Review of Frostblood by Elly Blake

I would recommend this book if you:

1. Have never read a YA fantasy
or
2. Want to read a cliché laden book with no complexity

Goodness, where do I start?

From the beginning, I found the premise extremely boring, and I am not impressed with the author’s creativity. We’ve got a big ol’ trope: Two Warring Races/Castes: in this case, Firebloods, people with fire magic, vs. Frostbloods, people with ice magic. Firstly, the concept of two warring groups is not new; It’s not hard to find books that feature this trope.

Then there’s the fact that this book does not execute the conflict particularly well. In Ruby’s country, the Frostbloods rule, and persecute the Firebloods for no reason, other than the fact that their magic is the opposite. We’re supposed to believe that there’s all this prejudice between the two groups, but there are so few reasons given for it that it’s not at all convincing. I’m all for books that feature prominent political conflicts, but they have to have some complexity to be compelling. Two groups being opposites does not guarantee that they will be enemies. It’s an overly simple reason for conflict.

This isn’t helped by the fact that there’s little to no worldbuilding. The world is your token Medieval Europe setting, with a few bits of lore thrown in. We get a creation myth, a couple of gods, vague descriptions of magic, and vaguely mentioned wars, which add to the overall vagueness of the Frostblood vs. Fireblood conflict. Um…why are they enemies? Oh, because….border wars n stuff. Yanno, some dudes invaded the other dudes, and now they hate each other. Makes sense right??!!

Now, let’s talk about the characters, who, I must say, are as tropey as the premise. Let’s go over them:

• The “Plucky” Heroine: Could Ruby get ANY MORE ANNOYING?? She’s supposed to be “fiery”, but instead acts like a five year-old. She has zero patience, the temper of a toddler, and throws ridiculous fits whenever she gets something wrong. I cannot believe how disrespectful and impudent she is with EVERY character, even those who try to help her. Okay, I understand Fiery magic = Fiery temper, but this girl was is nearly intolerable at times. I’m so done with the “plucky” heroine archetype.

• The Broody Dude with a Dark Past: He’s mean. He’s grumpy. He hates the main character from the first time they meet for no reason. But don’t worry, he’s got a Dark Past to excuse all his bad behavior. Newsflash: You don’t have to make a love interest a COMPLETE ASSHOLE for readers to ship the romance. In fact, I would recommend NOT doing it. And speaking of Dark Pasts, I guessed this one halfway through the book. This is another character archetype to ditch.
• Evil King Who is Evil: Why is he evil?? Because he’s Evil. He’s even MORE evil than the last king, who was VERY evil. So much evil. Makes you wish authors could develop villains who were more than just evil psychopaths who kill and oppress for fun (whether it’s by choice, or not). But...that would take creativity. That would take thought. And...that’s too much.

None of the characters have much emotional depth. Their feelings seem to change at random, and the bantering between Ruby and Arcus was so forced that I laughed several times while reading it. All Ruby seems to feel is rage, when she’s throwing one of her ridiculous temper tantrums. She doesn’t even feel much grief or sadness when her mother dies.

There’s also a tournament, which seems to be one of the big selling points of this book. Because if you wanna write a YA bestseller, you’ve got to throw in a tournament somewhere, right? There HAS to be a gladiator-style tournament, because evil people seem to have nothing better to do than watch people kill each other in an arena. I dunno, I guess if you’re evil, it’s just something you have to do.

Okay, I feel mean now, so I’m going to say some nice things. Despite the flaws, I would not say that this is unenjoyable to read. Honestly, I had FUN reading it. I’m almost tempted to read the second book, when it comes out. Part of it is because I was laughing at the tropes, but there’s enough action and angst to keep it interesting. Many of the fight scenes are cool. I don’t have any problems with the writing style either; I feel the author has skill with storytelling, but the lack of originality was enough to merit a negative review from me. I guess if you’re looking for a guilty pleasure fantasy read, this would be a good pick. But if you’re looking for something original, go ahead and skip it.