Bright Smoke, Cold Fire by Rosamund Hodge (review)

The domed city of Viyara is the only place that survived the Ruining, a fog that left the walking dead in its wake, and it’s Viyara that serves as the setting for Hodge’s take on Romeo and Juliet. Here Juliet is a trained assassin, compelled by magic to murder anyone who kills a member of the Catresou family. Romeo, from the Catresous’ rival family, kills Juliet’s kinsman Tybalt, and so Juliet must take her revenge, despite her secret relationship with Romeo. She manages to defy the spell, but the ritual she performs to do so goes horribly awry and causes a world of trouble not only for Romeo and Juliet but also the two other main characters, Runajo (Rosaline) and Paris. Runajo, a novice member of the Sisters of Thorn, is sitting vigil to the Mouth of Death when she pulls Juliet from its depths. Paris, who was meant to be Juliet’s protector, is now tethered to Romeo through a psychic connection. Oh, and there’s necromancers. And homicidal Sisters of Thorn. And lost libraries. It’s all quite unwieldy as a plot, and the framework of the play constrains and detracts from what might have been an interesting story focusing on Runajo and her efforts to save her city. Focalization shifts between Runajo and Paris, but it’s clear that the girls are having all the fun here as Runajo and Juliet fight death reapers, fell revenants, and track down murderous Sisters while Paris and Romeo mope around the city until they stumble across the Catresou family’s connection to necromancy and perhaps the origins of the Ruining. Spitfire Runajo is and really the star here, putting R&J’s insta-love on the backburner, but an open ending hints at romance and action to come.