An interesting concept that unfortunately didn't deliver. Maybe it's because I'm quite older than the target reader, but I felt the protagonist was too annoying, the romance forced and the story a bit messy - to be honest I'm still not sure exactly what happened here. Sadly, not a book I can recommend.

This book was funny, hilarious in places and an emotional roller coaster that I surprisingly enjoyed despite the fact I don't read many comedy based or humour books.

Barmy premise but works quite well here with pitch-black humour, existential teen angst & moments of poignancy but fizzle-out ending may frustrate some.

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This YA book has one of the most unique concepts for a narrative I have ever seen, spontaneous combustion. I was not let down by this book after going in with such high expectations. Spontaneous is full of hilarious dark humour which entertained be throughly.

I first heard about Spontaneous whilst watching one of John Green’s videos on YouTube. John Green praised this book very highly which got me interested. After reading the synopsis I knew I had to read this book. The only problem was that I had to wait over a year before I had the chance to read this book as it wasn’t out in the UK. Thanks to Netgalley I didn’t have to wait that long.

I loved the main character of this book, Mara. She is hilarious and so sarcastic. I was a big fan of her dark humour. It made a change to have an author write things that aren’t all fine and dandy. The dark humour that Mara had really added to my enjoyment of this book. Mara’s relationship with her parents is well written. It is nice to read a book where the parents are involved in the story and have a good relationship with their child. Dylan is a lovely character, a little weird sometime though and I liked the relationship he has with Mara even though it did seem to come out of nowhere. Tess was another character I was a fan of but also a character I had issues with.

Mara and Tess are inseparable at the start of the book and their relationship is wonderful. Even when Mara starts her relationship with Dylan this doesn’t come between her relationship with Tess. Tess just fizzles out of the narrative with a very vague explanation as to why.

I can definitely tell why John Green recommended this book as there are a lot of similarities in his and Aaron Starmer’s writing. One example is the characters talking about the “what-ifs”. I have to mention my favourite quote from this book, “Here’s what happens when a guy blows up during your group therapy that’s supposed to make you feel better about people blowing up. The group therapy session is cancelled”. You do not feel better.” There is something about that quote I just love.

Overall, I loved this book. It’s unique concept really worked and was interesting and intriguing throughout. I cannot recommend this book enough if you are looking for something unique and full of dark humour.

Thank you to Aaron Starmer, Canongate Books and Netgalley for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Such a unique book that will really make you think! There are several plot twists that I can't go into, and I wasn't 100% satisfied by the end, but it was a really great read.

I'm really not sure how to review this - it's quite bizarre and not like any YA book I've read before. It's dark, it's funny, it's weird, and it's kind of cool. It's not at all the kind of book I usually read, and I didn't quite know what to make of it, but one thing I know is, I would have loved it back when I was a teen. It's irreverent, completely bonkers and worth a read just for the experience. The only thing I didn't like was the ending, but I can forgive it because the journey to get there is so entertaining.

This is a very unusual book. Imagine that seniors in high school in New Jersey started to spontaneously combust. Can you even imagine that? This is an absolutely ridiculous idea, and this is exactly what happens in the book. The main character, Mara is a witness to the first spontaneous combustion of one of her classmates. She sits in the class, and suddenly BOOM, everything is covered in blood.

I instantly liked Mara, she is opinionated and likes to joke in strange situations. Her sense of humour may be an acquired taste for some, but for me, it was perfect from the start. I liked her voice, and how she was narrating the story. She wasn’t over emotional and whiny when facing such horrible situations like her friends combusting. Mara presented a perfect balance of indifference, sadness and selfishness.

