Rating: ★★★★☆
Publication Date: May 5, 2016
Publisher: Little, Brown
Genre: Contemporary
Pages: 368 pages
Goodreads
I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for a honest review. This in no way influenced my opinion of the book.
It seems that since Gone Girl, the amount of suspenseful literary novels is just increasing. Girls on Fire is contemporary, beautifully written and revolves all around a plot that has twists and turns on every single page. It's been praised by so many people that I was excited to read this and I wasn't disappointed.
Girls on Fire is the story of Hannah and Lacey and starts off in a Thirteen kinda way: girls become friends and one drags the other one on the path of teenage rebellion and destruction. Except, there's more to this story. Lacey isn't just a bad influence; she somehow seems to have information on the suicide of one of their classmates. What does she know? And how far will Hannah go in this friendship?
What I loved most about this book is the amazing writing. We alternate between Hannah and Lacey's perspective and though they're both teenage girls, they have distinctively different reading voices and both manipulate the reader in different ways. Hannah just tells the story, while Lacey's narrative is like a letter to Hannah explaining her past. I loved Lacey's dark sense of humour and her seemingly 'smart' thinking about the most dumb decisions. They're real teenagers and I loved the portrayal of their friendship.
The plot is also perfectly worked out. A story like this revolves all around the element of shock and I definitely was shocked - though personally, I found the ending a little bit far fetched and unrealistic, which is why it's not a perfect read for me. The author had to wrap everything up in a neat way, and that happened, but I was left unsatisfied with the reasoning and the actions of the characters I grew so close to throughout the story.
Girls on Fire is a suspenseful read that you won't want to put down until you finish it. And then you'll be thinking about it for a long time after. I won't forget these characters, these voices that remain so lively in my head. It's the perfect summer read for when you need a break from all those loved up contemporary books and want to take a walk on the dark side.