- Genre :Contemporary/Paranormal
- Length : 11 hours 15 minutes
- Release Date : 8-13-13
- Publisher : Simon Audio
Fire With Fire picks up just a few weeks after the events of Burn for Burn. The main characters have seemingly moved on, however, it’s not long before the girls find themselves working together to once again take down Reeve Tabatsky. Some people never change. . . or do they?
While the first book introduced the world of Jar Island, this book shifts focus on the community and culture of Jar Island. We get a feel for the traditions, events and celebrations of this small town. This level of world-building within a contemporary setting is admirable.
I found that Fire with Fire uses more vignettes and flashbacks to give readers insight into the girl’s past and present. There are a lot of moving parts in this story that make the characters and story come together.
What I really enjoy about this series, as I mentioned in my earlier review, is the ambiguity of the characters. I was constantly going back and forth about my feeling about Reeve Tabatsky . In the first book, it is accepted
that he is the typical jerk jock, but in the book I had no idea what to think. Is he the good guy? Is he the bad guy? Are we supposed to be empathetic for
Reeve?
There are also a lot of great moments in the book that touch on the nostalgia about high school and coming of age. I think a lot of people can relate to how the characters talk about the future, college and senior year. It all felt very genuine and made the characters come off the page.
If you pay close attention you’ll notice that there is something eerie going on in the background of this series that I think Han and Vivian plotted ingeniously in this book. Once you see it it can’t be unseen. I think it comes across more in the audiobook than it would in print, but I do I wonder when/if readers are supposed to catch it? Kat had figured it out early on in the first book.
The three narrators on this audiobook bring the cast of characters to life. This is a great example of how three POVS can work together to tell a cohesive story without getting repetitive. Each of the actress’s voices are very distinct, but they have this great way of imitating each other which makes the switching POV seamless.
Madeleine Maby who voices Kat stole the show. She hits all of Kat’s humor and confidence and delivers a chilling emotional monologue. Rebbekah Ross’s (Mary) narration had an echo-y quality in the first book and that they scaled it back on this one. Ross’ acting was spot on when it came to performing her co-narrators voices.Joy Osmanski (Lilia) also has this great scene where she has to voice two drunk moms, it could have been over the top, but it was subtle and funny.
While the story
burns slow, Fire With Fire’s lively narration and rich sense of story makes it the perfect audiobook to get caught up in during a long car trip.I did see one of the endings of this book coming, but the other threw me for a loop so a plus if you love a good plot twist.
*Audiobook provided by Simon & Schuster Audio for review
1/2 of the blogging duo at Books and Sensibility, I have been blogging about and reviewing books since 2011. I read any and every genre, here on the blog I mostly review Fantasy, Adult Fiction, and Young Adult with a focus on audiobooks.