Not for me. I found the characters uninteresting and the story lacked any pace. I hope others enjoy it more

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC to review. Ultimately, I couldn't really connect with the characters in this story, although there was a lot about the themes of grief and intergenerational trauma that I did love.

A little bit too jumpy time-wise for my personal taste, but overall a really gripping and well-paced debut. Plenty of secrets, difficult family dynamics and the all-painful impacts of grief. Very character driven, which I always love and think was executed here very well! Sophie's writing style is truly beautiful; detailed and emotional, it really gets to grips with the nuances of grief and made for a wonderful reading experience. Sophie is definitely one to watch!

Wild Fires wasn't one of my favourite books of the year, but I still enjoyed it. The prose is beautifully written, and one of my favourite snippets made its way into my notebook as it's particularly poignant:

"Cas. You did not leave home to write. You left home to leave."

I liked the exploration of carving an identity out of a complicated family and feeling like you need to 'break free' and separate yourself from those who raised you in order to become an individual person. I didn't add it to my review notes as I was reading it, but looking back I feel like the house they live in is another member of the family, with its creaking stairs and memories littering surfaces like dust.

Thanks to HarperCollins UK and NetGalley for ARC.

On the face of it, this debut novel centres on a small, universal story - bereavement brings family members back together and conflict ensues - but oh, this is much more than that!
Superbly written, giving an insight into a culture and diaspora I know little of, dwelling on fine detail to tell a heartbreaking tale of loss, secrets and the weight of inherited sadness, I will think of this book for a long time.

This books is so beautifully written! It’s about loss, in all it’s variations, and inter-generational trauma. That doesn’t make for an easy read emotionally, but it rewards those who can stick with it. The tagline is absolutely right - grief is an inside joke; you have to have been there to really get it. I have been there and I can honestly say this felt just right, the characters are so real and the author has a wealth of emotional intelligence. The Rampersand family have made some huge leaps in their life, from India to Trinidad and Tobago, then to Toronto with all the differences of these cultures absorbed along the way.

I loved the premise of a house full of women, coping with a sudden and recent loss, while harbouring unprocessed emotions and resentments from a decade before. It’s a pressure cooker waiting to blow.
Of course all of this will be brought to the surface before this book ends and our main character Cassandra will learn of losses that pre-date her, the loss of a man whose photograph is tucked away in a drawer, the loss of an aunt and cousin she never met, and even why Chevy, lost most recently, was never able to speak. These were the contents of whispered conversations that would stop when she came into the room. She really has captured this family beautifully, every character is fully realised and three dimensional. It doesn’t pull its punches when exploring generations of grief unspoken and unexplored. Grief changes people. It changes the way they interact with others, the choices they make for their lives and this does badly affect the next generation, especially when they don’t know or understand the story. I loved reading this, thanks to the author for tackling such a weighty subject with so much honesty and raw emotion.

The premise of this really drew me in - a multigenerational family brought together in grief and where long-buried secrets and memories cause even more devastation. However, the story itself does not quite deliver on this.
The novel does show inter-generational dynamics well - the differing attitudes to issues depending on which age-group you belong to, how the different generations react to their new circumstances and how they all interact with each other in their enforced close proximity because of a family death. Also, how different cultural backgrounds respond to these kind of things as well.
Yet, while this seemed to promise a strong punchy story as well as a character study, I'd struggle to summarise a strong plotline here - it is more about the family dynamics and bringing up old grievances than anything else. Which, as I'm writing it here, still sounds more impactful than it felt when I read it.

I tried really hard to get into this but I just couldn't. The premise sounded fantastic but I didn't like the way it was executed. I didn't vibe with the writing style or the characters.

Set between Trinidad and Toronto, Jai takes us into the underbelly of a predominantly female family following the death of a nephew and cousin. Cassandra travels back to Toronto for the funeral, but over the course of the next few weeks long-term family secrets and repressed grievances rise to the surface.

I found it hard to keep all of the different female characters clear in my minds-eye to start with but they had all become well rounded characters by the end of the novel. The book really shows the long term consequences of denial of emotions, and how this broke down the trust between the female characters. It was interesting to learn about what it was like for people to move from Trinidad to Toronto and the funeral really showed the differences in the expectations of the two cultures.

Jai is clearly a talented writer and I’ll be interested to see what she writes next. This books is already out, and worth checking out if you like an inter-generational novel. Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with ebook access.

This book opens with news of a death, and takes us into the depths of grief when family comes together after some time apart. Beautifully written with stunning prose and use of Trinidadian dialect, the novel uses language incredibly to evoke meaning and soul. The historical elements are the foundations of the story of family life and give clues to the secrets which start to unravel in the grieving household. The characters are wonderfully written, and the house is like a character in itself. A wonderful debut..

