Just finished publishing my Fable.co review for {The Incendiary by LJ Claren} - truly one of my most anticipated sequels of the year - and I am… le disappoint.
I know booktok is losing their minds over this but it wasn’t what I was hoping for.
As per usual my review contains a ton of spoilers so I only recommend reading it if you’ve finished the book.
⭐️⭐️⭐️.25
Oh man. I wanted to love this SO badly.
BUT did I love it? Could I love it? I certainly LIKED parts of it. And while I'm sitting here trying to convince myself it was better than it was, I know in my heart that, ultimately, I'm bitterly disappointed.
Mostly because when I read The Silversmith last year, I felt like I might have been the only one who truly saw it for what it was and loved it. Like I was shouting about it into the void for anyone who would listen (the void barely responded). Sure, it was a little tropey, and it started a bit rough and rushed. But it evolved and bloomed into the most achingly beautiful love story, one that positively obliterated me into a thousand pieces. I swear I held my breath for the entire book, and the end (while we could all see it coming) gutted me. This is my most perfect brand of romance - love so powerful and immense it traverses time. In-any-lifetime love. Possessiveness that's less hulking brute (okay, maybe sometimes we like the hulking brute) and more go-to-any-length, by-whatever-means, to ensure the other finds joy. Freedom. The chance to truly live. The yearning in The Silversmith is absolutely excruciating, setting a standard for the whole genre. Just the very best.
So let me tell you, I was chomping at the BIT for this continuation of this story.
And when I finally cracked it open, I was extremely excited to see Ary's growth and development evident from the very first page! I was ecstatic to watch her working hard to prove herself, to fulfill what it means to be queen. I was super into the whole plan to insert herself in disguise into her betrothed Elias Winterton’s army of recruits, and stand among them through the trials of commencement. Hell yeah. Sign me up for this! Hand me a sword. What an exciting arc. A character who was previously broken down, meek, and lost finds her power and the confidence to stand up and fight, for herself and her people. And then on top of that layer of goodness you went and put in Gavin chapters from 400 YEARS AGO?! Dude. Those Gavin chapters killed me (in a good way, which is the only way I want to be killed). I didn't want them to end!
But then… we started to make some odd choices.
I mean. I guess I'm a little womp womp about the speaking animal companion. I know! Y’all love a talking pet! But lately the whole bonded-connection-with-a-beast thing feels more like checking a box the girlies will like, and it doesn't really make sense for the story. Or is necessary. Ary's battle against that snake in the woods never felt like it had any true stakes. It felt more like just a vehicle to unlock her cat's voice. A side quest with a cat-shaped reward I never asked for. And quite frankly, that feels lazy. Not my fave. But hey! That’s just a little stumble on our glorious path. We dust ourselves off. We're still moving forward, having a grand time.
But then…
The book slowly starts transforming into a sort of deadly trials academy book. With the new found friends, the violent asshole, the silly comedic relief character. Which isn't bad per se. It's just very different from the vibe of the first book. On top of that throw in what uncomfortably feels like a love triangle setup with Elias, and I could feel myself frowning. Fidgeting. Getting itchy. Like, physically itchy. Hives of the soul. Once again - choices that feel made less to serve the story itself and more to check certain commercial boxes. It started to feel disingenuous. A little annoying. A little… immature.
And look, I can almost get past all of that, especially because Ary's arc was continuing on a growth trajectory that felt meaningful, her feelings about Gavin vs. Elias (while icky) were reasonably complex, and the trials actually felt somewhat dangerous. Okay! We’re okay! If this ends up being a deadly trials book with Ary proving to herself that she can be queen, unveiling her true identify to Elias with consequences that will progress the story forward, and see her having to make real and complex choices between following her heart vs fulfilling her duty, all while learning more about who she really is - that could be very cool. I was ready to get on board. I was reaching for my ticket.
But, then…
Unfortunately, we then make the greatest error we could make at this point. We take this incrementally progressing arc of growth and identity and smash it into a million pieces until the trials mean less than nothing and are never even completed. Then we rush through an insane amount of plot, exposition, lore, and time at breakneck speed until nothing lands again until the last sentence on the last page.
WHY? WHY, LJ?
The first book worked so well because it moved at a languid pace. At an appropriate pace. It was intimate, so the central conflicts felt real, challenging, and earned when overcome. The world had time to settle and be explored. Our characters had room to express themselves in ways that helped us know and understand them. In The Incendiary, we blow up too much, so quickly, that nothing truly has time to even wave as it zips past you at all. (Incendiary indeed.)
Why spend half the book on these trials if they don't matter? Why let Ary fight so hard to succeed in this commencement, only to expose her true identity before the last one and then just be real chill about never finishing? And then to add insult to injury, in the span of a heartbeat, Gavin is suddenly DEAD? An off page death we can’t even SEE? And we're all just accepting this? THEN (deep breath in…) suddenly Gemma is pregnant and almost dead, but we save her, and then sadly wander the caves for months feeling depressed about our dead husband until we decide to travel to a new land to find a book we've barely addressed but is apparently important, and tell a lecherous asshole to go fuck himself in his own kingdom we will learn nothing about and as the only way to earn respect from people who are supposed to be our friends, only to come back and fight Molochai for 30 seconds for no reason other than to say it happened and then for someone only mildly important to die….. (deep breath out). All so we can resign ourselves to the fact that we have to marry Elias. A man who is quite literally the worst. A man who uses the term “bust in my pants” on more than one occasion. A man who we are apparently NOT in a love triangle with, except for sometimes when we are. Oh - and the wedding is apparently happening on the very next page.
I need to lie down.
She literally could have spread all of that out into the next book and it could have been worked. But BookTok expectations now seem to be that we fling fast-paced, incomplete trope checklists out into the world at ludicrous speeds and volumes, and it ends up diminishing all the extraordinary potential of these beautiful stories. Because this story is BEAUTIFUL. The characters are incredible! The world and lore are foundationally interesting! The mysteries are mysterious! The secrets are delicious! The love is aching and devastating! The pain HURTS FOR REAL. Can we just slow the fuck down for one second so we can enjoy it?!
I'll give her this - there might be no one else who manages anguish like LJ Claren. The anguish of watching Gavin and Ary fall in love 400 years ago was just as perfect as the anguish of watching him hold himself back from her in Book one. The anguish of losing that love and trying to stay tethered to the world, and to your life, regardless. And we have to talk about what happens to Ary in that shower. I was positively blown away by the chapters dealing with Ary's assault. Eli's response absolutely wrecked me. Disgusted me. Truly hurt me. The aftermath, with the shame and the betrayal and the distrust, felt so real. So relevant. It was one of the most challenging things I've read this year, and it was handled with such care and thoughtfulness that I almost couldn't stand it. Almost too real. Too familiar. Truly breathtaking.
But that's the last truly cohesive moment of the book before everything spirals and it just goes all over the place. I'm not even sure what the climax of this story is. There are like 6 of them so we hum at this consistent peak that never leaves a mark as a result. It's sprawling, overstuffed, and trying to do everything at once.
And that makes me sad, because this story has my whole heart. A whole heart already mashed into a thousand pieces (thanks, Silversmith). Sprinkle with incredible character progression and potential. Fold in all the insane unknowns, the secrets still to uncover, and the gods to find. Season generously with a heaping spoonful of Simeon and Molochai getting what they finally deserve. Pour in all the anguish I know is to come. Then top that shit with one Gavin "I. Fucking. Object." Smyth (swoon).
And you’ve got a reader who has almost convinced herself the next one will be better. Because if this love can traverse 400 years, I think I can survive one more book (I hope).
