Rating: 4.75🌈

With any Kim Fielding tale there’s sure to be a hint at least of darkness, a layering of sadness or brokenness threading throughout the narrative.

But in Fire Stones it’s sheer horror, terrifying pain, and unescapable terror that lies waiting for the reader and main character.

Little match girl or fellow indeed.

In just 35 pages, in the typical Fielding way, the author brings us believably, heartbreakingly, into Brand’s cold, barely surviving life as an indentured servant to an mediocre magician.

In one terrifying night everything changes for him. In the worst possible way.

If you’re not a fan of horror fiction, this isn’t the story for you. It gets ever more quietly frightening for Brand, gut wrenchingly terror-stricken by the circumstances of his situation.

It’s definitely not for the faint-hearted. The ending, is at best, happily bittersweet . Completely Fielding.

There’s a slender romance, that we don’t have much of a framework for. Had that been a little more firmly established, this would have been a 5 star story.

As it is, Fielding’s given us pure chill-worthy Fielding. And that’s plenty great.

Love the cover.

https://www.goodreads.com › showFirestones by Kim Fielding – Goodreads

Synopsis:

Born with a deformed foot and abandoned as a young child, Brand spent his youth in indentured servitude to a mediocre wizard. Now Brand is grown, but with no other prospects to support himself, he remains in his master’s employ, doing small chores and selling firestones on the bleak streets of Greynox. Until one bitterly cold day.

In this dark take on a classic fairy tale, Brand encounters the most sinister of magics. With his firestones gone, can he find his way to the light?