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nevclue's review against another edition
3.0
Erin Brockovich crossed with Jessica Jones. Fast paced mystery with an environmental bent. Abby, an environmental lawyer, returns to the small town where she grew up to investigate the chemical company for spilling toxins. This ties back to a childhood mystery because Abby's childhood friend turned high school torturer became mysteriously sick and then disappeared. Abby does double duty to confront her past and investigate the present. Chemicals, shady politicians, good old boys, and family history. Main negative was that I never quite got into the heads of any of the characters. Mystery was pretty easy to guess too--identity was clear, the build up was the means and motive.
Spoiler
fucked up sexual assaults and shaming,maireoverthere's review against another edition
3.0
I heard this billed as Gone Girl meets Dare Me. It's more Dare Me.
paprika411's review against another edition
1.0
Didn't like this book. I will stick to watching Krysten on Netflix ! 1/5
realityczar's review against another edition
3.0
Bonfire suffered a little from holes in its plot and a little from deploying two-dimensional, stereotypical characters. The protagonist gives us no reason to believe she is a lawyer other than her repeatedly describing herself that way, and while IANAL, the passing references to legal matter both civil and criminal were not passing enough to obscure their unlikelihood. Perhaps worst of all, the denouement feels a little bit undeserved, in the end.
That said, I really liked this book. Other than her profession, Abby Williams is sharply, convincingly, and strongly rendered as a woman returning to the gravity well of her hometown. Her father, her childhood, and the reality of small-town life are portrayed unflinchingly, good and bad, and rural Indiana in high summer comes alive as a character.
A little more effort at plotting, a little more legal research, and this book would have been a top-notch thriller. Iād read another book from Ritter if she writes one.
That said, I really liked this book. Other than her profession, Abby Williams is sharply, convincingly, and strongly rendered as a woman returning to the gravity well of her hometown. Her father, her childhood, and the reality of small-town life are portrayed unflinchingly, good and bad, and rural Indiana in high summer comes alive as a character.
A little more effort at plotting, a little more legal research, and this book would have been a top-notch thriller. Iād read another book from Ritter if she writes one.
krpollard's review against another edition
4.0
Couldn't put it down! Ritter is a great story teller, and I found the plot to be very cinematic.
sarah_mcmullan_nz's review against another edition
4.0
Solid Debut from Jessica Jones
I wasn't expecting much when l picked this up, but l have been pleasantly surprised.
With a complex but workable plot, characters that feel real - mean girls always resonate; and topical subjects (corporate environmental exploitation, bullying, revenge porn, lack of funding in education forcing public/private agreements without a lot of oversight); Krysten Ritter has a hit on her hands!
l hope she writes another book soon & proves it's not a fluke š
I wasn't expecting much when l picked this up, but l have been pleasantly surprised.
With a complex but workable plot, characters that feel real - mean girls always resonate; and topical subjects (corporate environmental exploitation, bullying, revenge porn, lack of funding in education forcing public/private agreements without a lot of oversight); Krysten Ritter has a hit on her hands!
l hope she writes another book soon & proves it's not a fluke š
simoneandherbooks's review against another edition
2.0
Well, this book didn't turn out the way that I thought. After reading so many glowing reviews, I thought that this book would be an easy thriller to enjoy during the winter. However, I was kind of wrong here.
First off, this book didn't feel like a thriller. There wasn't much suspense and I didn't feel like I was sitting at the edge of my seat. If anything, this is contemporary fiction with some bad stuff that happens. Allie, the main character, is an environmental lawyer who comes back to her hometown to investigate a huge corporation that might be dumping illegally into the town's water supply. However, because it's her hometown and she's got some past issues while growing up, it's not the best news to go back.
From that alone you can imagine that this book can get interesting. The story starts off with the premise above, but once Allie gets into her past then it just feels like someone rehashing the years she's been bullied by her ex-best friend. I mean, there were also two attempts at a love story here and it just felt forced. Couldn't they just have been friends? I mean, with the trajectory of the novel it doesn't make sense for the characters to just start making out with each other.
As the story goes on, it starts to get super messy and all of a sudden there's murder and missing people and a HUGE issue.
::Spoilers below::
I was honestly surprised by this ending not because I didn't see it coming but because I have no idea how it got there. Allie came to the town to investigate the water supply and it turns out that the same corporation is paying off the Vice Principal of the high school to target beautiful underage girls for pornographic imagery. WTF!? I honestly was like "wait what?! how did we get here?"
Maybe it was supposed to be a misdirection, but I also feel like Allie being an environmental lawyer puts her at a deep disadvantage of finding out the truth. How is someone who is trained as a lawyer and who wants to continue being a lawyer have such an eye for investigative police work? It just doesn't make sense.
The worst part is the whole town was involved. All these people who kept their mouths shut or were paid off to lie didn't have ANY issues with the fact that this company was exploiting their teenage daughters to disgusting rich men?! There are red flags everywhere and no one took a moment to speak up about it?
Things for Allie were also super easy. She'd recall memories when it made sense for her to recall those memories. Like "oh yes, there was mercury in the paint and that's why she was crazy." Like ok, how did you deduce that so quickly without any formal chemistry training?
