3.5 Back home to Indiana, is the last place Abby wants to go, a place where she was bullied daily. Now an environmental lawyer in Chicago, she is a confident, more centered person. When a case in her old hometown sends her and her team back to investigate a company that seems to have the town in it's pockets, she is sure she can handle it. But can she?

Two different ratings for each half of the book. Very encouraging start, well written, seemed to have more substance than some other books in this genre. Nice mix of personal remembrances, traumas, with some interesting legwork on the investigation. Of course, all her ghosts come back to haunt her, unfinished business, old acquaintances who were not friends but now seem to want to be, and a mystery, a girl who had supposedly left town, a girl who had once been her friend. This part of the story garnered a four.

Then the second part of the story, was disappointed, not in the resolution of the plot, but in the way the main character her acted. Descended into a bad melodrama so different from the controlled writing and personality exhibited in the first half. Found it jarring and not totally believable, too, too much happened, thought it was unrealistic. So the second half I would rate a three. Hence my 3.5 rating.

So for me this was an unbalanced read. Was interesting, good, a little different but could have been better without the exploding second half. IMO

ARC from Netgalley.

I think I went into this book expecting a little bit too much. It was definitely an interesting story, and I really liked the main character, Abby. I love thrillers that focus on someone returning to the long buried secrets in their hometown, and this one definitely had that. The tone was great and the setting of Barren, Indiana was extremely unsettling. The downfall? I think Krysten Ritter tried to pack a few too many things into a book that wasn’t even 300 pages. There was a whole environmental law piece that went ignored halfway thru the book, when all kinds of other scandals were introduced. It could have been more fleshed out, but I would definitely read whatever Krysten Ritter puts out next.

I don't think I'm going to be able to get over that ending. It goes against all of Abby's character development throughout the whole book and kind of ruins it for me too. I will say I read this book very fast and it kept me interested. I don't normally read thriller/mystery type things and sometimes the characters/story feels cliche and cardboard cutout, and that was the case here but that might be my issues with the genre. Sometimes I felt like I could tell the author was trying too hard to write something overly pretty. Other times she wrote passages that really impressed me. I was firmly in the middle about this book until the ending and now I'm just mad.

I’ve been a fan of Krysten Ritter since she popped up on Veronica Mars in 2005. I am forever looking for ways to relive Veronica Mars, but Ritter has proven herself a badass with a lot of the work she’s done aside from VM over the years and I was curious to see how that translated into her debut novel, Bonfire. The description sounded intriguing and I’ve been hearing a lot of buzz about it, so I was excited to be able to pick it up before its release.

I won’t say I had small expectations, but I will say I was happily impressed with the tone, flow and overall feel of this book. It’s a gritty thriller, not scared to show its scars, and kept me on the edge of my seat through pretty much most of it. I was especially impressed with how it remained suspenseful and thrilling while dealing with a corporate environmental case, which honestly could end up being a bit of a drag. But it wasn’t, at all. It was smart, well written and with lots of twists and turns.

Bonfire had all the qualities I like in a book: flawed heroine, mystery/thriller, group of mean girls, sordid past, and most of all, it took place in a small town. But what was even better than this was that while the book fit nicely into these categories, it also defied them. The mean girls weren’t rich, privileged girls. The flawed heroine wasn’t entirely the outcast growing up. Ritter pulled from these comfortable places, but made the characters entirely her own and took things deeper and darker than expected.

I whipped through this in a couple of sittings. I enjoyed how each character had their own story and you never fully knew who to trust. I liked how pieces from all these little stories came together to start making the big story that Abby was trying to uncover. And I especially loved how Abby suddenly became unreliable herself, which seemed out of the blue, but also fit so well with the rest of the story. It complimented the complexity of the ending and added a few final obstacles to overcome before it was all laid out for us. This was a really clever way to throw the reader off, reminding them that anything can happen in a good book.

And this was a good book. I really enjoyed everything about it. There were familiar elements and expected outcomes, but there was also a much, much deeper take on this story. Deeper and darker. I wasn’t expecting it, but I was thrilled to be taken by surprise and thought it all wrapped up really well. Turns out this badass woman can write a badass book. I can’t wait to read more.

Abby Williams is heading home. After ten years away, college, law school, and having set herself up as an environmental lawyer in Chicago with her own life, she is heading back to where it all started for her: the small town of Barrens, Indiana. Her hometown does not hold happy memories for her. Her mother died when she was young, and her father raised her with a strictness that bordered on cruelty. She was bullied at school by a group of mean girls led by her former best friend, and the isolation was unbearable. She'd had to leave. 

