Isabella's Reading Corner: Bonfire

Bonfire

Author: Krysten Ritter

Publication Date: November 7th 2017

Publisher: Crown Archetype

Abby Williams is an environmental lawyer living in Chicago. She returns to her hometown of Barrens to investigate concerns of unsafe water with potential ties to a large company called Optimal. Deep into her investigation, Abby becomes obsessed with finding the truth behind the complaints. Memories slowly resurface and buried feelings reignite as she makes her way through the town, interacting with old classmates and the other residents of Barrens. 

Abby is complex and sympathetic. She has unresolved issues with her past and is slightly elusive with her memories. When she moved to Chicago she transformed into a new persona by reinventing herself and washing away any remnants of her small town life. While growing up in Barrens, she was viciously bullied by a group of girls – led by the popular Kaycee Mitchell, bringing Abby to the verge of suicide. Kaycee had once been her best friend. In their senior year of high school, her tormenters showed signs of strange ailments. Accusations were made against Optimal, but a civil suit was quickly dropped when the girls admitted it was a hoax. Abby, however, never stopped believing it was true. She had seen the look of terror on Kaycee’s face during one of her spells and was convinced she couldn’t be feigning her sickness. 

Leading a research team investigating the rash of current complaints, Abby finds reports of old grievances and issues linked to the town’s water supply and Optimal. She is desperate to find a connection between the latest sickness claims and what had happened to Kaycee in high school, refusing to believe her allegations were false.

Ritter's storytelling is rich in detail. Its dark and brooding suspense had me eagerly turning the pages to unravel layers of the mystery. The threat of danger, whether real or imagined, was exciting and I was anxious to find out what would happen. Above all, this is a character-driven novel. The development of Abby and her relationships, with past events affecting the present, is what made this such a compelling read for me. If you are a fan of psychological thrillers with flawed, intense female protagonists, I would definitely recommend Bonfire.

Thank you to Penguin Random House Canada for the copy provided to review.

From the publisher:

Can you ever outrun your past?

From actress, producer, and writer Krysten Ritter, a gripping, tightly wound suspense novel about a woman forced to confront her past in the wake of small-town corruption

It has been ten 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 Plastics, the town’s most high-profile company and economic heart, Abby begins to find strange connections to Barrens’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 the 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.

You can read my original Isabella's Reading Corner post on Bonfire here.