Bonfire by Krysten Ritter @Krystenritter @penguinrandomhouse @lovedreadinthis #Bonfire #KrystenRitter #BookReview #BookBlogger

Crown Archetype 2017

Book Description

CAN YOU EVER OUTRUN YOUR PAST?

It has been 10 years since Abby Williams left home and scrubbed away all visible evidence of her small-town roots.  Now working as an environmental lawyer in Chicago, she has a thriving career, a modern apartment, and her pick of meaningless one-night stands.

But when a new case takes her back home to Barrens, Indiana, the life Abby painstakingly created begins to crack.  Tasked with investigating Optimal Plastice, the town’s most high-profile company and economics heart, Abby begins to find strange connections to Barren’s biggest scandal from more than a decade ago, involving the popular Kaycee Mitchell and her closest friends – just before Kaycee disappeared for good.

Abby knows the key to solving any case lies in weak spots, the unanswered questions.  But as she tries desperately to find out what really happened to Kaycee, troubling memories begin to resurface and she begins to doubt her own observations.  And when she unearths an even more disturbing secret – a ritual called ‘The Game’ – it will threaten reputations, and lives, in the community and risk exposing a darkness that may consume her.

With tantalizing twists, slow-burning suspense, and a remote rural town of just five claustrophobic square miles, Bonfire is a dark exploration of what happens when your past and present collide.

My Thoughts

This book was all over Instagram when it first came out and lovely Janel (Keeper of the Pages) was kind enough to pass her copy on to me, where true to form, I placed it on my shelf until suddenly I was compelled to pick it up, no reason, it was just THE book I wanted to read.  Having just finished it my only regret is, ‘why, oh why did I not pick this book up sooner?’

Packed with small town vibes, Abby returns home after a 10 year exile investigating industrial pollution.  Familiar with the town and its past, she links present concerns with what she knows from before and quickly finds herself drawn in to all this towns secrets.  at 276 pages this is not a long read, but it packs a lot in.  With conspiracy theories, political backhanders, the sinister ‘game’ this is one mighty book.  And I loved it!

Written in the first person Abby is an unreliable narrator – in the present time she is a strong and capable career woman but she has her demons in her past, bullied at school by the popular but damaged Kaycee, Abby finds herself questioning what she believes to be true as she reintegrates with the town’s population in adulthood.

A mystery not a thriller with a very strong plot which despite being comprehensive remained easy to follow.  Smoke and mirrors blinded me as the reader and alongside Abby I didn’t know who to trust and where the truth lay.  At times dark and with some sinister themes this was a compelling read which was virtually glued to my hand in the couple of days it took me to read.

For me this was a brilliant 5 start read which I would highly recommend.

Thanks as always for reading and special thanks to Janel for passing her copy of this great book on to me.