Now she has to come back. The chemical conglomeration that first came to town when she was in high school, Optimal, has grown since Abby's days in Barrens. Now it's not just a major employer in the small town, it offers the town community buildings and scholarships. But Abby knows that there is something sinister going on. When her former high school friend had gotten sick, Abby knew that Optimal had something to do with it. Now she has the education to figure out what happened and the legal expertise to make Optimal open their books. But will she be able to figure out the true source of the evil and stop it before it can stop her in her tracks? 

Krysten Ritter, better known as the actress from Jessica Jones, Breaking Bad, and Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23, has written a debut novel that is smart, compelling, and engaging. Although the girl going home to her small town to right old wrongs story has been played out before, Ritter manages to make it interesting, and the story keeps you moving forward, keeps you wondering just what is happening in Barrens, and keeps you cheering on Abby, who may be smart but just can't see. 

Bonfire is a fun read, a thriller that can stand up to most of what's out there. It moves well throughout, and I highly recommend this one for anyone who is a fan of griplit, especially of Gillian Flynn. I felt a kinship there in the storytelling style. Krysten Ritter has written a fiery book of deception and secrets, and I can't wait to read her follow-up to Bonfire. 



Galleys for Bonfire were provided by Crown Publishing through NetGalley.com, with many thanks.

I couldn't get into it. It's not for me. Thank you though for the chance to review it.

I went into this book quite hopeful as I really love Krysten, but as thrillers go, this one fell a little flat for me.

The idea of the woman who escaped the small town life only to have to come back to it and that journey being shrouded in mystery has been done too many times. The writing was okay but the story itself was not captivating at all.

I know some people who will enjoy this book but for me it just didn't work.

I found Bonfire by Krysten Ritter not only to be a good debut novel, but a good read by any standards! If this is her first effort, I am definitely looking forward to reading any upcoming works.

Bonfire is a "girl leaves small town and returns ten years later to fight new and old demons" story. But not only does Ritter turn out a very good version of an old plot line, but she seamlessly blends the past with the present, making both equally compelling.

Abby Williams grew up in the small town of Barrens, Indiana. When she became a teen, her former best friend, Kaycee Mitchell, and Kaycee's crowd of followers, turned on her, and Abby became the victim of intense bullying. She was not the only one. Several teens were singled out and harassed beyond understanding as a result of something called "the game". But whose game was it? Who made the rules? Kaycee disappeared one night during a bonfire to celebrate graduation. No one admits knowing what happened to her, and most believe she left town. Once graduated, Abby left for Chicago, vowing never to return to the small town which brought her such misery and heartache.

Now a successful environmental lawyer, a new case takes her back to Barrens to investigate Optimal Plastics, suspected of contaminating the drinking water. Optimal has not only been the economic life-blood of Barrens since Abby was a child, but also the money behind all good things to ever come to the small town.

Abby has a lot of questions she wants answered, both personal and professional, and the more she investigates, the more secrets she finds.

This is an intriguing read with a strong main character, and enough twists to keep me interested from the first page to the last. Kudos Krysten Ritter!!!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Crown Publishing for allowing me to read an e-copy of this book.

This book was a fast, engaging read. However, it was also predictable and not a book I will remember.

I was given a free copy of this book to review and I accepted it because it sounded like a good mystery, not because of who the author is. I had no idea she was an actress. I have never seen any of the things she has been in. If I had known I might have looked at it with a different eye. I enjoyed the book very much. It is a satisfying mystery with all the right elements by a new author.
Because of her job Abby Williams returns home after ten years to Barrens, the town where she was a nobody picked on by the popular kids. An environmental lawyer, Abby has been sent there to investigate a complaint against Optimal Plastics, the company the town owes everything to, the company with a squeaky clean reputation and no environmental problems. As she investigates she is convinced that something is not right and somehow Optimal is connected to the disappearance to her old friend and high school bad girl Kaycee. The case takes many twists and turns that leave Abby and the reader wondering if she is going crazy and fearing to trust anyone. Some of the twists I expected but others were not foreseen. Ms Ritter wraps the story up in a very satisfying fashion.

I remember requesting this book before knowing it was written by an actress. There was something about the blurb that caught my eye, probably the fact that the synopsis reminded me a bit of Erin Brockovich (which I love) and also that it's about a woman going back to her hometown (you know I can't resist those).

