, and then they smooch one summer. The teens worry about FEELINGS when they should be worrying about GUNFIRE, the villain monologues, but ultimately it's a cute story about love against all odds and living authentically. I was very entertained. I flew through the book and am eager to dive into the next one.