A review by sonianair
The Arsonist: A Mind on Fire by Chloe Hooper

4.0

This book has one of the most stunning first chapters I've ever read, heartbreaking and unrelenting and tense. I admire, most of all, Chloe Hooper's moral integrity; she writes into the messiness of tragedy with the utmost compassion for victims of the arsonist's fire, detailing Brendan Sokaluk's disability and ostracisation at the hands of society without detracting from the severity of what he has done. The first half of this book is much stronger than the second half, but Hooper's writing is strong and vivid throughout.