I'm not a fan of Krysten Ritter. It's not that I don't like her, I simply haven't seen her much, so I don't really have an opinion about her acting skills. Her writing skills, on the other hand, are good. I really liked the way Krysten managed to hook me from the moment I read the prologue. Talk about a gripping opening!

The idea for this book was great and I'm always a fan of this kind of stories where you're rooting for the underdog who wants to sue a big corporation. I can't help it. This was no different and it also included a disturbing storyline featuring high school students that made it all more interesting and complex.

Abby Williams is an interesting character, but at the same time, I felt like I've read many similar books where the poor, shy girl returns home having become a successful lawyer/writer/whatever and everyone else in her town is still the same. I don't think she was memorable enough, although her relationship with her father was perhaps my favorite part.

Ultimately, my issues with this book were simply that I don't think I will remember it forever. The conclusion was a bit predictable in terms of who's guilty and who isn't and while I definitely liked the bittersweet ending, I think there have been books that have left a bigger impression than this one.

I picked up this book from NetGalley because I loved Ritter in Jessica Jones.  I know that acting and writing are completely different, but I feel like she must have brought a lot of herself to the role, so I was curious about her first novel.

I should say first off that the modern-day mystery-thriller is not my favorite genre.  I did enjoy the book – it was well written and hard to put down. It tells an interesting story and I definitely sympathized with narrator Abby’s angst about reliving her troubled teenager years and trying to find out what happened to her once-best-friend.

But I also found it pretty predictable, and there were a few things that bothered me.  One thing was Abby’s relationship with her father.  She returns to her childhood town and sees her father for the first time in ten years.  He’s very sick and needs to be cared for, but she’s full of anger and resentment towards him, and is worried about that wall of anger coming down and what that might do to her.  All good, except I didn’t feel this was ever really addressed in the story.  It’s very late in the book when we even understand why she hates her father.  The father felt like a bit of an afterthought in a book that had a lot going on.

There’s an interesting story here, when it's discovered through interviewing the people of the town.  And I liked that only Abby can put all the pieces together because the story relates to her own history with her missing friend.  All good.  Except for some reason the revelations keep coming from out of nowhere (things like “as I said this, I knew it was true”) which really bugged me. I think this was a minor writing issue more than a major plot issue.  A related problem was how often in this book Abby seemed utterly out of control, mostly from drinking.

Ultimately, there just weren’t a lot of surprises here.  The villains are clearly the villains, and the heroes the heroes, despite a few weak attempts to divert the reader.  The themes and plot structure are pretty formulaic, from the initial “small town girl makes good” to the later “must stop her from revealing what she knows”.

As a story of Abby’s troubled childhood, and the twisted friendships that (sadly) girls so often have, this book was good but could have been even better.  As a mystery, it was on the weak side.  I wish there was something about this book that surprised me, but much of it felt pretty obvious.

Note: I received a complimentary copy of this book from NetGalley and publisher Crown Publishing.  This book was published November 7, 2017.

Solid 3.5 stars

Bonfire is an addictive mystery about corporate greed and small town scandals.

After 10 years of living in anonymity in Chicago, environmental lawyer Abby Williams returns to her tiny hometown Barrens, Indiana to investigate Optimal Plastics, a corporation that not only fuels the town’s economy, but also saturates Barrens with its philanthropic efforts. Residents of Barrens are getting sick, and Abby believes their illnesses are a result of water contamination caused by Optimal. Abby, who was tormented and bullied throughout high school is desperate to uncover the dirt on Optimal, as she believes the corporation is not only harming the residents of Barrens, but also led to the illness of childhood best friend and high school frenemy, Kaycee Mitchell.

Flashback 10 years ago: Kaycee Mitchell was the “It” girl at Barrens High School. She and her group of minions created “The Game,” which worked to torment and bully their peers. Kaycee and her minions made Abby’s life a living hell. When Kaycee begins getting sick, her illness "spreads" to her group of friends. Once Kaycee's friends admit their illness was a hoax, she goes missing never to be seen agian.

Upon her return to Barrens, Abby must confront her teenage enemies, her high school crush, and her abusive father. Fueled by her obsession with Optimal and Kaycee, her behavior spirals out of control putting her in imminent danger.

