A modern day thrill ride, where a teen girl and her animal companion must participate in a breathtaking race to save her brother's life—and her own.
Tella Holloway is losing it. Her brother is sick, and when a dozen doctors can't determine what's wrong, her parents decide to move to Montana for the fresh air. She's lost her friends, her parents are driving her crazy, her brother is dying—and she's helpless to change anything.
Until she receives mysterious instructions on how to become a Contender in the Brimstone Bleed. It's an epic race across jungle, desert, ocean, and mountain that could win her the prize she desperately desires: the Cure for her brother's illness. But all the Contenders are after the Cure for people they love, and there's no guarantee that Tella (or any of them) will survive the race.
The jungle is terrifying, the clock is ticking, and Tella knows she can't trust the allies she makes. And one big question emerges: Why have so many fallen sick in the first place?
After reading and loving Victoria Scott's Dante Walker series I couldn't wait to read her new series. Add to the fact that it's dystopia and I have an unreal love for dystopia series I was so anxious to get started on this series. Fire and Flood has a good storyline and is a great addition to the dystopia genre.
All Tella wants is to go back to how it used to be. After her brother got sick and the doctor's couldn't determine what was wrong with him their whole lives were uprooted and moved to Montana. Tella, more than anything, wants her brother to get better. So when she is given the chance to fight in the Brimstone Bleed Tella is determined to fight and win. Her prize? The cure for her brother. But only one person can win and their is no guarantee that she will survive the race in the first place.
I have such conflicted feelings for this book. I couldn't wait to read it. It sounded like such an awesome book and completely my kind of book. With it being a YA Dystopia novel comparisons to The Hunger Games were bound to happen. I can usually bypass that and see the books as they are on their own... but with this one there is just too much that is completely similar that it's hard to look past it and look for the originality. Tella enters a competition that is a fight to the death to save her brother and some of the competitors start to band together to increase their chances of survival. It's just too similar for comfort with me.
Add this to the fact that I completely and utterly hated Tella. One of my biggest problems with novels is if I don't like the characters then I can't stand the book for the most chance. Tella may be doing the Brimstone Bleed for good and selfless reasons but she is selfish, vain and just completely unlikable to me. Especiall when she started saying how she could have been friends with a girl if she didn't want to kill he because she was beautiful and looked good. Seriously... kill me now!
Fire and Flood was such a tough read for me but it had one majorly redeeming quality... there is one aspect which is totally realistic. Enter the Pandoras. Pandoras are eggs that hatch into an animal that can have magical powers and cannot. I loved this part of the book. It's so original and it was this part of it that really had me keeping reading. I have to be honest that if it wasn't for this part of the book I probably would have DNF'd it.
Fire and Flood is a good storyline and it's jampacked full of action and romance. If you love your Hunger Games eske novels with a new unique aspect and can look away from lots of similarities this is the book for you. I still adore Victoria Scott and her writing is so talented and is an amazing author but this book is just not for me. I am unsure whether I will read book 2 or not.