YVO’S SHORTIES #198 – Incendiary & The Truth Pixie

Time for another round of Yvo’s Shorties! This time around two books for a younger audience; one YA and one MG and both fantasy. Incendiary failed to convince me completely, but I had great fun with The Truth Pixie.

Title: Incendiary
(Hollow Crown #1)
Author: Zoraida Córdova
Genre: YA, Fantasy, Romance
First published: April 28th 2020
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Finished reading: December 10th 2020
Pages: 464

“Sometimes I wonder if a person can have so much regret they’ll drown in it.”

I admit that it was cover love at first sight when I saw the cover of Incendiary, but when I read the blurb and saw it had a historical Spain influence I was sold all over again. I’ve been highly anticipating this title and I do wonder if I simply set my expectations too high, because somehow I wasn’t all too impressed by what I found. Don’t get me wrong; I still love the premise of this story. The idea behind this high fantasy world is fascinating and I loved idea behind the magic as well. BUT. I just felt both the fantasy world in general and the magic lacked developing more, as instead the story focused mostly on the character development instead. It is especially the magic and the historical references that had the potential to make this story stand out, but instead we have another angsty female main character who is supposed to be super powerful but has a lot of personal issues. Oh yes, the whole ‘everybody hates me‘, ‘I’m the only one who can save them/complete the mission‘ and ‘nobody understands me‘ vibe all over again… Which is both something that has been done already a LOT and something I find extremely annoying. This focus on the characters also slowed down the pace considerably, and while I found the beginning to be quite engaging, things soon started to drag. Especially once the main focus was on Renata alone; she has a lot of potential, but with all the issues mentioned before she became a bore fast. The romance didn’t do it for me either, and the cliffhanger ending that wasn’t all that big of a cliffhanger after all could have been better. Overall Incendiary isn’t exactly a bad read, but I don’t think it reached it’s potential at all… And I have to be honest here and say that I don’t think that I will continue the series any time soon.

Title: The Truth Pixie
(Christmas #3.5)
Author: Matt Haig
Genre: MG, Fantasy
First published: October 18th 2018
Publisher: Canongate Books
Finished reading: December 9th 2020
Pages: 128

“Don’t forget who you are. You are a fighter.
As the dark in the sky makes the stars shine bright,
You will find the bad stuff has good bits too.
The bad days are the days that make you you.

But you will never know happy unless you know sad.”

I’ve read and loved the first three Christmas books in the past, but somehow I forgot to pick up The Truth Pixie after that… I really liked her character, so I had high hopes for this one. And while I do think this isn’t the strongest book of the series, I still had great fun with this story! This book is both sad and uplifting and the illustrations really make the story come alive… They definitely complement the plot very well! I’m sure children will love this book and the series in general, and it’s a great one to get into that Christmas spirit. I really liked they rhyming too; very catchy!