Bonfire is a compulsive read that hooked me from the start. I loved the dark, snarky tone and felt like Ritter did a stellar job of fleshing out the town of Barrens. Abby is a strong, yet unreliable narrator. In the back of my head, I kept picturing her as Jessica Jones without superpowers! The mystery surrounding Kaycee drew me in. My only complaint is that the last ¾ unravels and becomes a bit convoluted. Overall, this is an impressive debut by Krysten Ritter!

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Abby Williams couldn’t wait to get out of small town Barrens, Indiana, where she was born and raised. Hers was not a particularly happy childhood; bullied by classmates, mother dying of cancer, and an alcoholic father all combining for a lonely start to life. Two days after high school graduation she moved to Chicago and became an environmental lawyer. Now she returns to Barrens as part of a legal team trying to gather proof against a giant corporate polluter named Optimal Plastics only to discover connections to a scandal involving her own past circle of “friends”. While she hopes to bury her past, it starts to look more and more likely that the past may well bury her.

I suppose many people will be drawn to this book simply due to the author herself, a well-regarded actress known for her starring role as Jessica Jones or for her work on Breaking Bad or several fine movie performances. I confess that was the case for me as well. In fact, when I began reading this first person POV novel, I found myself picturing Jessica Jones telling the story of Abby Williams. Despite knowing this was a debut novel, I had pretty high expectations due to Ms. Ritter’s many impressive on-screen performances. And that certainly proved to be the case, for this novel was absorbing all the way through.

This is largely a dual mystery story as Abby tries to gather evidence against Optimal while at the same time works to understand her own childhood experiences, especially why her friend Kaycee disappeared back then. We are treated to lots of Abby’s flashback thoughts as information is slowly revealed and the style morphs into more of a psychological suspense/thriller story. However you want to classify it, it works very well. The characters, especially Abby’s reunited “friends” from high school, are well-drawn and intriguing. Abby herself, is a complex web of personality and I relished the slowly-divulged details of her past as they unfolded. The author is able to convey the uncomfortableness of Abby’s youthful remembrances and mesh them with the present-day reality in a way that really kept me enthralled throughout the book. And her ability to describe the small-town setting of Barrens through the eyes of others rather than long descriptive paragraphs speaks to the talent of an experienced writer. My initial tendency to think of this book as a debut effort by an on-screen celebrity soon fell by the wayside as I simply settled down to enjoy a really good book.

Of note, in the “About the Author” page at the very end of the book, it mentions that Krysten Ritter has founded a production company that aims to highlight complex female protagonists. If this novel is an indication of that aim, then the future looks bright for the author as well as the production company.

Highly recommended.

I was curious to see if the woman I know as Jane from Breaking Bad could write, and I was pleasantly surprised. The book is about Abby, an environmental lawyer called back to her rural Indiana hometown for a case. She has less than pleasant memories of the place, and it all comes crashing back to her the moment she arrives.

There are a lot of layers in the book, and things are constantly happening. I found some parts a little underwhelming and others felt like too much of a stretch, but overall it was a decent read and a worthy debut novel.

Thanks to Crown for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review!

The synopsis and cover instantly grabbed my attention when picking up BONFIRE by Krysten Ritter. This was a mix of two different storylines that both connected to the main character, Abby Williams. A small town with mysteries and secrets and no one wants them disturbed.

Abby Williams hasn't been back to her hometown of Barrens, Indiana for almost a decade. She left for Chicago and has her thriving career as a lawyer, but a case will bring her back home. She is in charge of investigating Optimal Plastics - the town's most high-profile and important companies. She knows that her presence there will cause unease because most of the town is employed there. The more she investigates the more she begins to realize that there seems to be a connection to a missing person's case from a decade ago. Kaycee Mitchell, one of her friends and the most popular girl in school at the time, had become very ill and then vanished for good.

Abby continues to search for answers she begins to uncover a web of blackmail, sexual deviance, and a disturbing ritual called The Game. With most of the town involved and their reputations threatened, Abby must tread carefully. She can't help but become consumed by her memories of the torture she endured at the hands of Kaycee (and her other friends) in high school. Can you ever truly escape your past?

BONFIRE is a great and solid debut for Krysten Ritter! This book was incredibly atmospheric. Ritter does a great job pulling the reader into Barrens and making you feel just as claustrophobic as Abby feels.Then the development of Abby was gradual and the reader can really connect with her. Who doesn't love a strong, female lead? There were some very prevalent topics addressed in this novel, mainly the bullying that Abby endured. Seeing the last effects they've had on her and how she copes made her feel even more human. I enjoyed the slow burning mystery and the little twist in the novel. The ending felt a tad flat compared to the build up, but everything got pulled together nicely!

