Bonfire

Bonfire is a story of a young woman who left her hometown of Barrens years ago to get away from the cruel people who lived there. She was bullied at school and mentally abused by her mean god fearing father and promised to escape when she could and not come back.

However she gets involved in a case at work investigating the water source of the small town and illnesses that are being experienced by some residents from the town. The suspected cause of the water contamination is a big corporation Optimal Plastics in the town that is responsible for many of the residents work and pumps a lot of money to the poor community. Abby soon has a feeling that there is a cover-up and works to discover the cause of the contamination while dealing with a past that she would rather forget.

I enjoyed reading this but had guessed early on in the story the main criminals so it wasn’t much of a surprise how the ending panned out. I cannot say that there is anything about this novel that stood out for me a ground breaking but it was an ok read.

Fine but not fantastic.
The story was mostly interesting, the writing was quite good, but the twist wasn't exactly surprising and I was slightly off-put by the title telling me that it was 'from the star of...'.

This is an impressive debut, a solid 3.5 star read, and it doesn't matter a jot who the author is - although, yes, I did start off with Jessica Jones playing the main character! I enjoyed the claustrophobic feel of the story, of a lawyer going back to the small town she grew up in - and escaped from - to try an gather evidence in a pollution case against the town's big employer. There's definitely familiarity to the story line, but it's done well with a few twists and turns, although I did think the ending could have had a little more punch.

Oooh, Krysten Ritter - you know, the woman who plays Jessica Jones - has written a book. A proper one too, not a memoir or celeb tell-all. Oooh, it sounds gritty too. Like how she comes across on screen. Oooh. I'm excited! I bet it's going to be really good!

Except... it really isn't. I mean, it's certainly not the worst thing I've ever read, but it's definitely not a future classic. Sorry Krysten.

The novel begins when the main protagonist Abby goes back to her small hometown to look at a number of complaints from local people about getting ill, purportedly from a chemical leak into the water supply. There's a big shady company who have potentially caused the problem who basically employ the whole town, so she finds it difficult to get anyone to talk to her. She also has memories of similar issues happening when she was a teenager to some of the girls from her school. As Abby gets pulled back into her former life, she realises that old loyalties die hard and the further she digs, the worse her discoveries become.

So basically, Erin Brockovich?

Well, fictional italics person, I haven't seen that film but a quick squiz at IMDB

suggests yeah, it's basically the same story. Oh, except there's another layer of corruption in Bonfire, which is a good job because *insignificant spoiler alert* this is how the potential water contamination is handled:

(Abby) "Let's get a water sample and screen it."

(Guy she works with) "We got the results back from the lab. The water is totally polluted."

So...yeah.

To me, this felt like a really clunky way to get into the main mystery. I would have liked to see faked lab tests, some kind of corruption to stop the results being published...anything to stop this section of the story being such a boring dead end. Or at least if the book had started with this discovery it would have been a good lead in to the actual story, not just a weird aside that felt like a total let down.

The characters in the book were kind of thin - because the whole town is implicated and most characters are white straight men it's kind of hard to remember the difference between David, Paul, Ryan, Chris, (insert boring white guy name) etc. I also didn't feel like we found out who exactly knew what and I hate hate hate stories that aren't fully resolved.

I expected Abby to be a super kick-ass main character but unfortunately she was a total let down. She spent much of the book smashed off her face (because issues) which presumably made it hard for her to work anything out - twice in the book major advancements in the case are made and both times the people who do so are members of Abby's team. She constantly gets things wrong and needs rescuing by men, which kind of grates after a while. To be honest, I'm getting a bit sick of seeing characters who drink themselves into oblivion then go to work as normal the next day, seemingly with no ill effects. This isn't normal, it's not sustainable long term, it's not something that wouldn't get you fired pretty quickly. Please stop glamorizing it.

Also the ending is shit.

Overall, a bit of a let down all round. Fairly unlikeable characters, a weird segway part way through, a romance I was not on board with. Not terrible, just meh.

A good debut from Kristen Ritter. Well written and kept me gripped.

