A review by evitaveda
With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo

4.0

“Be good and safe, and oh, Emoni, trust. Okay? Trust. Yourself, mainly, but the world, too. There is magic working in your favor.”

I’ve been loving Elizabeth Acevedo’s stories this year and With The Fire On High was no exception. Unlike the other two books I’ve read, this one was not written in verse which took me by surprise. Still, the chapters are very short and to the point, and it’s easy to become engaged in the story. 

This book dives into all the struggles of the final year of high school. Emoni had so many hopes and dreams and was constantly worrying about which choices were right for her. Being a young mother, feeling responsible for her grandmother, falling in love, and making the right decisions about college were all themes that were explored in this book. Throw Emoni’s passion for cooking into the mix and you have a complex main character who is easy to root for. 

Acevedo is definitely a new auto-buy author for me and I’m looking forward to picking up her adult debut at some point soon. 

Some great quotes:

“Where we come from leaves its fingerprints all over us, and if you know how to read the signs of a place, you know a little bit more who someone is.”

“This one, the real smile you have on right now. Almost as if you’re choosing to give a sunlit middle finger to this fucked-up world.”