Wildcat Fireflies is a YA paranormal fantasy by Amber Kizer, and the sequel to Meridian.If you not yet read Meridian, this review with its brief synopsis will inevitable include spoilers of the first book. I recommend you don’t read today’s post until you read Meridian – from one bibliophile to another.
Final warning…
Meridian and Tens are still on the road after Auntie’s death and all the craziness that happened at the end of their time in Revelation, Colorado.
They’re still mourning, and hoping that Auntie taught them enough to complete their goal. Meridian is getting better at helping souls pass over, and she and Tens are trying their best to find more Fenestra.
What they find is a corrupt and cruel facility called Dunklebarger that houses foster children and dying elderly. A girl named Juliet, who is reaching her sixteenth birthday, has no memory before her time there. She does her best to provide some semblance of love and happiness to the other kids there, as most of their days are filled with abuse and violence.
She also feels a stronger and stronger urge to sit by the dying as they breathe their last breath…
Tens and Meridian, while dealing with their Soul Mate status and continuing threat of the evil Aternocti, are trying to get to Juliet.
But will they get to her in time?
If you read my review of Meridian yesterday (and hopefully you’ve actually read the book, because otherwise you’ve ruined some plot twists by reading this review!), you know that I had some serious mixed feelings about it.
I was engrossed enough in the overall plot, though, to definitely want to give the sequel a shot. As Wildcat Fireflies starts, I found that I do like Meridian more now – I have come to invest in her slowly and surely. And her tentative, yet passionate, relationship with Tens often was the feature of my favorite parts of the novel – but also provided the most (I hate to say this) embarrassing moments as well. I’m not saying this because there was some advanced (hint, hint), legitimately steamy parts, but more because of the way it was written. It was still offbeat for me, still peculiar, and still felt maybe a tad idealistic.
Wildcat Fireflies has a stimulating, decent plotline – and the times at Dunklebarger are extremely wretched and often disquieting. Amber Kizer does that very well. It gives the novel gravity and strength. Yet even then, I wasn’t fully absorbed by the story. It was a little on the convoluted side – and maybe longer than actually necessary.
Kizer is excellent at showing tension and misunderstanding among Tens and Meridian’s new, untested love – but for some reason that characters don’t connect with me enough. Plus, I did sometimes get tired of Tens reluctance to be open, even if he has a good excuse.
Wildcat Fireflies, and Meridian before it, are both potentially great books that, sadly, weren’t great for me.
According to the Author’s Note at the end of Wildcat Fireflies two more books are planned. I’m on the fence over whether I’d give them a shot or not. I definitely encourage you to read both of these books, though. I’d hate for you to miss out on your new favorite YA fantasy paranormal because it didn’t gel right with little ol’ me!
Form your own opinions! This is just mine.
See you next week!
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