3.5 Stars

I was very kindly sent a copy of Bonfire which I hadn’t heard much about but sounded like an interesting read. Plus, it’s by none other than Krysten Ritter who you may know as Jessica Jones.

I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect from this book. You may have seen my review of Otherworld, partially written by the actor Jason Segel, and you may remember that I didn’t even know he wrote books. This is exactly the same thing. This is Krysten’s first book but I absolutely had no idea that she was even writing one! Like Jason Segel, she is an actor, and like I am with all famous people that write books, I mostly just didn’t know what to expect from this book but I went into it with a clear head. The only thing was that after watching Krysten in Jessica Jones, she sort of took on the form of Abby, the main character. So basically, Krysten Ritter/Jessica Jones is Abby to me.

Bonfire was a pretty decent mystery novel to be honest. It clocks in at under 300 pages making it a rapid read. I was pleasantly surprised by it and the writing flowed really well. Abby doesn’t have many friends but she does have interactions with many people throughout the book. Her relationship with her father is complicated and the communications she has with people that she went to school with are sort of strained due to how they treated her before. I think that seeing Abby come back to her home town as someone who has really progressed and made it ‘big’ in comparison to the others who she went to school with is pretty cool and I liked that just because she had really improved on herself within the last 10 years, Abby didn’t come back and start being malicious or horrible to the people who had been to her.

This book follows along the mystery behind Optimal Plastics but is part of something a whole lot bigger which really begins to develop within the last 100-120 pages. As one question was answered, another came up in it’s place but by the end of this book, all of the questions were answered which tied off quite nicely. The writing in this flowed well and the plot followed along great. There were times when I felt myself start to drop off a bit but this book is mostly fast paced. There were a couple of characters that popped up that I’d have liked to have seen more of ad other characters that I’d have liked to have seen less of.

I did feel that this book was ever so slightly rushed at times and especially at the end, as it felt a little like ‘oh, case closed so that’s that’. There are a couple of questions that I personally do have and that I felt this book could have definitely answered, but honestly it’s ok. It wrapped up fairly well and is a good standalone novel.

All in all, I found this to be an enjoyable book and a pretty quick read. It’s a decent mystery story and whilst I had my suspicions, it wasn’t entirely predictable which is definitely what you want from a mystery book!

Bonfire is the debut novel from Krysten Ritter, author and actress, best known for her roles in Jessica Jones and Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23.

The main storyline is based around a suspected corporate cover-up in rural America. Optimal Plastics is a large plastics conglomerate which has made its base in Barrens, Indiana and incorporated itself into every aspect of the town and community.

Barrens is also the hometown of protagonist Abby Williams, an environmental lawyer working out of Chicago. Despite her reluctance to ever return to Barrens, Abby finds herself back in town to investigate a case of potential poisoning against Optimal Plastics.

Abby's return to Barrens proves to be awkward and unsettling. Abby realises that, despite a decade having passed by, not much has really changed in the small town and everything she was trying to run away from is still there, simmering beneath the surface.

With the local officials resenting her investigations into the company that puts money into the town and provides jobs for its citizens, Abby finds herself with a fight on her hands. Can she work out who may be profiting from Optimal Plastic's dubious actions and whether the company really are responsible for poisoning the water?

There are a couple of main subplots to the story, the first being Abby facing up to her high school bullies. Those teenage girls who made her so desperate to leave Barrens are now respected leaders of the community, yet Abby can't forget their vindictive and malicious actions towards her. Ritter depiction of the 'mean girls' is well-observed and sadly realistic. The sickening cruelty that groups of bullies, particularly teenage girls, can show when a pack-mentality takes over is quite shocking, and Ritter captures this very well. She also brings the bullying into the modern day by showing how much worse the bullying can become once technology/social media is involved.

The other subplot takes us back, once again, to Abby's school days and a missing girl, Kaycee Mitchell. This involves an odd story of illness running amongst Kaycee and her spiteful friends, possibly due to mass hysteria, attention seeking or maybe even linked to the poisoning allegations that Abby is currently investigating. 10 years on and both Kaycee's disappearance and the cause of the illness remain a mystery.