With the phenomenon of spontaneous combustions among teens, the author presented a lot of important and thought-provoking issues. First of all - racism. Some of the first victims of the combustion are teens of colour, which of course raised a lot of voices, that those were acts of terrorism or whatever you can imagine. The second was homosexuality - voices that this is Gods ‘revange’ on the gays. This unexplainable phenomenon showed how society reacts to such horrible events. Even though the circumstances in the book are unusual, how society reacts is very usual, something we can see now. The alienation of victims, demonization of races, sexuality and whatnot. Anything that seems to be unexplainable causes craziness among masses that is sprouting some nonsense ideas about the roots of evil in the world. The book also shows how the survivors of the shamed, feared and demonised group react and deal with life in a world that hates them.

I can imagine that this is not the kind of story, humour and characters that will be appealing to everyone. But for me, this was a great book. The dark humour and strong, unapologetic characters stand out from other young adult novels, and if you look closely, there is a lot of food for thought in this book. It's not just about the ridiculous idea of spontaneous combustions in one American high school.

This was a very readable book albeit quite strange. But the strangeness is probably what made it interesting to read. In a small town in New Jersey, high school seniors start spontaneously combusting out of the blue. If that isn't one weird premise, then I'm not sure what is. The main character, Mara is one of those trendy new not quite lovable characters, sort of multi-layered, with a slightly cynical tone. The story has that John Green kind of vibe where not all mysteries are resolved, which depending on the kind of reader you are, will either be infuriating or just something you accept...

This book has a lot going for it. I went into this novel not knowing much about it, and was blown away by the originality of the concept. A town where teenagers begin spontaneously combusting? Well, you have caught my attention right there! The author really caught the voice of Mara, and there was a great balance between humour and the not-so-humorous concept of kids blowing up. However, the plot petered out about halfway through and I couldn't find my flow with this book again.

Now, I usually keep my reviews as spoiler-free as possible, but there are some vague spoilers in this review, so if you want to be really surprised when you read this book, be warned.

Mara is a senior when one of her classmates blows up right before her eyes. Soon, kids are blowing up all over Covington. At school, at parties, at home, in cars. It's a tragedy, a mystery, a curse - the Covington Curse. The police get involved, the President is sending messages of goodwill, reporters are flocking to Covington, but nobody can figure out how to stop the curse. It seems like all the youth of Covington are destined to a gory end. As if this isn't bad enough, school has been closed down for safety reasons, Covington has become a quarantine town, and the senior students are pariahs in their own town. Can Mara get to the bottom of the curse, and will she survive?

The first half of this book was so much fun. This is going to sound really weird, but Starmer had a really great way of making these repeated cases of spontaneous combustion sound hilarious. Mara is a sarcastic, cynical girl with wit deserving of a daytime chat show. I loved reading her comments on the situation, her descriptions of the different people around town, and her crude sense of humour. However, at around the halfway point, understandably, the story became less about people randomly blowing up and more about trying to figure out why. This was where, in my opinion, the book started to drift, until by the end, it was just a bit of a mess.

I think my main issue was that the issue of the curse was left unresolved. There was so much mystery around the curse, and there were so many different theories being thrown around, from the students, from the police, from journalists and every single other character in the novel, that it felt like the author had just decided he couldn't be bothered to finish the storyline. The middle section of the book completely abandoned this story. Instead, we read chapters and chapters of the seniors of Covington getting their lives back on track by reopening their school and convincing teachers to come back to teach them. This was cute for a few chapters, but eventually, I wanted to get back to the real story. Why were people exploding? Towards the end, people started exploding all over the place again, which made me think we would get somewhere, but we didn't. All of this drama had happened for no reason! I feel like Starmer maybe intended for readers to come away with a message of making the most of your lives, but really, I was just annoyed. I felt ripped off, like the first half of the novel was leading me to something, tempting me with the lure of plot twists and shocking revelations, only to take it away. It's like when a TV show opens with a really exciting premise, but 5 seasons later you're still waiting for the explanation to a story from the first series.

Overall, even though I was really annoyed by route that this book took, I gave it 3 stars because Mara's voice was so funny. I felt like even though she was snarky and rude, it didn't feel forced and two-dimensional like it does for other 'tough girl' characters in YA literature. Instead of feeling like a caricature, she just felt like a real life Daria character, and I loved that. I also loved that she didn't feel like a stereotype. She wasn't a loner, but she wasn't the most popular, she was very flawed, and very funny. I want a TV show about Mara. Not necessarily this story, but definitely Mara.

