LS5623: The Fire Wish by Amber Lough

1.     BIBLIOGRAPHY

Lough, Amber. The Fire Wish. New York: Random House, 2014. Print.

2.     PLOT SUMMARY
Zayele, a young Middle Eastern woman, is forced into a betrothal with the prince of Baghdad by her uncle, the vizier. On her way to Baghdad, she encounters a jinni and forces the jinni to grant her wish. Najwa, the jinni, has trained her whole life to be a spy and to spy on humans. But Zayele’s wish ends up revealing secrets in both their pasts that changes everything.

3.     CRITICAL ANALYSIS characters, plot, setting, theme, style, authenticity

Even in a fantastical setting, The Fire Wish comes with a great deal of diversity and insight into a culture that most Americans don’t know; that of the Middle East. Most fantasy novels take place in a very Western culture: there are kings, knights, and dozens of other words we as Americans are familiar with from both history and fantasy books. The king is called a caliph, the genies are jinni. Small details also color this story with authenticity, like the clothes. Zayele wears a hajib and her clothing is carefully modest—very unlike the popular Disney movie Aladdin (often one of the few pieces of media a young adult in America would have seen that takes place in the Middle East with a fantastical setting). The details are not so different that they make the book difficult to read, but there are enough that it feels like a new culture that the reader gets to explore.

The characters are also unusual; both main protagonists are female, not something that people would assume when being told they were reading a fantastical Middle Eastern story. Even very minor characters, such as the characters’ respective mothers, have distinct personalities. The only criticism that could be given would be that only the two main characters show much dynamic change—all other characters are static in their personality.

The theme is probably where the book shines the most, and it is not terribly subtle about it. The jinni and the humans have been at war for over a decade, and each has a very specific stereotype of evil of the other. As both Zayele and Najwa interact with their opposite race, they come to discover that everyone they meet is very much like them and the people they know—there are some good people, some bad people, and generally just people that wish to live their life. The parallel to a reader’s own life is obvious; perhaps not all Middle Eastern people are terrorists, and perhaps most people that live there simply wish to live their lives and enjoy time with the people they love.

Stylistically, The Fire Wish is not a difficult book to read. It is written in a first person point-of-view style, switching between Zaeyel and Najwa. Other than the occasional Arabic word, the vocabulary should not be too difficult for a teenager, and the syntax is also within reach of a normal teenager. This would be a good book for a younger teenager, though older teenagers would enjoy the plot just as much.

4.     CREATIVE ACTIVITY

In The Fire Wish, the jinni get their power from their “wishpower.” The wishes should be simple (the more complicated, the bigger chance they have to go wrong), and they can’t be things like “world peace.” Have each student come up with an answer to the following question: If you could have one wish granted by a powerful jinni, what would you wish for? When they share their wish, have the other students see if they can figure out ways that the wish could go awry.

Another activity, though a little more in-depth, could be done about the culture. Girls and boys are not allowed to mingle on their own in the book (part of the culture). Separate the class so that each gender is on a different side of the room. There are a lot of other parts of this culture you could bring in. Trying on hajibs, working within their modesty rules, but these might need to be done on a culturally aware level and not done offensively.

5.     RELATED RESOURCES

You can buy signed copies of The Fire Wish from http://amberlough.squarespace.com/new-products/the-fire-wish-hardcover-copy . This is especially useful for book clubs, classrooms, or libraries for a drawing.

Amber Lough, the author, is also active on several social media sites including Twitter, Tumblr, and Facebook. She also attends regular conferences. These can be found at http://amberlough.squarespace.com/new-page/

6.     PUBLISHED REVIEW 

Kirkus. The Fire Wish: Kirkus Review. Kirkus Reviews. 2014.

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/amber-lough/the-fire-wish/