Girls of Fate and Fury by Natasha Ngan

WARNING: MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD

What is it about?

Girls of Fate and Fury is the third and final installment in the Girls of Paper and Fire trilogy by Natasha Ngan – an adventurous tale of young women fighting oppression in the magical and Asian-inspired kingdom of Ikhara.

OK, but what is it really about?

Girls of Fate and Fury immediately picks up after the battle at the end of the second book: Lei and Wren have been separated, with Lei being taken as a prisoner back to the Hidden Palace she tried so hard to escape, and Wren continuing to fight the war with her father and their allies against the Demon King, both not knowing whether the other is still alive.

Is it any good?

This action-packed finale is a fitting conclusion to this trilogy, told this time from both the POV of Lei and Wren. After the second book, I found myself so disappointed in Wren that I wasn’t sure if I could ever forgive her - which is a natural reaction, I guess, as we’re seeing her through Lei’s eyes. But adding Wren’s own point of view to the story, giving her the opportunity to explain her side of things really helped me to understand her character better. While I initially thought that their relationship is doomed and can’t be repaired, I found myself rooting for them again throughout the third book - and isn’t that actually a most accurate depiction of a relationship? It’s not always a walk in the park, but hard work. Your partner can’t be a perfect being, but will always be someone who has flaws and inevitably makes mistakes. It’s how you go through dark and challenging times together - that’s what determines if a relationship will be able to survive. If it’s all worth it. Lei and Wren? They’re a thousand times worth it.

Girls of Fate and Fury is darker than the first two books. Natasha Ngan doesn’t shy away from laying bare the realities of a war, the politics behind it but also the sheer brutality and often helpless and blameless civilian casualties any war claims. In a story like this, it didn’t come as a surprise to lose characters close to our heart, yet I didn’t expect to be so utterly gutted about certain deaths - at one point, I was sitting on the couch with tears in my eyes, sad but also incredibly angry, wanting to dive into the book to kill the Demon King myself. Oh, I despised him with every fiber of my being.

Yet despite the unspeakable trauma the characters endure, often leading them to make difficult and sometimes questionable choices, the underlying message here is that in the end, it is love that will prevail. Something the Demon King is not capable of and shrugs off as weakness. Instead, it is the motivation behind action of those who oppose him, and thus a deadlier weapon he could ever have imagined.

Favorite character?

I love Lei, her whole storyline and character development: from naïve peasant girl to sexual assault survivor to gritty warrior. Because regardless of what she goes through, what she endures, she never loses her kindness, never lets pain and hatred outweigh the love in her heart. I guess it’s important that as a reader we feel attached to the heroine of the story, and I was rooting for Lei from page one. But if there’s another character I really fell in love with, it’s Nitta – her humor, her warmth and most of all, her steely determination even after being struck by tragedy had me in awe. And I do have a soft spot for Blue. (I’m wondering if there’s a way we could get a spin-off series with Blue as the main character? I’d love to find out more about her past, her upbringing, and want to know if things between her and Lova will work out after all!)

Most memorable quote?

“They can take and steal and break all they want, but there is one thing they have no control over. Our emotions. Our feelings. Our thoughts.... Our minds and hearts are our own. That is our power, Nine. Never forget it.”

Conclusion?

I only recognized how much this trilogy meant to me after I finished reading the last book and realized that I won’t be spending any more time with Lei, Wren and all the other characters I have come to love, admire, detest and fear. Fantasy is not a genre that is usually high up on my list (though I of course have read and loved fantasy books in the past, some of which still remain my all-time favorites until this day), so this series was not an obvious choice. But Natasha Ngan has opened the door to Ikhara to me, and after catching a quick glimpse and deciding to dive in deeper, there was no turning back. I was hooked, I was invested. Because Ikhara may be an imagined kingdom, but as it is inspired by (Southeast-)Asian elements, traditions and cultures, it felt so familiar to me, and it was so wonderfully easy to connect to this world.

But this series is much more than “just” being Asian-inspired. It includes so many diverse characters that it’s a joy to read – and yet, it never feels forced or imposed. The author also handles sensitive issues with so much care: sexual abuse, physical and emotional trauma, PTSD, racism, misogyny and disability. This story, she states in the author’s note at the end of the book, is extremely personal to her – and this probably explains why it feels so raw and authentic. At its core, the Girls of Paper and Fire trilogy is about agency and change.

Not everything about this series was perfect. There were some storylines I could have done without, some characters I cared for less than others. But there wasn’t a single moment in this series when I didn’t feel invested anymore; instead, I often read longer into the night than was good for me, happily accepting eye circles and stifling yawns at work the next day. That is the beauty of representation, coupled with the author’s deeply evocative writing style and gift for storytelling. I can only say: Representation is so powerful. Representation truly matters.

AT A GLANCE

Title: Girls of Fate and Fury

By: Natasha Ngan

Published by: Hodder & Stoughton (2021)

Pages: 400

Language: English