This was a story with family at the heart of it; Cassandra knows very little about hers so when she has to return home for the funeral it seems like the perfect opportunity to learn more.

I was really intrigued by the premise of family secrets but I felt a little lost part way through; still an interesting read.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for a copy of the novel in exchange for an honest review

I’d describe this book as realistic fiction. The author has done an amazing job at creating imaginary characters and situations that depict the world and society. The characters focus on themes of growing, self-discovery and confronting personal and social problems. This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and would read more of their work. The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you very much to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

3.5/5.

Jai paints a vivid picture of a large immigrant family coping with the death of a close relative. She captures the nature of grief in many forms as her characters each death with the death and its consequences in different ways. Adding drama and depth are the various mysteries surrounding the family itself, with each member knows only fragments of story about the others. This fractured understanding is reflected in the piecey narrative, with frequent jumps between times settings and POVs. It's an intricate tale, but the intricacy sometimes gets in the way so that it can be difficult to fully connect with the story and the characters. What is beautifully done is the presentation of the Rampersads' complex cultural history as a family of Indian heritage who have moved from Trinidad to Toronto (and London). This rich mix of culture was so well presented through the characters, from their speech to their stories. it's a memorable work that clearly showcases Jai's talents, I look forward to reading more in the future.

I found Wild Fires to be very confusing from the beginning. The chapters often moved between past and present and it was difficult to tell what was happening when; which for me made the reading process more complicated. There is nothing wrong with the writing style of the author, as it is very descriptive and articulated; but I found the plot a bit dull. Nothing really happened in the entirety of this 30% that I read, and considering how long it took me to get there, I just decided to put it aside.

When Cassandra returns to her family home, there is something amiss. The death of her cousin has brought buried family trauma to light and Cassandra ends up in the middle of it as the past pays a visit to the present. The story is set over the course of several decades, and spans from Toronto to Trinidad.

Reading a book about family dynamics which is centred on grief is not an easy thing, but Jai's writing is exemplary. She masterfully illustrates the way that grief is dealt with across different cultures, and the way that it ripples across a family. There isn't a strong plot driving the story - and I think that would have been unnatural and jarring, as the focus of the book is more on Cassandra and her family, intergenerational relationships, and the secrets that we all hide.

Considering that this is Jai's debut novel, I'm excited to see what she writes next. It's completely unlike anything I've ever read before. I've never been so immersed in the descriptions of character, emotion, place... Absolutely worth reading!

Cassandra is coming back to Toronto for her cousin Chevy's funeral after five years of living in England. She'll have to endure the particular way her Trinidadian family mourns, the tensions between her aunts and her mother and Cecelia's birthday celebrations.
In this novel the current timeline is mixed with the past, highlighting the family's Trinidadian background. It provided an interesting, historical context, depicting older generation's lives and Chevy's as a child.
What's more, we also see the younger generation, the differences in their upbringing and the secrets that were kept from them. All these elements create a mosaic of family history, secrets and grief. The issue I had was with the changing timelines that sometimes distorted or distracted from the main plot.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for access to the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I went into this blind and I'm glad I did. I picked it purely for the cover - surprise, surprise!

Ultimately, Wild Fires is a story about loss, self and family. In terms of plot, there isn't much of one, in my opinion. This is more to do with the fallout one deals with after a loss in the family.

Familie's are messy at the best of times, and Jai finds a way to amplify this through the death that occurs at the beginning of the book. I do enjoy books that focus on family dynamics, and find them fascinating. Jai also explores the differences in the way grief is shown across cultures. Our MC, Cassandra's family are from Trinidad but now reside in Toronto. There's a particularly difficult passage during the funeral that makes Cassandra, and the reader, feel uncomfortable as she see's the way their neighbours view the family as they publicly grieve. The way Jai executes this is flawless.

I do think that what the book lacked was direction and there was no clear resolution to much. Whilst I do like character driven novels, I feel like I knew more of the side characters personality/motives rather than Cassandra's. She felt quite passive, although I do recognise that this could have been intentional in terms of her dealing with her grief. I struggled to connect with Cassandra overall and found that her sister's and aunts were more compelling/interesting.

Overall, I think this is a good debut, and I would be interested to see what Jai comes out with next.

Unfortunately, this book just wasn't for me. I didn't like the author voice and found that I wasn't able to get into the story the way I would have wanted to. I didn't finish the book and stopped after the first three chapters.

the writing is giving me very strong debut vibes...the sentences do not run smoothly together and the storytelling is a bit all over the place...

Thankyou to netgalley and the publisher for allowing me a e-arc of this book. Wild Fires was just a little too confusing for me to follow and the plot was jumpy so unfortunately this was a DNF.