Overall, if you like a slow building mystery then you'll love BONFIRE. Fans of Erin Brockovich will love this book. I definitely will look for more from Ritter in the future!

I give this a solid 4/5 stars!

You know how sometimes celebrities will write a book and its clear they barely wrote it but relied HEAVILY on their co-author to actually write the book? Or it just really isn’t very good and it’s clear that if they weren’t already a celebrity, they wouldn’t be getting this book published?

Well, I am happy to say that Bonfire is nothing like that. The book is good, and it sucked me in. And the heroine, Abby, is a realistic and fully developed character. Clearly, some people just get all the talent, and Krysten Ritter is one of those people.

Its the classic tale of a small town girl who just has to get out, and then finds herself returning, a success, to help the town overcome a problem. And even though the premise is a bit clique, I really enjoyed the book. It can be interesting seeing how people turn out as adults, when the teen version of that same person suggested something different. And of course, we all have demons from our past that we must ultimately revisit in order to leave them in the past forever.

I highly recommend you check this one out, whether you are a Krysten Ritter fan or not. It’s a great mystery that slowly unfolds to a satisfying ending.

I probably would have rated it slightly higher, had I found that it was full of shocking twists and turns. For me, it wasn’t a thriller, just more of a slow-burning mystery. Yup, I just said that Bonfire was slow burning. So that wasn’t ultimately a bad thing, just maybe not exactly what I was expecting.

The good news is, this book came out November 7, so you can run right out and pick up your copy!

Special thanks to Netgalley and Crown Publishing for an e-galley in exchange for my honest review.

When Abby Williams left Barrens, Indiana she attempted to erase any evidence of that small town life. She has since reinvented herself as an environmental lawyer in Chicago. Claims of contaminated water cast Abby back into Barrens to investigate the town’s largest company Optimal Plastics. Abby soon discovers a connection to Optimal and a scandal that happened over a decade ago involving the popular Kaycee Mitchell and a group of her friends. As Abby digs deeper she is forced to face her past and secrets that may unravel the town.

I will admit I was a little skeptical about the great reviews this novel was generating but after reading an excerpt I was immediately hooked. I was generously granted a copy of the novel to review and I immediately devoured it in less than 6 hours. This debut novel by Krysten Ritter was truly fantastic! I really hope that she plans to write more novels because she seems to have found yet another niche in which she excels. This novel begins with environmental pollution claims (Promised Land, Erin Brockovich) and quickly turns into a much darker crime thriller that I could not put down. I highly recommend this novel.

I want to thank NetGalley and Crown Publishing for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review. I appreciate this opportunity.

Synopsis: Abby Williams is a lawyer who works with chemicals and the environment based in Chicago. Different days of the week she has different men in her bed but she feels all alone. She tries to drink away her pain often and numb her feelings out. The only person she feels she can lean on is her colleague Joe.
Abby battles her demons and has faced obsessive thoughts from her past. Ten years ago as a graduating senior Abby was bullied furiously by the “it” crowd whose main star was Abby’s childhood friend, Kaycee Mitchell. When Kaycee mysteriously goes missing after claiming she was sick by the local plastic plant this has a lasting effect on Abby. Even though she hated Kaycee and her crowd in high school she felt there was something she could not shake.
Abby constantly keeps bringing herself back to the past and trying to put the pieces together. Abby finally stumbles across a complaint made by someone about the plant and Abby and her team head to her home town the Barrens. She heads to the Barrens to seek justice and ends up facing more than she could think possible.
Abby has to face; corruption, her abusive father, old high school bullies and new horrors in her home town. She runs into everyone from her childhood in this small town. Will Abby bring justice and be able to fight her personal demons?
Review: Omg! I loved this book! Not only is written by the awesome and sexy Krysten Ritter, it was fantastic. I give this crime thriller 4.5 stars out of 5 stars. I felt like I could feel all of Abby’s emotions and a lot of the traumas that happened in this book I could relate to. At moments it was hard for me to turn the page because of the intensity, but it kept me pulling me back in. I really enjoyed this book and was satisfied I requested it through NetGalley. My only issue, which really wasn’t an issue was the very end I didn’t know if they were leaving it open or that’s how she wanted to finish things. This book showed the reality of how bullying effects people and the horror. This was a terrific crime thriller. I highly recommend this book!