Ghoulfire: Book Review

Deliciously spooky, with a good helping of humor

Warning, some mild spoilers for Ghostlight may be sprinkled throughout this review!

You may remember that I talked about the book Ghostlight by Rabia Gale in my Top 15 Favorite Reads of 2019 post last year, when I did mini-reviews of all my favorite reads that I hadn’t gotten around to reviewing throughout the year. grin It was such a delightfully spooky (but also sweet and charming) October read, that I’ve been saving the sequel until another October rolled around.

And while I really enjoyed Ghostlight as an introduction to the world of The Reflected City… I loved Ghoulfire so much more.

The stakes are higher, the characters have grown, and the story just really came to life (hehe, pun) more in this sequel.

Things I loved

The characters

Arabella Trent - while I really liked her in Ghostlight, it was fun to get to see her interacting with more people and the world around her in this story since (spoiler alert) she is no longer a ghost. Arabella is a unique fantasy heroine in that she is quite girly, not a warrior, and yet she isn’t just a damsel in distress, either. She’s spunky and capable, and even though she’s rubbish with a sword, she tries her best and manages to figure out how to use her own strengths to survive in the dangerous situations she keeps ending up in. I also loved how much she grew in this book - going from someone who doesn’t really want more in life than to enjoy her time as a debutante, to a serious-minded, disciplined young woman with a much larger destiny. I also love her absolute kindness, and the hints of a darker past that I hope we get to understand in future books.

Trevelyan Shield - Trey is quickly climbing the ranks among my favorite characters ever. Poor guy really needs a nap as he tries to be everywhere at once and staggers under the weight of trying to feel guilty for absolutely everything that is wrong in his world, but he tries so hard, and he is so capable. In many ways, he kind of reminds me of Jim Butcher’s Harry Dresden. One of the things I love about Trey is how he doesn’t even bother trying to say the things one “ought” to say in polite conversation. He is blunt and a little sharp as he speaks what’s on his mind. It’s not that he’s rude or arrogant, he is just so much more aware of what is really going on, since he is on the front lines of a battle most people he interacts with have no true grasp or understanding of, and he’s not willing to sugarcoat the truth. (He might be more willing if he got more naps, but he doesn’t, so it’s a moot point).

Some new characters got introduced in this story, and there were a couple in particular that I just fell in love with. Daubney, a mage-knight who really just wants to seclude himself in a bower and compose poetry… but reluctantly joins the fight, even though he really just can’t stand most people… or being in the city… his magic is that of life and nature, and he is constantly doing surprising things like summoning animals and causing no end of ruckus in Trey’s house as he invites all the plant life inside and causes it to grow alarmingly fast. Marin, Arabella’s new friend was another new favorite.

The Setting

I also really enjoy this series for its feel. There is a lot in the story that is pure fantasy: elves, magic, ghouls, ghosts, ancient relics, and various fantastical creatures are mentioned throughout the story. However, the setting is very Victorian England, with its cobblestone streets, well-populated city, telegrams, and more. The more I read in the gaslamp/fantasy genre, the more I discover that I love it.

I also enjoyed getting to see more of the actual setting of this world. In Ghostlight, we spend rather a lot of time with Trey and Arabella in the mysterious Shadow Lands as they try to figure out how to get Arabella’s spirit back into her body (she was disconnected from her body by an accident that left her at death’s door). I enjoyed getting to travel about the city a bit more and see how the rest of the world in this series worked and was set up.

The story

I loved the kind of crime show feel of this story as Trey is hunting down the villain and trying to foil its plans before it gets too powerful to stop.

The Arcana

I do feel like the relics need their own bullet point here, because they are almost a character themselves. I really enjoyed the inclusion of a semi-sentient weapon that can adjust its form to suit the needs of its bearer… and has a sense of humor to boot. The fact that these extremely powerful items allow themselves to be carried around as a frilly pink parasol and fan… it’s just the right amount of hilarity infused into this gently spooky tale.

Content

These books are what I would consider to be fairly clean. They are “darker” in tone, and some difficult subjects are implied at times as Trey and Arabella use their talents to hunt down the villains and foil their various nefarious schemes.

I believe there might have been a few cuss-words, but not enough that I noticed which ones.

The magic-system and religious system of this world are linked, and there are “good” and “bad” types of magic (though I’m not entirely certain at this point what makes some magic good vs bad besides the way one uses it). There are patron saints and orders that one can choose to follow… and yet, I feel that the author has done a beautiful job of weaving this all together while still conveying that there is only One being who is all-powerful. It may seem kind of strange to say that a book in which the spirits of the dead often come back to haunt the living and there are creatures that try to eat souls can have a distinctly Christian feel and tone… but this one manages it, quite well, in fact.

Things I didn’t love

Honestly, there wasn’t much I didn’t love about this story. I think really, I would have liked a better understanding of what was going on at various points… but it’s possible I just missed some things because I was tired or reading on my kindle.

I also just wish there would have been more time with Arabella and Trey working together and interacting, since I loved their interactions throughout Ghostlight… but I also liked that in this story we got to see Arabella grow enough to not only stand on her own, but also get to a place where I could see her being able to stand next to Trey and actually be an equal force to be reckoned with. I hope that we get to see them interacting more in books to come.

Overall, I enjoyed every minute of my time spent in the Reflected City, and I await the next installment as patiently as possible.

What are some of your favorite spooky reads, dear Reader? Do you ever get into a certain mood for a certain style of book based on the weather or the time of year, or are you the sort of person who can happily read Christmas stories in July and beach stories in January? (I’m a blend of both, so much of it depends on my mood).

Have you read either Ghostlight or Ghoulfire? What did you think of them?