Wicked Like a Wildfire is yet another hyped up YA magical realism book that completely let me down. Yes, I know that I’m starting this review in a negative way, but I just had to get that off of my chest.

All the women in Iris and Malina’s family have the unique magical ability or “gleam” to manipulate beauty. Iris sees flowers as fractals and turns her kaleidoscope visions into glasswork, while Malina interprets moods as music. But their mother has strict rules to keep their gifts a secret, even in their secluded sea-side town. Iris and Malina are not allowed to share their magic with anyone, and above all, they are forbidden from falling in love.

But when their mother is mysteriously attacked, the sisters will have to unearth the truth behind the quiet lives their mother has built for them. They will discover a wicked curse that haunts their family line—but will they find that the very magic that bonds them together is destined to tear them apart forever?

I had to read this for my monthly book club at my local Waterstones and I was so eager to pick it up. It has a gorgeous cover, and I had heard so many good things about it from book bloggers and booktubers alike. I don’t tend to read Goodreads reviews until after I’ve finished the book though, because I don’t other reviews to impact my thoughts. The only time I ever read Goodreads reviews, is after I’ve finished my own review so that I can see if anyone else felt the same way as me. [[Edit: After finishing this review, I looked on Goodreads, and A LOT of people thought the same thing about this book that I did, so at least I know that I’m not the only one!]]

 

“Nothing is ever simple. There was no such thing as the one and only truth, and that too was a freedom in itself.”

– Lana Popović, Wicked Like a Wildfire

 

As I started reading it, I could tell that it was going to be a book that was overflowing with purple prose (noun: prose that is too elaborate and descriptive). There are some books, such as Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor that has purple prose, but I really enjoy. But in Wicked Like a Wildfire, I found it very tedious, and by the time the book club meeting had rolled around, I was only on page 25… After 2 weeks of having it on my currently reading shelf. Not good. It just wasn’t gripping my attention, which was such a shame because I really wanted to enjoy this book, but I kept with it, determined to finish it. I really do hate DNF’ing books.

An aspect of this novel that I actually really enjoyed was that it was set in Cattaro, Montenegro which is something that you NEVER see in YA novels. They are always set in the U.S (and very rarely in the U.K), so it was amazing to learn about a different place that had a different culture. Throughout the book, Iris and a couple of other characters visit some of the places in Montenegro such as Our Lady of the Rocks, and then a few different churches that sounded gorgeous. It made me want to go there, but alas, it’s 1,573 miles away from where I live. Even though I didn’t like the full descriptions of the characters or a plant or whatever else there was, I really did like the purple prose when it came to describing these different places, as it made me feel like I was standing there experiencing Montenegro for myself.

 

“Or maybe that was what it always felt like, knowing you might lose everything when you’d only just discovered all there was to live for. The sheer brilliance of the light against the darkness was almost too much to stand.”

– Lana Popović, Wicked Like a Wildfire

 

I also really like the different representations that we got in Wicked Like a Wildfire. Iris and Melina were half half-Japanese, Luke and Nikoletta were Romany, and Malina and Nikoletta were in an f/f relationship. It’s so nice to see this type of representation in YA novels. However, I cannot say whether the representation is accurate or not, because I am not half-Japanese, Romany or a lesbian.

Back to the negatives though, because I DO have a few more that I need to rant about. I HATED Iris. I thought that she was such a bitchy, whiny child who would stomp her foot if she didn’t get her own way. I was just constantly rolling my eyes at how much she would moan about absolutely everything. NO ONE CARES! All of the characters seemed to lack character development, to be honest. I did like Melina more than Iris, but she was so underdeveloped… It was a shame. AND THE MOTHER. UGGGHHH DON’T GET ME STARTED. Iris and Melina’s mother is Jasmina and she is an absolutely TERRIBLE Mom. She is physically and verbally abusive towards her children, and Popović used the whole ‘oh she was just protecting her children’ to try and justify the abuse. I DON’T CARE if she was trying to stop her kids from getting murdered, it does not give a parent the right to hit their children and also to speak to them like they’re garbage. No. I’m not having it. I was glad when she died. (Not a spoiler)

 

“Beauty’s worth it even in the smallest scale.”

– Lana Popović, Wicked Like a Wildfire

 

As for the plot. I was bored. It didn’t really pick up until the 60/70% mark, I think? It was at that point where Iris and Melina started to get involved in what was happening to them and that’s also where the action really kicked off, which – again – is a shame because I think that this book could have been so much better if it started before. Popović spent 50/60% of the book just describing things basically… However, after the 60% point, I was so invested in the story, and I was on the edge of my seat, not being able to wait to find out what happened next. I think for this reason – and this reason only – I’ll be reading Fierce Like a Firestorm because I want to see what happens next with the family, and I’m hoping that Popović keeps up the pace of the latter half of the novel.

 

“Love makes us even brighter than we are, until the gleam grows into a roman candle, impossible to contain. Everyone can see us shine with it, then, and it’s the nature of the human beast to fear what it doesn’t understand.”

– Lana Popović, Wicked Like a Wildfire

 

Last negative and I swear that I’ll wrap this (very long) review up… The magic. I didn’t get it. I mean, I did… I think… but it was so vague. Considering Popović spent a good amount of the book describing things, she didn’t describe the magic system very well. It was interesting how it was the ‘normal’ kind of magic that you see, and it seemed very original, but I just didn’t get it.

Overall – and I really am getting tired of saying this about overhyped books – it had a brilliant concept, but there was just poor execution of it. Like I said, the book offered so much potential because of the family history, the diversity and the setting, but there were just too many things that put me off giving it a higher rating.

 

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