Fire and Flood by Victoria Scott wasn't anything to write home about. It was one of those typical, not so special YA's that seem to be in abundance. The premise was interesting, if not wholly unfamiliar - a mysterious race/contest in crazy conditions and the winner receives a cure.

I know everyone is going to compare this to The Hunger Games but it is an unfair comparison. The Hunger Games was exceptional...the plot, the world, the characters, etc, thus making Fire and Flood seem awash in mediocrity.

It was an easy read and I sped right through it but I just didn't care about characters. Tella drove me absolutely nuts. She was vapid, self-obsessed, immature and weak. For someone who was determined to save their dying brother she relied way to much on everyone else to help her and even save her. Of course, she had her moments of victory but they were over shadowed by all the moments of weakness and stupidity. The rest of the characters should've been important but most of them just weren't well fleshed out. The only character I truly felt a connection to, that I liked and that I felt was actually out to win the race to save whoever their loved one was Harper. Now, she was a strong female character yet Tella viewed her with derision and jealousy.

The race was kind of cool in that its a long race (3 months) across 4 different climates - jungle, desert, ocean and mountain. Where it was lacking for me is I thought this was going to be a badass survivalesque race where crazy things would happen. There wasn't so much of that. Even though the contenders have 2 weeks in each place they didn't experience too many of the difficulties that would occur when an inexperienced person is left out in the jungle/desert with little to no supplies. Why you ask? Because there is a huge cop-out. Fortunately for me the cop-out is probably my favorite aspect of the story - the Pandoras. The Pandoras are these genetically modified creatures who have special powers but you don't know what their powers are or when they will actually use them. I believe the majority of the contenders we meet would never have made it without their Pandoras. The Pandoras made the Brimstone Bleed way too easy for me.

Even though i had a lot of issues with the story i did enjoy it while i was reading it. I flew through it in one day. It was fast paced and had a lot going on. It was far from being superb but I liked the authors writing and honestly, I'll probably read the next book just to see what happens in the rest of the race.

I received a digital ARC from Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.(less)