Kid’s Book Review: Phoenix and the Frost Palace

This is a fantasy adventure book written by Aisling Fowler and is the second in a series called Fireborn. It does have a few pictures that add slight context. The story is about a girl, formerly called Twelve, who sets out to save her land called Ember with her elemental fire powers. She is accompanied throughout this journey by her friends Five,Six and Seven (who also has a magical power of telling the future; a Seer) and Dog the Guardian of the Hunting Lodge. Her and her friends are Hunters which means they gave up their old lives to dedicate themselves to the seven clans of Ember: Grass, Forest, Desert, Bog, River and Mountain. They dedicate themselves by saying,

I pledge my life to the Hunting Lodge.
I vow to serve all seven clans as my own,
To protect them from what lies beyond.
I forsake all blood ties and blood feuds,
To offer up my name and my past.
The Hunters are my family now and always.
I swear before the that I will never
lower my weapons in the face of darkness,
Nor allow tyranny to rise.

Phoenix has had to live with the grief of her family’s murder and the destruction of her village Poa. She used to hide from the memories since it was forbidden to think about your past life but eventually stopped to cherish them. She travels to the ice kingdom of Icegaard to help destroy the Shadowseam, a dark substance that has been slowly killing the witches over the four decades and finally uses the fire powers she has kept under wraps since the incident at the Hunting lodge.

Overall my favourite character was Nara, an ice witch. She persevered greatly throughout the book to get Phoenix more in control of her power. I thought the characters felt real with their pain and grief even though it’s set in a fantasy-like world and the story kept me guessing and gripped on right until the end. I don’t have a favourite scene but some scenes were written amazingly well especially the action packed parts and it played with my emotions more than anything.

I loved the book but I wished it didn’t end on such a cliffhanger because there had already been many shocking moments just before it so the cliffhanger just didn’t hit the right spot. I also strongly disliked Seven since she was bad at almost everything and was an unnecessary character. It also didn’t seem like there were many funny parts but maybe that’s what A.Fowler was going for. This book is a ⅘ it was amazing but there were a few things I disliked about it too.

I thought this book was very good at being sad but also action pact and kept you gripped and kept me stuck in a fantasy world. Out of 10 I would rate this book a 7 it was good but the first in the series was better, in my opinion.