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A review by kistireads
With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo
5.0
Second book from Elizabeth Acevedo this month, and I loved it so much more than anticipated, again. A 5+ star read!
At first I was expecting a clever, sassy and sweet novel about a high student that was very interesting in culinary skills. This... was so much more!
First of all, it's beautifully written, with the everyday struggle of Emoni and her family written in a beautiful but raw manner. I felt all her pains and struggles, and celebrated her wins and her brave moments - Acevedo really takes you on an emotional journey with Emoni. I was sad, frustrated, happy, secretly joyous, cheering her on and shaking my first at certain points in the book.
Emoni's character arc, as well as the arc of various characters in this story, are all beautiful and heart wrenching and ultimately gave me some more hope in humanity. The plot centers around Emoni's journey and growth, and is very much a character driven novel, but it gave everything it needed to in order to beautifully accomplish that.
This story is also very diverse, showing LGBTQ+ characters, Emoni as a young mom in high school and characters of different religious and cultural backgrounds as well. The relationship in this novel are also so well done, raw, honest, emotional, unsure - again, all the emotions one would go through in real life, and again I'm left wondering if Acevedo is writing from experience? This has me so curious!
With the Fire on High is set in Philadelphia, so not much need for world building, but the atmosphere and the rich culture(s) was nicely one and I found myself immersed in the story - and hankering to blast the latest Bad Bunny album.
Overall, another amazing read, I can't get enough of this author's work!
At first I was expecting a clever, sassy and sweet novel about a high student that was very interesting in culinary skills. This... was so much more!
First of all, it's beautifully written, with the everyday struggle of Emoni and her family written in a beautiful but raw manner. I felt all her pains and struggles, and celebrated her wins and her brave moments - Acevedo really takes you on an emotional journey with Emoni. I was sad, frustrated, happy, secretly joyous, cheering her on and shaking my first at certain points in the book.
Emoni's character arc, as well as the arc of various characters in this story, are all beautiful and heart wrenching and ultimately gave me some more hope in humanity. The plot centers around Emoni's journey and growth, and is very much a character driven novel, but it gave everything it needed to in order to beautifully accomplish that.
This story is also very diverse, showing LGBTQ+ characters, Emoni as a young mom in high school and characters of different religious and cultural backgrounds as well. The relationship in this novel are also so well done, raw, honest, emotional, unsure - again, all the emotions one would go through in real life, and again I'm left wondering if Acevedo is writing from experience? This has me so curious!
With the Fire on High is set in Philadelphia, so not much need for world building, but the atmosphere and the rich culture(s) was nicely one and I found myself immersed in the story - and hankering to blast the latest Bad Bunny album.
Overall, another amazing read, I can't get enough of this author's work!