Book Review: Fated to Flame
- Amazing Grace L. Danso
- Dec 30, 2025
- 1 min read
Book Review: Fated to Flame
Author: S. A. Gladden 🇺🇸
Type of work (Genre): Novel (fantasy)
Number of pages: 344
Own or Borrowed: own, purchased from a local US bookshop that delivered through Bookshop.org
Overall Impressions: I enjoyed this fantasy story that had a Black woman as the protagonist. Too often, there is this erasure of Black peoples from existing and existing quite prominently in fantasy stories. I love that Gladden flipped that on its head by giving us an unapologetic Black woman who was authentic and fit well in this domain. I also enjoyed the progressive politics that served as a foundation and vehicle for telling this story. It served as a way to get readers to challenge long held views and expand their thinking on various sociopolitical issues that exist both in the real world and fantasy.
Something that stood out: how the main character retained her identity and authentic voice even while interacting with mystical characters with a much different background. It worked to justify the inclusion of Black peoples in this genre.
Overall Rating: 🖋🖋🖋.5 (out of 5 fountain pens).
Recommend or nah: I definitely recommend it! I’m inspired to seek out more Black fantasy books to read.
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