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A review by bobachel
Fire on the Island by Timothy Jay Smith
4.0
Thank you to the publisher for the advance copy of this book. I really enjoyed it - more than I thought I would!
I know they always say “don’t judge a book by its cover,” but I was initially drawn this book because of its vibrant cover. The story lived up to the promise of the colorful snap on the cover, with vibrant characters and a lot of intrigue. Some of the characters leapt off the page, particularly the amorous singing fisherman Stavros and the seductive bar owner Vassoula.
The main mystery of the story - who is the arsonist setting fires all over the island? - remained a mystery until its reveal. The author did a great job of building up suspense and identifying numerous possible suspects, any of who could have been the arsonist.
Only a few small things kept this from getting a 5-star review. Towards the beginning of the book, it seemed like the author was using a lot of highflautin jargon with no real purpose for doing so. That didn’t work with this particular story about small town life on an idyllic Greek island.
My other minor complaint is that the relationship between Athina and her mother Lydia didn’t seem particularly realistic. Sure, teenage girls and their mothers frequently have tense, volatile relationships. But some have perfectly happy and loving relationships without major blowouts or the kind of secrecy depicted in this book. Because there wasn’t much development of the relationship to explain why Lydia and Athina acted how they did towards each other, their relationship came off as cliche and based entirely on exaggerated stereotypes.
That being said, I did really enjoy the book and would recommend it.
I know they always say “don’t judge a book by its cover,” but I was initially drawn this book because of its vibrant cover. The story lived up to the promise of the colorful snap on the cover, with vibrant characters and a lot of intrigue. Some of the characters leapt off the page, particularly the amorous singing fisherman Stavros and the seductive bar owner Vassoula.
The main mystery of the story - who is the arsonist setting fires all over the island? - remained a mystery until its reveal. The author did a great job of building up suspense and identifying numerous possible suspects, any of who could have been the arsonist.
Only a few small things kept this from getting a 5-star review. Towards the beginning of the book, it seemed like the author was using a lot of highflautin jargon with no real purpose for doing so. That didn’t work with this particular story about small town life on an idyllic Greek island.
My other minor complaint is that the relationship between Athina and her mother Lydia didn’t seem particularly realistic. Sure, teenage girls and their mothers frequently have tense, volatile relationships. But some have perfectly happy and loving relationships without major blowouts or the kind of secrecy depicted in this book. Because there wasn’t much development of the relationship to explain why Lydia and Athina acted how they did towards each other, their relationship came off as cliche and based entirely on exaggerated stereotypes.
That being said, I did really enjoy the book and would recommend it.