At first glance, The Fire Wish struck me as little more than the conventional tale of two comically different characters swapping lives. Luckily for me, however, I couldn't have been more wrong; though Zayele and Najwa's trading places unleashes the bulk of our protagonists' problems, Lough's thoughtful, imaginative backstory intensifies this deceivingly simple plot. Though, by alternating between Zayele and Najwa's viewpoints, Lough evokes sympathy for two characters on opposite sides of a decade-long war, she also bogs down the novel's initial chapters. That being said, the book's slow start allowed time for richly developed characters and a vibrant setting. In creating the Jinn's world, Lough blends fantasy and Middle-Eastern culture with finesse. The Fire Wish ends perfectly, treating readers to a conclusion as inevitable as it is unpredictable, though the novel's decidedly optimistic endnote, in some readers' minds, at least, may compromise its authenticity.
