Disclaimer: Sarah and I have been online pals for quite a few years, exchanging several messages and even sharing time on a podcast or two. That being said, what I’ve written below is as honest a review I can possibly write.
Sarah Chorn’s second novel, Of Honey and Wildfires, is the start of a new series/new world and new characters. Set in a world that evokes the old West/Frontier, the Shine and mining of it dominates everything. The closest analogue I can think of is that Shine is kind of like Spice from Dune. It heals, it is a source of power, it can be consumed, it is everything. Arlen Esco, son of the powerful land baron Matthew Esco and Cassandra, a young woman who is a rarity in that she’s untouched by Shine, are the two protagonists whose point of view the majority of the story is told. Some small scenes from Ianthe, a young lady who is dying of consumption, provide a third POV character. How these three characters are connected across this landscape is the story Sarah sets out to tell.
From the moment the first settler dug a well and struck a lode of shine, the world changed. Now, everything revolves around that magical oil. What began as a simple scouting expedition becomes a life-changing ordeal for Arlen Esco. The son of a powerful mogul, Arlen is kidnapped and forced to confront uncomfortable truths his father has kept hidden. In his hands lies a decision that will determine the fate of everyone he loves—and impact the lives of every person in Shine Territory.The daughter of an infamous saboteur and outlaw, Cassandra has her own dangerous secrets to protect. When the lives of those she loves are threatened, she realizes that she is uniquely placed to change the balance of power in Shine Territory once and for all. Secrets breed more secrets. Somehow, Arlen and Cassandra must find their own truths in the middle of a garden of lies.
The landscape is familiar, Sarah Chorn’s world is a mirror to that of the frontier, there’s bleakness, there’s powerful people keeping families under their heel with the main resource being mined by the young and powerless. What sets Of Honey and Wildfires above its peers in the genre is multifold. For starters, Chorn’s prose is enchanting, it draws you in like a charm. She infuses such powerful emotion into her characters it feels like their souls are alive and breathing along with yours.
From the prologue that essentially sets the stage for the power dynamic of the world, Sarah jumps about a decade and a half into a world where Matthew Esco has established himself as the most powerful man in Sefate, the land in which the story takes place. He is a ruthless businessman doing everything in his power to maintain control of the Shine. When he sends his son Arlen on an expedition of sorts, Arlen is kidnapped by the ruthless outlaw Christopher Hobson. Arlen is the lens into the privileged half of the world while Cassandra is the window into the life of people who live in fear of the vainglorious Matthew Esco. Hobson is the bridge between these characters, Arlen’s kidnapper and Cassandra’s father.
One of the more impressive elements is how Sarah wove the separate threads together into a whole story stronger than the sum of its parts. Early in the novel, Cassandra’s scenes take place when she is 5 years old shortly after Christopher drops off Casandra at her aunt’s “homestead” because he realizes he’d essentially be a toxic father. Cassandra’s chapters build over the years and here Sarah does a lovely job of conveying the kind of pain a daughter with an absentee father would experience. Arlen’s chapters are all “present day” of the story and there are some elements about his character that Chorn handles with the grace of a writer a dozen published novels into her career.
Human emotion, tragedy, and pain are wrought beautifully on these pages through Sarah Chorn’s carefully constructed prose. There’s a sliver of hope throughout the undercurrent of despair and pain that helps to drive the narrative. Of Honey and Wildfires is a compulsively readable novel whose relatively short page count for the genre (barely 300 pages) belies the epic story and gamut of emotions and purely powerful storytelling on display.
Highly recommended
© 2021 Rob H. Bedford
April 2020 | Trade Paperback | 318 pages
Author Website: https://www.bookwormblues.net/
Prologue: https://www.bookwormblues.net/2020/02/11/of-honey-and-wildfires-cover-art-prologue/
Review copy purchased
