{REVIEW} Frostblood by Elly Blake

FROSTBLOOD
by Elly Blake

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy
Pub Date: Jan 10, 2017
Publisher: Little, Brown Books FYR
Length: 376 pages
Spoilers: N/A
Goodreads ♦ Amazon($10.58)

 

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The frost king will burn.

Seventeen-year-old Ruby is a Fireblood who has concealed her powers of heat and flame from the cruel Frostblood ruling class her entire life. But when her mother is killed trying to protect her, and rebel Frostbloods demand her help to overthrow their bloodthirsty king, she agrees to come out of hiding, desperate to have her revenge.

Despite her unpredictable abilities, Ruby trains with the rebels and the infuriating—yet irresistible—Arcus, who seems to think of her as nothing more than a weapon. But before they can take action, Ruby is captured and forced to compete in the king’s tournaments that pit Fireblood prisoners against Frostblood champions. Now she has only one chance to destroy the maniacal ruler who has taken everything from her—and from the icy young man she has come to love.

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Oh, the cliches
Well… this book in itself is a bit of a cliche: fire vs ice. Hmm… where (and how many times) have we heard that one before? Still, I gave it a shot. It could be good. It could be a new take on it, and the lore behind these powers was well developed. It helped, but the world is only a small portion of the cliches in this book.

A good portion of the plot was a cliche, the characters were cliche, the interactions were cliches. So much was a cliche that I honestly could tell who everyone was before it was announced and what role they’d play later on. Kind of makes for a boring story, in my opinion.

Let’s talk Prophecies
Ah. Prophecies. This was actually one of the reasons why the cliches were so obvious because they were always like: “this prophecy talks about this person.” And I was like: “Huh. Now, I wonder who that could possibly be of all the characters in this story.” -.- Also, there were just too many prophecies. It was like… nothing was left to chance and that also left no suspense for how the book would end. Like there was never any possibility that something could go wrong.

Underdeveloped Characters
Okay. I get it. Firebloods and Frostbloods are a little stereotypical of their particular blood type/magical power, but wow. Oversimplification much? How about, oh, I dunno, a little depth to them? How about, oh, I dunno, motives that makes legitimate sense, perhaps?

Also, I have serious issues with Ruby in particular because the only contradictory piece of her is so unrealistic that I just couldn’t accept it. Just because she’s the main character, the protagonist, the heroine, etc, doesn’t mean she has to be ‘good.’ That, in my opinion, didn’t align with her background and personality and felt so wrong throughout the entire course of the book.

Additionally, because of her and, well, everyone’s underdevelopment as a character, the relationships did NOT work at all. They were forced. They were (shocker) cliche. They were so unrealistic that I actually felt like I was reading what every non-YA-reader expects YA to be: BAD! Just because they’re young/inexperienced/naive doesn’t mean they can’t be developed and have NORMAL INTERACTIONS. Come on, already.

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List of Cliches(not comprehensive)

• Everything changed when the Fire Nation attack- I mean, the Frostblood Kingdom attacked their polar opposite, the Fireblood Kingdom
• One element is stronger than the other and prosecutes the other (despite the fact that they are polar opposites and should be equally matched…)
• Aang- I mean Ruby, the last prosecuted air-bender- uh. I mean fireblood in the entire kingdom, is the savior (because magical prophecy- I mea- No… Wait. This last part is right.) #SpecialSnowflakeIsSpecial
• Naive, untrained savior must become mega-powerful in the course of a few weeks in all manners of fighting to take down the Firelord- I mean, Frostblood King.
• Brooding man is scarred and has mysterious background is actually the scorned ex-heir and his name is Zuko… No? Wrong fandom? oops.
• Woman and man clash because they’re polar opposites and have no real conversations and yet are magically attracted to each other 24/7 because… magic, apparently. Oh! And because they’re close in age. That totally means they should get together, obviously. Heaven forbid you’re not attracted to someone you’re own age. 

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