I will admit that the person leading this whole disgusting mess was a surprise. I didn't see that coming, but also there were no clues. He was kind enough and played a bit character in the beginning of the novel. All fingers pointed to him, but his lack of involvement in the story made it confusing as to why it was him all along.
All in all, I found this story to be confusing but with a lot of potential. If Krysten Ritter had an editor that wasn't afraid to reorganize this book, make some changes to the characters and turn this into a pretty decent crime investigation, then you can get a good crime fiction novel out of it. But it's pretty messy with little to no direction and everything just kind of wraps up at the end. I was truly disappointed here and I'm sorry to the fans of Krysten Ritter's acting work. This was not my kind of book.
First off, this book didn't feel like a thriller. There wasn't much suspense and I didn't feel like I was sitting at the edge of my seat. If anything, this is contemporary fiction with some bad stuff that happens. Allie, the main character, is an environmental lawyer who comes back to her hometown to investigate a huge corporation that might be dumping illegally into the town's water supply. However, because it's her hometown and she's got some past issues while growing up, it's not the best news to go back.
From that alone you can imagine that this book can get interesting. The story starts off with the premise above, but once Allie gets into her past then it just feels like someone rehashing the years she's been bullied by her ex-best friend. I mean, there were also two attempts at a love story here and it just felt forced. Couldn't they just have been friends? I mean, with the trajectory of the novel it doesn't make sense for the characters to just start making out with each other.
As the story goes on, it starts to get super messy and all of a sudden there's murder and missing people and a HUGE issue.
::Spoilers below::
I was honestly surprised by this ending not because I didn't see it coming but because I have no idea how it got there. Allie came to the town to investigate the water supply and it turns out that the same corporation is paying off the Vice Principal of the high school to target beautiful underage girls for pornographic imagery. WTF!? I honestly was like "wait what?! how did we get here?"
Maybe it was supposed to be a misdirection, but I also feel like Allie being an environmental lawyer puts her at a deep disadvantage of finding out the truth. How is someone who is trained as a lawyer and who wants to continue being a lawyer have such an eye for investigative police work? It just doesn't make sense.
The worst part is the whole town was involved. All these people who kept their mouths shut or were paid off to lie didn't have ANY issues with the fact that this company was exploiting their teenage daughters to disgusting rich men?! There are red flags everywhere and no one took a moment to speak up about it?
Things for Allie were also super easy. She'd recall memories when it made sense for her to recall those memories. Like "oh yes, there was mercury in the paint and that's why she was crazy." Like ok, how did you deduce that so quickly without any formal chemistry training?
I will admit that the person leading this whole disgusting mess was a surprise. I didn't see that coming, but also there were no clues. He was kind enough and played a bit character in the beginning of the novel. All fingers pointed to him, but his lack of involvement in the story made it confusing as to why it was him all along.
All in all, I found this story to be confusing but with a lot of potential. If Krysten Ritter had an editor that wasn't afraid to reorganize this book, make some changes to the characters and turn this into a pretty decent crime investigation, then you can get a good crime fiction novel out of it. But it's pretty messy with little to no direction and everything just kind of wraps up at the end. I was truly disappointed here and I'm sorry to the fans of Krysten Ritter's acting work. This was not my kind of book.
alanna131's review against another edition
4.0
I saw some harsh reviews of Bonfire and I'm going to have to respectfully disagree. I thought this book was great! Sure, part of me enjoyed it because I imagined the main character to be Jessica Jones without her powers, but I also think that Krysten Ritter nails the small town feeling. My only complaint about the story is that it felt that she had been away for more than 10 years. As in, she occasionally alluded to aches and pains and people getting fat and "oh gosh we're so old now," but the characters were only 28... They occasionally acted more like 38. But other than that incongruity, I loved it. Very thrilling and hard to predict. I liked the pacing especially!
danidsfavereads's review against another edition
4.0
This book, Krysten Ritter's debut, was fantastic - I did not want to put it down!
The story follows Abby Williams who returns to her home town after 10 years. She comes back to investigate Optimal Plastics, the town's biggest company. While there she begins to put together the pieces between the current investigation and the biggest scandal from her senior year. As she digs deeper, one of the biggest questions is who can she truly trust.
This book was filled with twists and turns. Soon as I thought I knew what had happened something else was revealed. The story also got to the heart of a small town that depends on a big corporation. With the writing, I felt as though I could see this story being translated to the big screen (or into an episode of SVU). This book was extremely fun and I will definitely be recommending it to those who want a good mystery.
The story follows Abby Williams who returns to her home town after 10 years. She comes back to investigate Optimal Plastics, the town's biggest company. While there she begins to put together the pieces between the current investigation and the biggest scandal from her senior year. As she digs deeper, one of the biggest questions is who can she truly trust.
This book was filled with twists and turns. Soon as I thought I knew what had happened something else was revealed. The story also got to the heart of a small town that depends on a big corporation. With the writing, I felt as though I could see this story being translated to the big screen (or into an episode of SVU). This book was extremely fun and I will definitely be recommending it to those who want a good mystery.
anniemccormick1025's review against another edition
4.0
This was a fun read for the most part, although I wish the main character wasn't so predictably wrong all throughout the story. I also wish the ending wasn't so quick, it felt like most of the action happened right at the end.