From the opening chapter you will know if this is a book you'll enjoy. I did...immensely.
A real mix of characters and our narrator, Mara, will not be to everyone's liking. She is prone to making inappropriate comments and trying to find light in the weirdest situations.
I wish I'd been given more of a steer on exactly what caused all these teenagers to spontaneously combust - but it was still a great read.

This book was a really unique and enjoyable read. One of my favourite aspects was the writing style. The voice had a strong, contemporary feel and this meshed really well with the horrific idea of spontaneous combustion. This was such an original idea and it created a feeling of tension throughout. It was an unnerving experience that there was no real way of working out who was going to combust, and that a character you really liked could be gone in an instant.

This was a really dark, boundary pushing book that made me think about bigger issues regarding the value of life. It was hilarious at some points and heartbreaking at others, but always engaging and tense.

Dry, witty, cutting and darkly engaging. With students "going off" left, right and centre, the book is not as gory as you would expect. Instead we get to see the biting analysis of Maradona, as she and her senior classmates go from being teens with all the world before them to ticking bombs where the end could come at any moment. As the group move through stages of denial, paranoia and acceptance via a heavy dose of hedonism, we begin to see how links between people are forged and how anyone, if you look hard enough, could have caused the Covington Curse. Really enjoyable.

Dubbed the “funniest book about spontaneous combustion you will ever read” by the acclaimed best-selling author, John Green, Spontaneous by Aaron Starmer is a story about growing up and blowing up. Seeing a classmate explode in front of you during third-period pre-calc class is not something you ever expect to happen. Nor do you expect this to be the first of many to randomly occur throughout your senior year, but for Mara, this is her appalling fate.

Mara’s senior year was not all that exciting until the first explosion, but after a few more students from her class spontaneously combust, it is clear she is never going to get a normal final year of school. Only affecting the seniors, Mara and her friends are ostracised from society while FBI agents try to solve the problematic situation. With bombs, terrorists and government conspiracies eventually ruled out, the class is left abandoned to explode at their own leisure – although they would rather not!

Mara, along with boyfriend, Dylan, and best friend, Tess, attempts to continue living their lives. They encourage students to start up their own school so that they can still graduate at the end of the year, but with an increasing number of messy ends, they begin to doubt they will make it that far.

Full of crack-pot ideas that will leave readers laughing, Mara’s dry sense of humour gets her through most of the year, however, the painful loss of her friends and acquaintances soon catch up with her. It is hard not to despair when you know you could detonate at any moment.

The easiest way to describe Spontaneous is bonkers, absolutely bonkers. For a start, spontaneous combustion is not a likelihood for any living creature. Mara’s inappropriate humour and acidulousness only add to the farcical state of affairs, providing a comical and entertaining narrative. However, as Mara begins to acquiesce to her new situation, and live as if regularly being sprayed with blood and guts is normal, the story takes a sombre downturn.

Annoyingly, the conclusion of Spontaneous is rather ambiguous, leaving attentive readers with no answers. Had Starmer not imaged a solution, or was it too difficult to explain? Whatever the reason, it leaves us with a dissatisfying ending.

On the other hand, the ending of a book is only one fragment of a story. The beginning and middle were of the author’s optimum quality. Combining typical teenage emotion and behaviour - romance included - with a horrifying crisis, results in a book that will make you “feel all the feels”, to borrow a Mara term, and enjoy every moment.

Spontaneous will entertain young and old adults, although perhaps not the more sensitive reader. With uncensored language and no sugarcoating, Mara gives us all the gory details blow-by-blow (literally). Be prepared for laughter, shock and unadulterated pleasure.

This novel has an interesting premise and started out ok. The first few chapters are a hoot but after that it peters out and just goes nowhere. It has some ok bits but overall its a very average read that could have been a lot better.