Book Review: The Fire Sermon (The Fire Sermon, #1)

Author| Francesca Haig
Edition| eARC courtesy of Netgalley
Genre| YA Dystopian
Publisher| Gallery Books
Release Date| March 3rd, 2015
Rating| 4 Stars
Related Posts| WOW

This was one of my most anticipated releases of the year and I was so happy to get an ARC of it.  My plans included reading it ASAP, but life got in the way and I couldn't actually get to it until it's release date was racing upon me.  But, regardless, receiving this as an Advanced Readers Copy had me hopping down the school halls singing it out to my friends and utter strangers.  That actually happened.

The Fire Sermon is the first in a trilogy (no surprise) and actually reminded me a bit of The Darkest Minds meets epic fantasy.  The texture and tone of the world was the same, though the premises very different.  I also thought there were some similar characters, but that's neither here nor there.  This book follows Cass, an Omega and a Seer.  Every person is born with a twin.  Some twins are Omega's, those who have some sort of deformity, normally physical, and are sent away to live in poverty; others are born Alpha's, the perfect humans who go on to oppress the Omega's.  Why not just get rid of all worthless Omega's?  If one twin is severely hurt, the other feels it.  If one twin dies, the other dies.  They rely on each other for survival.  However, there are dreams of a place where Omega's are free, and Cass is desperate to find that place.

Within the first several chapters the world is completely laid out for the reader.  Complete history on why civilization is in ruin and the Alpha's and Omega's exist.  It was a lot of info dumping, told in the form of flash backs while Cass is sitting around in prison for a couple years.  At first, with the fast and smart writing, I thought this book was on track for five stars.  And then the descriptions never ended and the story never progressed.  Time was actually passing the character by and two years of nothing happened.  It actually made me doubt if this was a YA book, and I think it may border on NA, which is pretty cool.

When Cass finally does something I got excited.  I thought, "here it is, the moment the story starts".  But then, it just kept up a turtle's pace.  Traveling, traveling, traveling, pit stop, traveling.  And finally destination.  And then more nothing.  And then it's over with about three chapters of excitement.

I liked the story, I really did.  I liked the characters, and I liked the premise, and I liked the world.  And I loved the history in the story; I feel like things aren't explained enough in dystopian stories.  But it just dragged.  It never got to the point where I was tempted to put it down, but it came very close.  The writing was brilliant at first and then tapered off some, but never really lost its luster.  The ending, too, promised quite a bit and never delivered.  I feel like it was an ending I've seen a lot of lately and has been becoming cliched.  Fingers crossed the theme doesn't keep up because it's one of my least favorite endings, especially when I have to wait for the next book in the series.

Would I buy a hard copy of this book?  When it comes out in paperback, probably.  I enjoyed it enough to keep a copy on my shelf.  For those dystopian lovers out there, this one is particularly for you.  Enjoy!