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3.75 AVERAGE
3.75 AVERAGE
I am surprised I didn't already know of this arson spree since I live in Richmond. I suppose it was bigger beach news than Piedmont news. This was a fascinating narrative non-fiction read of a series of arsons in small town Accomack County Virginia taking into account much of the back story of the residents up through trial.
This was interesting, but I'm not sure the story is book-worthy. Read The Washington Post article Love and Fire and you'll get basically the same info. with better pictures (which is important only because this is a book about fire and fire is unimpressive in black and white).
This book was so boring. I only finished reading it because it was our pick for book club. I never would have even browsed it at a store or library. It was so tedious that I feel like I wasted a week and a half of my life trudging through it. Definitely do not recommend.
Thoroughly enjoyed reading this book! It's not overly complex or long but gives the reader a sense of what has happened to the cultural drain on the Eastern Shore, as well as, the story of a series of fires that happened between 2012/2013. Think "The Perfect Storm" only less details, faster read, and on land.
Well written, fairly fast paced for non fiction. There was a definite narrative and Hesse did a good job making her subjects feel like well rounded people/characters.
Fast read for a nonfiction. It felt like the right length. It was obvious we only had Charlie’s perspective on things and it would have been amazing to have gotten Tonya’s view of it all but it was compelling and interesting.
This book shouldn't have taken me as long to finish as it did, but I got it out of the library as a book on CD (yes), only to find that the 5th disc was unplayable: That meant I had to request a new set, wait for it to come in, pick it up.... It was all very time-consuming, and in the end, it turned out to be quicker just to get a print copy of the book, so I ended up listening to the first 170 pages and reading the last 75. I preferred the written version in this case, and was able to finish what remained of the book in just about a day.
The story itself is an interesting one, but the ending was sooo unsatisfying. After all that build up around who set the fires, and why they set the fires, and how they were going to get caught, and what was going to happen to them, and how the trial would go down.... then everything just came to a screeching halt and was over. Done. The end. It seemed like such an anti-climatic ending, where so little was really learned about Tonya or her motivations.... and while I suppose you can't really fault the book for that-- because it is taken right from life, after all, and that's probably what it felt like in real life, to those involved -- I am curious now to see if anything else has been learned/written/released about the couple in the 5 years since the book was written.
The story itself is an interesting one, but the ending was sooo unsatisfying. After all that build up around who set the fires, and why they set the fires, and how they were going to get caught, and what was going to happen to them, and how the trial would go down.... then everything just came to a screeching halt and was over. Done. The end. It seemed like such an anti-climatic ending, where so little was really learned about Tonya or her motivations.... and while I suppose you can't really fault the book for that-- because it is taken right from life, after all, and that's probably what it felt like in real life, to those involved -- I am curious now to see if anything else has been learned/written/released about the couple in the 5 years since the book was written.
I hadn’t heard the story so found it a very compelling read and found the real life characters interesting!
It was fine, just not a particularly interesting topic to me.
So I think this is a case of unreasonable expectations. Time after time I read these kinds of books expecting a larger analysis of socio-economic conditions that lead to these kinds of situations (hey, blame the title). Instead, I get a moderately interesting description of a point in time of history. Where's the larger picture?