Bonfire is a dark and fast-paced thriller, with plenty of intrigue and action to grab the reader's attention. It is reminiscent of Erin Brockovich, but with a much more sinister undertone. It is not a new premise, an estranged protagonist returning home and being forced to face up to an unresolved past, yet there is something captivating about the story, watching the individual threads weave together into a comprehensive tale of death, corruption and bullying. It's disturbing, suspenseful and totally gripping.

Bonfire proves to be an engaging debut and one which I really enjoyed. I look forward to reading more from Ritter in the future.

Abby Williams is an environmental lawyer working in Chicago who is drawn back to her small Indiana hometown, Barrens, where there have been reports that the local reservoir is contaminated. She and her team are tasked with getting to the bottom of this, whether the reports are true or not, meaning that Abby has to make peace with the place she left behind. But with one mystery that was never solved, that of Kaycee Mitchell, once her friend, then her bully, before she got mysteriously ill and finally disappeared, can she really make peace with it?
I really enjoyed the story behind this book, with a mystery to solve in the past and present as well as how it connects. The setting too was a major plus – I seem to really like novels where a character has to delve into their own past, particularly when that past is small town America with all its quirks and misgivings. The balance between solving the mystery and between Abby’s own issues with the situation she’s put in were just right for me and meant I really enjoyed reading it.
And a quick note – I noticed when reading the reviews on Goodreads that people were noting that they didn’t just like it because of the author – well, apparently I’m clueless as I’d never heard of the author, who is apparently the actress behind superheroine Jessica Jones, so let it be known that this didn’t influence by opinion of the book!

Possible triggers: Online bullying/exploitation and suicide

I found this an engaging read that kept my interest. I was intrigued by the setup of the book and the mystery of what Optimal Plastics had to do with the scandal involving her schoolmates when Abby used to live in Barrens. I really enjoyed the flashes to the past and how this impacted on the story in the present.

The reason I didn't give this four stars was mainly because I sometimes struggled to engage with the narrative voice, and I also found the subject matter quite difficult to read at some points.

This was a promising debut and an intriguing mystery.

Ten years ago Abby Williams left her small hometown for Chicago.
Now an environmental lawyer, Abby finds herself reluctantly returning home to work on a case.
As Abby digs for information she realises that the case might be related to the events in her teens that led to her former friend Kaycee Mitchell disappearing.
What happened to Kaycee?
Can Abby fix her relationship with her father?
What secrets will Abby unearth in her search for the truth?

When I heard that Krysten Ritter had written a book I was really excited to read it. The intriguing blurb and gorgeous cover grabbed my attention as well.
I liked Abby and felt sorry for her - she hadn't had an easy childhood. I found her relatable and wanted her to be able to move on from her past.
The plot was interesting and I didn't guess what had happened to Kaycee.
I enjoyed the writing style which was easy to follow, but it didn't grip me.
This was a solid debut novel.

Overall this was an enjoyable read.

Brilliant book, I couldn’t put it down. Great characters and the description of the small town made me feel like it was me coming home, it seemed very familiar. I couldn’t help picturing the main character as Jessica Jones, but that didn’t take anything away from the book.

When I first started this book I thought and realised it was about a young woman returning to her home town as a successful lawyer to investigate a large firm's possible pollution and their covering up of this I thought I'd be in for a good story with a bit of action. I was wrong. The book didn't grab my attention at all, I found Abby (the central character) to be full of self pity for the things that had happened in her childhood/young adulthood and unable to establish any sort of relationship with anybody. For me the book sort of limped along until near the end when it got a bit more interesting - but not interesting enough for me to be able to recommend it.

This is possibly the most boring thriller that I have ever read. Abby returns to her hometown after escaping and training as an environmental lawyer. Of course, she has to face her past while she’s there.

