Girls On Fire by Robin Wasserman

Author : Robin Wasserman
Title : Girls On Fire
Published : 05/05/2016
Publisher : Little Brown
Pages : 368
Genre : Young Adult / Thriller

     Hannah Dexter is a nobody, ridiculed at school by golden girl Nikki Drummond and bored at home. But in their junior year of high school, Nikki's boyfriend walks into the woods and shoots himself. In the wake of the suicide, Hannah finds herself befriending new girl Lacey and soon the pair are inseparable, bonded by their shared hatred of Nikki. Lacey transforms good girl Hannah into Dex, a Doc Marten and Kurt Cobain fan, who is up for any challenge Lacey throws at her. The two girls bring their combined wills to bear on the community in which they live. But Lacey has a secret, about life before her better half, and it's a secret that will change everything ...Starting - and ending - with tragedy.

     When it comes to Girls On fire there is something dark and nasty lurking deep down in the woods of this small town America. Unlike a lot of other young adult books, this is not an easy or pleasant read. As I read I could feel it closing in around me. This is a story of lust, betrayal, and murder, of two girls going ever deeper into a dark world they have created to fend off a world they believe despise them. For one, her world is of her own creation, she does not see things how you or I would. Somewhere along her life, the wires got crossed and a fuse burnt out.  Now all is permissible and means always justify the ends. For the other, it is those outside that push and pulls on her like the moon. It is within in these horrific events that set her on a path that there is no turning back from. 

   When it comes to these two girls I have very mixed emotions, there are places they go to that you can't ever see you self-going. Their form of morality is so skewed and twisted, the life of teenagers taken to an extreme.  For some I think just spending a little bit of time with our two heroines will be enough or too much. As both there past and presents unfold It can be difficult to look on with your eyes wide open. But in doing so we get a glimpse into present motive and helps to round them out. In watching their actions, it's like a game we use to play. You find the highest point you can and then stand on the very edge using as little of your feet as you can. I suppose it is a form of playing chicken to see how far you are willing to go. And that is what these two do for each other both waiting to see if they will chicken out or fall way down. 

     The author seems to thrive in this dark little corner of hell she has created for these girls to play. Even if you do make it through this book I highly doubt it will be in one sitting, it will leave you with an uncomfortable feeling. I think she was defiantly trying to see how far things could go before that rubber band snapped. And having finished the book I'm still trying to get my head around everything that has taken place before me. As I said before it takes all that desperation and angry rage of teenage life and turns it way up. The author pushing and pushing at us into the depths of the abyss we have fallen into with her. And just when we think we have finally landed at the bottom with these two she gives just one last push. 

     This is an author who does not shy away, she pulled me firmly into the dark with her and would not let me turn my head. It's like her saying look, look at the damage that this life causes us. I should warn you this is not the book for the casual young adult reader. There is a raw brutality in the way the author shows these acts the girls perpetrate and have done to them. Her style allows for these images to lift off the page and find form in your head, and to be perfectly honest this is not somewhat you really want them. I can only think of at most one or two books that felt similar in style and substance to this book. For the first time in a long time, I think the title is a very fitting choice. In reading this story we bare witness to these girls burn bright and so very hot, and by the end, you can't help but feel singed around the edges your self. It's probably best to stick on a bit of Disney or what ever takes you to your happy place when you finish.

      It is a story that will stay bouncing around in my mind for a very long time. Both brilliant in its execution and horrifying in its details you will either love it or hate it. For me the pay off seems worth having gone through this dark and weird void that Girls on Fire inhabits. I will also have to give bonus points for both the use of Kurt Cobain and the songs of Nirvana in away that didn't seemed to try and force the fact this book is set in the early nineties . I will leave with this final thought while it has found its way into my forever shelf I'm sure it will be quiet sometime before I chose to pick it up again and slip down into the dark with these two.