Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman
The year is 1348. Thomas, a disgraced knight, has found a young girl alone in a dead Norman village. An orphan of the Black Death, and an almost unnerving picture of innocence, she tells Thomas that plague is only part of a larger cataclysm—that the fallen angels under Lucifer are rising in a second war on heaven, and that the world of men has fallen behind the lines of conflict.
Is it delirium or is it faith? She believes she has seen the angels of God. She believes the righteous dead speak to her in dreams. And now she has convinced the faithless Thomas to shepherd her across a depraved landscape to Avignon. There, she tells Thomas, she will fulfill her mission to confront the evil that has devastated the earth, and to restore to this betrayed, murderous knight the nobility and hope of salvation he long abandoned.
As hell unleashes its wrath, and as the true nature of the girl is revealed, Thomas will find himself on a macabre battleground of angels and demons, saints, and the risen dead, and in the midst of a desperate struggle for nothing less than the soul of man.
For the Reading Challenge(s):
N/A
The Reason
It was the BOTM for my in-person bookclub.
The Quotes
“Well, I do what I say. Which is why I don’t say much.”
“Love is always harder. Love means weathering blows for another’s sake and not counting them.”
“Hell, like prison, is worse when you don’t feel you earned it.”
“The injuries of spring are forgotten in the summer, but remembered in the winter.”
The Narrator(s)
Steve West. He was mostly fine, but I really didn’t like his voice for the girl!
My Thoughts
I’m writing this review a long time after reading the book, and for some reason I can’t find my notes so I’m going off a very spotty memory. I remember this being a dark story about a showdown between good and evil, and I remember enjoying most of it. The only issue is that I was rushing to finish it for my bookclub, and there were several parts of the story that included dreams and hallucinations and it was sometimes confusing for me when I didn’t realize what was happening.
In general, I liked the characters, especially the priest. I found the girl annoying (I’m sorry I forgot the names and I don’t have my notes!) but I’m not sure if that’s because I really dislike her character or because I dislike the narrator’s voice for her. I honestly feel that I would’ve probably enjoyed this book a lot more if I was reading it on print and not rushing it like I did. Perhaps one day I’ll revisit the story again.
My Rating
⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.
Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?
