Review: Salt & Stone

SALT & STONE
Fire & Flood #2
Victoria Scott
Young Adult/Sci-Fi/Adventure
320 pages
Scholastic
Available Now
Source: ARC from publisher for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
What would you do to save someone you love?

In Fire & Flood, Tella Holloway faced a dangerous trek through the jungle and across the desert, all to remain a Contender in the Brimstone Bleed for a chance at obtaining the Cure for her brother. She can't quit--she has to win the race, save Cody, and then fight to make sure the race stops before it can claim any more lives. In the next legs of the race, across the ocean and over mountains, Tella will face frostbite, sharks, avalanche, and twisted new rules in the race.

But what if the danger is deeper than that? How do you know who to trust when everyone's keeping secrets? What do you do when the person you'd relied on most suddenly isn't there for support? How do you weigh one life against another?

The race is coming to an end, and Tella is running out of time, resources, and strength. At the start of the race there were one hundred twenty-two Contenders. As Tella and her remaining friends start the final part of the race, just forty-one are left--and only one can win.

MY THOUGHTS
Salt & Stone is an action-packed follow up to last year's Fire & Flood, reintroducing us to the world and characters as they take a breather before beginning the third leg of the Brimstone Bleed, and then plunging us into the most perilous survival situations the contenders have faced yet. Ms. Scott does a fantastic job of seamlessly threading reminders as to the events of Fire & Flood–particularly the all-important “why” of the Brimstone Bleed itself–through this second installment, ensuring we’re up to speed without slowing things down with a full recap.

While the focus remains predominantly on the physical and mental challenges of the Bleed on the contenders, Salt & Stone also sees a significant shift in the relationship between Tella and Guy. For much of the first half the two are at odds, an offhand comment made by Guy causing Tella to question the way she’s run her race thus far and her ability to see it all the way through. The hot and cold nature of their interactions is frustrating at times, but just as we reach the point where one more change in mood from either of them is going to tip us over the edge, Tella decides to finally step up and use her words, cluing Guy in as to why things between them have changed. While Tella’s honesty doesn’t mend all their fences, it certainly removes a weight from our shoulders, freeing us from the tension of words unspoken.

The concluding chapters of Salt & Stone are one punch to the gut after another, and any animal lovers like myself should be aware that a number of scenes are brutal to witness, ratcheting up our hatred of those running the Brimstone Bleed to an entirely new level. We’re left on the final page as emotionally beaten and bruised as the contenders are, but Ms. Scott is considerate enough to leave us with a quiet moment that makes a smile break out even as we blink away tears.

Rating: 4/5

Find Victoria:

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This book was sent to me by the publisher free of charge for the purpose of a review. 

I received no other compensation and the above is my honest opinion.

Review: Fire & Flood

FIRE & FLOOD
Fire & Flood #1
Victoria Scott
Young Adult/Dystopian
304 pages
Scholastic
Available Now
Source: Finished copy from publisher for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
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?

MY THOUGHTS
Fire & Flood is thrilling and action-packed, the life and death situations accompanied by no shortage of humor to ensure we're pulled into Tella's world mentally and emotionally as she fights for a way to save her brother's life. Tella's sense of humor is a pleasant surprise, something we're not really expecting given the gravity of the premise, but it's an aspect of the story we find ourselves extraordinarily thankful for when it catches us slightly off guard in the moments we need it most. Tella's entrance into the Brimstone Bleed happens quickly, preventing us early on in the story from truly understanding the seriousness of the race itself until death is suddenly bearing down on us in the wilds of the jungle, and from there things for Tella and the rest of the contestants only get darker. As a result, Tella's witty one-liners delivered in the intimacy of her own internal monologues are like a warm hand holding our own, letting us know this situation has not yet gotten the best of her and giving us the strength we need to face down what we know will be increasingly difficult to endure.

Tella is an easily lovable heroine, someone whose aforementioned dry humor is a balm to the deep wounds decorating our hearts as the race continues, and whose unrelenting dedication to her older brother has us in her corner from the very beginning. She has moments where the pressures of the race start to overwhelm her and her mind wanders to the possibility of taking the out offered to contestants at the end of each leg, but all she has do do is repeat her brother's name to herself and she finds her strength renewed. She's not a gifted survivalist in any way, making it very easy for us as readers to put ourselves in her shoes, and she's thankfully not above relying on others to help her find her footing, fully acknowledging she needs help now and then to overcome the challenges the race puts forth.

There is a romantic thread woven through the dangerous fabric of the Brimstone Bleed, but its not a relationship that steals the spotlight from race itself, rather it pops into prominence with perfect timing just when the weight of the challenges start to take their toll, allowing our hearts to feel the rejuvenating warmth of human affection before we're returned to the cold reality of survival. Guy is a little tricky in the early stages of their relationship, oddly averse to Tella for reasons we can't quite comprehend, and while we never learn exactly why he didn't want to partner with her initially, he does slowly warm to her (or more accurately, is slowly worn down by her endearing moments of social awkwardness) and they become a couple we're rooting for to defeat odds that are overwhelmingly stacked against them.

Those more inquisitive readers who prefer a lot of backstory as to how something like the Brimstone Bleed came to be might find themselves a little disappointed throughout, the history of the race something held just outside of our reach for majority of the book. Toward the end however, Ms. Scott does grant us some much needed understanding, and while the reason for the race's creation seems just a touch far-fetched even in a fictional situation, the story and characters more than make up for it. This is lightning-quick and emotional read, tears threatening to spill over in the final chapters as the second leg of the race wraps up, but a determination that mirrors Tella's own thrums through our blood and tempers the sadness as we look forward to the next installment.

Rating: 4/5
 

Find Victoria:

Website • Facebook • Twitter • Goodreads • Amazon 

This book was sent to me by the publisher free of charge for the purpose of a review. 

I received no other compensation and the above is my honest opinion.