We Set the Dark on Fire
Series: We Set the Dark on Fire, Book 1
By: Tehlor Kay Mejia / Narrated By: Kyla Garcia
Length: 9 hrs and 54 mins
Kinda on the fence about this one—has its pluses, has its minuses…
Let’s start with what We Set the Dark on Fire is about:
Our heroine is Dani Vargas, a girl, er, young woman, who is the top Primera in her school, coming from the slums, rising to an outstanding marriage to a political bigwig. As marriages in Medio, the Chosen side of the wall, are triangles, her Segunda is Carmen, her archenemy. Lemme explain: Marriages of the powerful have a Primera, who is the stalwart and hyper rational wife in this triangle, and a Segunda, who nurtures the husband, is his sexual mate, has his children. Got it?
Okay, so the audiobook opens with a protest of people from the other side of the wall, the impoverished side, bewailing the injustice of living and dying desperate lives in squalor even as people in Medio (The “chosen” and powerful side of this island all are living on), are wealthy, healthy, and it’s unfair… blah blah blah. Read that setup in many a book, and I s’pose this is author Tehlor Kay Mejia’s way of describing today’s wealth/health gap between rich and poor. Anywho, the Medio police crack down and are demanding every girl’s papers because letting the protestors in was an inside job. Dani’s papers are forged, and I can’t figure out what the problem is because part of her notoriety in the school is that she’s from a tough place but has done well. But apparently it IS a problem, and she is saved by a member of La Voz, a radical, rebel group, striving to get social change. The young man is Sota, and he gives Dani new and “legit” papers, and that sets Dani up for the whole book’s happenings. She is married to the politically powerful Mateo, and she goes between being a Primera and being a spy for Sato.
Add to that her growing and evolving romantic relationship with Carmen, who verrrry early on becomes quite repentant and affectionate to Dani (Whom she dithers about trusting), and her continued involvement with Sota (Whom she trusts TOTALLY after that one favor… and she trusts a young woman named Alex immediately… and she trusts Jose and Mia the servants immediately… and she immediately trusts… well, everyone exCEPT Carmen), and add to it that Dani is never torn about doing one thing or the other, and you have the book. There is never inner turmoil, no tension there. There is never a doubt that Carmen cares for her, no tension there. There is never a doubt she will spy, no tension there (As a matter of fact, Mateo is written as pure evil, having no complexity in his character, so of COURSE Dani will work for La Voz).
I s’pose it’s because it’s a first book in the series that things are so staid. We’re getting everything established, so perhaps in future books we’ll get the real tension? Plus, I panned Michael J. Sullivan’s Age of Myth over on Audible (Michael J. Sullivan for cripes sake: You know I HAD to be plenty peeved to do THAT!) because he ended the book with a huuuge twist and cliffhanger ending. I felt it was a cheap and easy way to drive readers/listeners to the next book. Well, Mejia does it here, so ick!
The good things about it are that it has female protagonists, the world building is rather unique and Hispanic (Made me hungry, and I loved the way their societies were based on myth—kinda like an eagle sitting on a cactus and eating a serpent for the founding of a city!). I liked that the romance wasn’t between Dani and Sota but between our two wives, finding in each other the tenderness and honesty that Mateo oh so obviously doesn’t even possess. I also liked how Mejia put a few twists in throughout—even if you can see ‘em coming a mile away, at least things are changing, ya know?
Kyla Garcia does a fair job with the narration. Her pacing is pretty good, at x1.25 speed of course, and when it comes to the Hispanic words we’re rather used to, her accent is decent, tho’ she delivers no other accent for the main narrative, despite this world supposedly being culturally close to a Hispanic culture (Yes, tho’ the book has female protagonists, this is still a macho male-dominated society). I didn’t like her voice for Mateo, it added to his black-and-white, he-is-evil persona—rather harsh tones. But she did everyone else okay, even Sota, another male. But Sota is more complex, so I guess he was easier to work with.
So there you go. I don’t regret spending the almost 10 hours in the world of Media with Dani, and Carmen, and Sota, and Alex. I just kinda got exasperated by a few things as a grownup that a teen might like having spelled out. Teens are noTORiously impatient, so they don’t have time for all of that jolly rot I’d like. Which, I believe, I can sorta relate to, not being into delayed gratification and all.
It’s just that, now that I’ve finished? I think I miiiiight wait for the second book to go on sale. Teens will appreciate its structure and elements, I, alas, hadn’t the patience for it.
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