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A review by ljrinaldi
Fire Song by Adam Garnet Jones
4.0
Prepare to have your heart turned out.
They say to make a good story, you have to take your protagonist, stick him in a tree, and throw rocks at him. If that is the case, then Shane, in this story, has a lot of rocks being thrown at him. The book opens with the suicide of his sister, and his world goes downhill from there. Plus, he is trying to get to college, and the band (the tribe) has no money for him to go, because of technicalities, and lack of money. Plus he is in love with his best friend, David, plus his mother is still mourning his sister, six weeks after he death.
With all that going on, he doesn’t know how he could possible come out.
If this sounds as though it is too depressing to read, I have to admit it reminds me of how I almost didn’t finish reading Oliver Twist, back when I first read it. Things had gone so badly for him, I couldn’t imagine how he would ever be saved. Like that book, this one makes it look as though there is no way out, which is often how things are when you don’t stop to think.
Through it all, Shane has such eloquent ways of saying things. I kept marking quote after quote as being so special. Here are some examples:
Or
The story feels very real, and very raw. Suicide is a very real problem amongst First Nations people, and this book does not tread lightly around it.
It is not a light read, but it is a good read, and I think it should be read. It was also, first a movie, by the same author. I will seek it out.
Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.
They say to make a good story, you have to take your protagonist, stick him in a tree, and throw rocks at him. If that is the case, then Shane, in this story, has a lot of rocks being thrown at him. The book opens with the suicide of his sister, and his world goes downhill from there. Plus, he is trying to get to college, and the band (the tribe) has no money for him to go, because of technicalities, and lack of money. Plus he is in love with his best friend, David, plus his mother is still mourning his sister, six weeks after he death.
With all that going on, he doesn’t know how he could possible come out.
If this sounds as though it is too depressing to read, I have to admit it reminds me of how I almost didn’t finish reading Oliver Twist, back when I first read it. Things had gone so badly for him, I couldn’t imagine how he would ever be saved. Like that book, this one makes it look as though there is no way out, which is often how things are when you don’t stop to think.
Through it all, Shane has such eloquent ways of saying things. I kept marking quote after quote as being so special. Here are some examples:
Maybe he saw her as nothing more than a stick of kindling to be burned. But if he had grown up here, he would know that even a stick of firewood is filled with a spirit that can’t be burned away
Or
Some songs are like a heartbeat that fills up the dark, empty places inside you with light, but today this song feels like sex.
The story feels very real, and very raw. Suicide is a very real problem amongst First Nations people, and this book does not tread lightly around it.
It is not a light read, but it is a good read, and I think it should be read. It was also, first a movie, by the same author. I will seek it out.
Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.