ARC Review: Fire & Flood

Fire & Flood by Victoria Scott
Published by Scholastic Press
Format Reviewed: eARC
Publication Date: February 25th, 2014
Genre: YA Adventure
Pages: 320
Reviewed by: Stephanie
My Rating: 5 of 5 Stars

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?

I received this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. No compensation was given or taken to alter this review.

Tella is recruited to race in the Brimstone Bleed but what she doesn't realize is how dangerous this race will be. Not only will be have to race across four ecosystems and survive the dangers each possess, she also has to survive the other contenders.

When I first heard of the concept for this novel, I immediately thought of Hidalgo. I know, I know, people don't seem to like it, but I loved it. If you haven't seen it, Hidalgo is about a man who enters a distance race in Arabia. And, of course, he ends up having to fight people on the way (in the movie at least). Fire & Flood was even better though. Honestly, I believe the most accurate description for Fire & Flood would be that it's a cross between The Hunger Games and Hidalgo. And, believe me, it's pretty darn epic.

I wasn't immediately drawn in by Tella's narration. I found her a bit annoying for part of the novel but it didn't take her long to grow on me. What I think we need to remember about Tella (and this novel in general) is that she's not living in a dystopian society. This takes place in the same world we live in and she is just a normal girl. She hasn't had to fight starvation all her life. She's used to the comforts of technology. Quite frankly, I think Tella is a pretty accurate reflection of some of Fire & Flood's readers. And this is why I began to like her. When she realized what was going on, her first thought was basically, holy crap, I can't do this. Honestly, if I were her, I would have had the same thought and I probably would have ran after those trucks too.

The others characters were wonderfully diverse. They each had different personalities and were excellent additions to the story. There were some I was a little iffy on at first. I mean, they're all after the same thing, so can Tella really trust them? Of course, Titus was trouble from the beginning. But as creepy as he was, nothing was creepier than (Highlight for SPOILER - you probably don't want to do this) Dink. *shivers*. That twist was brilliant and had me looking over my shoulder as I got ready for bed.

The plot was well crafted and the pacing was perfect. Miss Scott didn't forget a thing. She did an excellent job incorporating a larger plot without it taking over the story that lured us in. It's obvious that everything was well-thought-out. Fire & Flood is worth your time.