Reviews tagging 'Death'

The Arsonist: A Mind on Fire by Chloe Hooper

9 reviews

samjaneparker's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

As someone who was affected by the 2009 Black Saturday Bushfires, in particular the Churchill fire that this book covers, I found this an extremely upsetting read. So much so that I almost regret reading it. Black Saturday is cemented as the most traumatic experience I’ve ever gone through, and it upsets me to talk about it. They remain the deadliest bushfires in Australian history. Thanks to Chloe for her work in bringing this together and for the insight into the background of the fire and the investigation. I can't help but feel a bit sorry for Brendan, and this just highlights the major flaws in the criminal justice system, particularly for disabled people. I don't know what else to say. The whole thing was and still is just so tragic. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Death, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

maggie_andthebooks's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

Overall a great book! Heartbreaking but inspiring at the same time. I loved the writing and has made me want to read more Hooper’s stuff. I think this was a great mix of facts and figures without it feeling like a news report. 

The only thing I didn’t love is the pacing at times it dragged a bit and felt like she was adding things to get the word count.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Death, and Death of parent

cb98's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

it took me over 4 months to finish this book BUT that is not a reflection on the book, just on the busyness of life and my reading habits tanking since I stopped working at a bookstore lol

this was a simple, easy to read look into an event that 10 year old me both kind of remembers and also doesn’t really remember. I’m glad to finally know the backstory of such a significant, tragic part of Australia’s history. the complexity of the arsonist’s situation and the devastating stories of those who lost everything on Black Saturday made for an emotional read. love Chloe Hooper’s writing style

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Death and Grief

getevied's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad medium-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

annabellw06_'s review against another edition

adventurous informative mysterious tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Mental illness and Grief

fifinlayson's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Mental illness, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

reusablecup's review against another edition

dark emotional informative sad medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Death, Mental illness, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

rey_therese07's review

informative medium-paced

2.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Grief, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Ableism and Addiction

heather_lt's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective sad

5.0

In this book Chloe Hooper examines the details of the Black Saturday tragedy and the impacts on everyone involved. The author writes with such impressive compassion for the victims of the fire and the surviving residents, for the firefighters and investigators, for everyone involved in the court case, and even for the perpetrator and his family. It was such a shocking read. I cycled through many emotions whilst reading this, especially in those first few chapters. I'm going to be thinking about this for a while.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Grief, and Fire/Fire injury