Bonfire by Krysten Ritter
I'm a lover of stories. This blog is targeted towards my love of books but really - that stems from my love of stories. Stories are told in various ways. Actors tell stories. So, it shouldn't be too much of a stretch to assume that an actress would feel drawn to writing a book and like...do a good job at it. Actors are story tellers (reading is basically at least a third of job their description). Krysten Ritter's debut novel 'Bonfire' is the evidence.
I found that most of the poor-er reviews on Goodreads came across tainted by this expectation that the novel had to be on a whole different level because the author's primary career. It's my pet peeve when a book is judged like it's got to be something on a whole other level when it doesn't have to be. Example : You read a review of a historical romance novel. And they spend most of the time complaining about how unrealistic and stupid it is to have it be completely focused on the relationship and how they wish the heroine would spend less time thinking about the hero, etc. And thus because of this opinion they give it a bad review. It's a historical romance novel. You open a book from a specific genre section, be ready to get that genre. If you don't dig the genre - don't read (coughs-review-coughs) it. Same principle applies here. Bonfire by Krysten Ritter |
| Visual Description: A bonfire with orange sparks cast out over the pitch black cover. Font: modern, white, thin and angular. Krysten Ritter is low capped. Title is all caps. 'A novel' is off in the corner, smaller and italicized. |
Page Count: 288 (hardcover)
Find the Author: Goodreads
"Should you ever go back? It has been ten years since Abby Williams left home and scrubbed away all visible evidence of her small town roots. Now working as an environmental lawyer in Chicago, she has a thriving career, a modern apartment, and her pick of meaningless one-night stands. But when a new case takes her back home to Barrens, Indiana, the life Abby painstakingly created begins to crack. Tasked with investigating Optimal Plastics, the town's most high-profile company and economic heart, Abby begins to find strange connections to Barrens’ biggest scandal from more than a decade ago involving the popular Kaycee Mitchell and her closest friends—just before Kaycee disappeared for good. Abby knows the key to solving any case lies in the weak spots, the unanswered questions. But as Abby tries to find out what really happened to Kaycee, she unearths an even more disturbing secret—a ritual called “The Game,” which will threaten the reputations, and lives, of the community and risk exposing a darkness that may consume her. With tantalizing twists, slow-burning suspense, and a remote, rural town of just five claustrophobic miles, Bonfire is a dark exploration of the question: can you ever outrun your past?" - Blurb nabbed from Goodreads
Before I forget - I have a paralegal degree. While I don't have much experience with environmental agencies and law - the last class (most fresh in my mind) was all about Administrative Law.
Returning to a small hometown with success and a mission that compromises the feelings of the people you left behind feelings towards you...it's a premise that's been done before. However, I'm never the one to judge the re-used premise. Especially when it's a classic. Because in the familiar premise is the freedom of choices and a unique perspective - a different take. And that is endlessly fascinating to me. It's a known premise for a reason - it's resonating. It's not just something that's repeating in the fictional world - it's a premise that plays out hundreds and thousands of times over history in the everyday world.
In Bonfire's case - it plays out with the themes of toxic. Toxic environmental factors, toxic friendships, toxic homes, toxic habits, toxic fears. Accompanying 'toxic' is the theme of overcoming and what it takes to get through and recover - for real. There's a difference between running away and suppressing and the rebirthing experience of true recover from toxicity. It plays a recurring theme in Abby's (MC) characterization and plot and the characters around her. Each person is either not recovered but pretending or still actively participating in toxicity or never ever recovered and knows it and now is just..living in the aftermath. Sounds like a fun town, amIright?
Abby literally stars in two different stories in the same book. Two stories that merge together in the end. It's not entirely surprising - most 'two stories' come together as a general rule so the book doesn't suck. In Bonfire it plays out as (perhaps unintentionally) a homage to the female intuitive powers. The breed of female intuitive powers that are usually considered crazy by those not experiencing them within themselves. I almost thought, as the reader, that she was projecting her obviously suppressed emotions onto certain things and that her (again) suppressed emotions were getting tangled with her purpose in returning. However, (and I won't spoil how it goes down) it doesn't take the reader much to realize that there are two stories and they're heading towards each other in a twisted way. The questions are 'who, what, when, where, why?' do they converge?
Four out of five. Because it's a solid read with solid writing with texture and a theme that has depth.
Until next time,
Jess
P.S. I must confess - the entire time I was reading it I heard Ritter's voice narrate it in my head. As in - the voice over narration stuff she does for Jessica Jones. Not a terrible way to read a book, imo. lol.
Four out of five. Because it's a solid read with solid writing with texture and a theme that has depth.
Until next time,
Jess
P.S. I must confess - the entire time I was reading it I heard Ritter's voice narrate it in my head. As in - the voice over narration stuff she does for Jessica Jones. Not a terrible way to read a book, imo. lol.