There are two storylines in this book, one following Optimal, the local beloved big business, who may be causing environmental issues, the other following the disappearance of Abby’s childhood friend turned tormentor ten years prior. Neither storyline was interesting. I didn’t care if Optimal was poisoning the water because the corporation was barely seen and the characters that were affected were seen once or twice, and Abby didn’t really seem to care either. She was more focused on the secondary plot, the disappearance of Kaycee Mitchell ten years ago. I don’t really understand why Abby was so fixated on this except for gut instinct. Nothing in the book compelled me to want to know what happened to Kaycee, whether the illness in her final school year was real or a hoax, but apparently it’s haunted Abby for a decade.

The characterisation was also pretty shoddy. Abby is not a good character. She spends half the book drunk, she can’t work in a team, she remembers and forgets random factoids conveniently and she jumps to conclusions that don’t make sense. When she’s given contradictory evidence, she doesn’t listen and just keeps going. I would rank her as one of my least favourite main characters ever. She also ends up in a love triangle that in the end has no impact at all on the story, of whom both characters are even less likeable than Abby is.

The book itself was incredibly slow going. I found it a really boring read. It’s supposed to be a thriller, but nothing happens until the last 5% of the book. That 5% was incredibly rushed and extremely disappointing.

I received this book in exchange for an honest review from Netgalley

What a wonderful little gem of a book! I loaded this up onto my kindle based purely on the cover, I kept myself open to the story and even the genre. I would not say this was a thriller, more of an intriguing mystery. Some parts were predictable but there was some quite emotional parts involving bullying and grief, with the protagonist Abby Williams facing some of her childhood demons. It was well paced, a suitable length did not over drag for the sake of it.

If you are a prolific thriller reader the plot will unlikely be a new one, but it was well written enough for what I saw this as, an entertaining holiday read. This was an solid debut novel and albeit safe toe dip into the genre I think it’s a good foundation for more good stuff from the author. I look forward to reading more from her.

My iPad is full of books that I have downloaded from Netgalley and not got around to reading or reviewing, so when I was on the Eurostar on my way to Disneyland Paris last month, I decided to delve in and find one. I landed on Bonfire by Krysten Ritter, another book that I have heard good things about, but one that ultimately, I wanted to read because I like Krysten Ritter. I wasn’t disappointed; it’s a great thriller about a corporate cover up that descends into something even more nasty.

I thought that the idea of this book was a brilliant idea, but I never really got into it. I got about 30% through, but DNF'd. Why? Well, it wasn't really anything to do with the book - perhaps there were too many characters for me to keep up with, and I just wasn't in the mood. I feel like for thrillers the stakes have to be high straight away, and it just wasn't right at the beginning.

I think I will try this again, but not right now, and perhaps I'm just not the right target audience for this. I feel like if I were a little older, I would really enjoy this, but the thrillers I enjoy happen to be more fast paced!

Also, and this is nothing against the author and hasn't brought down the rating, but the ARC was really horrifically laid out and I just couldn't read it properly!

Thanks to NetGalley for providing a free copy of the book!

This is a great debut novel from Krysten Ritter - full of suspense and short enough to be read in just a few hours. Krysten has a great writing style that manages to hook you from the first page right through to the end.

This is a well written Mystery which just seemed to flyby.
Thoroughly enjoyable.

This is the first book by the actress Krysten Ritter, who is well-known for her role as Marvel’s Jessica Jones and other TV shows. I enjoyed the book, which I guess could be categorised as a legal thriller. Now an environmental lawyer, Abby Williams returns to the small Indiana town she grew up in to investigate local plastic company. Abby has proudly left her small town upbringing behind and become a successful lawyer in Chicago. Back in Barrens, IN, she now once again finds herself confronted with her family’s past, surrounded by her high school acquaintances, the disappearance of a former friend turned nemesis and also notices a connection between events from high school and the plastic company she is investigating. I enjoyed solving the mystery of Kaycee’s disappearance and the truth about the plastic company together with Abby, and discovering how her former high school acquaintances are involved in everything. Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with this ARC in return for an honest review.

An interesting and exciting debut novel. Abby comes across as vulnerable but in the end is very strong. I didn't realise that Krysten Ritter was Jessica Jones until I came to the end of the book. I feel therefore that I wasn't influenced by that fact. It was quite slow at the beginning but gained pace towards the end.

I look forward to more from Krysten Ritter.