Fire With Fire by Siobhan Vivan and Jenny Han
Release Date – August 13, 2013
Publisher Website -
Simon and Schuster
Publisher Social Media -
Twitter
Pages - 528 pages
My Rating- 5/5
**obtained for review from publisher via BEA**
**SPOILERS FOR BURN FOR BURN**
Here is the
Goodreads synopsis
When sweet revenge turns sour… Book two of a trilogy from New York Times, bestselling author Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian.
Lillia, Kat, and Mary had the perfect plan. Work together in secret to take down the people who wronged them. But things didn’t exactly go the way they’d hoped at the Homecoming Dance
Not even close.
For now, it looks like they got away with it. All they have to do is move on and pick up the pieces, forget there ever was a pact. But it’s not easy, not when Reeve is still a total jerk and Rennie’s meaner than she ever was before.
And then there’s sweet little Mary…she knows there’s something seriously wrong with her. If she can’t control her anger, she’s sure that someone will get hurt even worse than Reeve was. Mary understands now that it’s not just that Reeve bullied her—it’s that he made her love him.
Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, burn for a burn. A broken heart for a broken heart. The girls are up to the task. They’ll make Reeve fall in love with Lillia and then they will crush him. It’s the only way he’ll learn.
It seems once a fire is lit, the only thing you can do is let it burn...
A classic story of how sweet revenge quickly turned sour. Burn for Burn left me anxious and excited to get my hands on it's sequel. Fire With Fire is exactly what it should be - fun, twisty, and gripping. It's quite fitting that it's release got bumped up the release during the scorching days of summer, because that's exactly what this novel is - scorching.
Once again the writing is seamless. I am not sure if it's that they each focus on different characters, or that Siobhan Vivian and Jenny Han can blend their styles so perfectly, but I couldn't tell who had written what. It flowed extremely well, and kept a similar tone and feel throughout the novel. Their writing style complemented the pacing, and they dropped information at the exact right speed to make this a page turner.
Revenge is poison. It will consume the person desperate to achieve it, and shatter others in the way. Lillia, Kat and Mary learn that things don't always go as you expect them to. However, our trio of revenge seekers are not discouraged. They immediately begin hatching a new plot to enact Mary's revenge. As these girls decide to continue you, the hole their digger is deeper and deeper. It's easy to be swept away in this, and these girls are consumed. Mary, especially, is driven by nothing but the desire to make Reeve feel as horrible as she did. It makes them flawed, and dynamic characters. Having the main characters be slightly skewed has always appealed to me. Keeping the balance of allowing the reader to understand where they are coming from, while allowing the character to cross some lines is something that Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian do really well in this series.
After that insane reveal at the end of Burn for Burn, the biggest questions revolved around Mary. What exactly was causing her 'abilities' and what did it mean for the girls, and their plans? Well, Fire With Fire provides many answers, but those answers automatically lead to more questions. Finding out why Mary can do these things is just the beginning of her story. Mary always had the most wrenching story of the three girls, and her secret makes that even more obvious. Those who were thrown for a loop by the ending of Burn For Burn may want to reconcile the fact that this novel is going into territory that perhaps is a little unexpected, but in my opinion, offers one heck of a roller coast in the process.
Teenagers change their minds, and crushes, rapidly. Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian's series doesn't have the typical triangle that many YA novels have. Instead a much more realistic take on high school crushes is explored. There are many possible couplings, and flirtations. Nobody is desperately in love with anyone, and it's totally possible to be taken with more than one person at a time. It creates juicy drama, and it made the characters feel more like teenagers.
The friendship between Mary, Lillia, and Kat is the heart and soul of the novel. They've bonded in a way that nobody but the three of them can understand. They love and support each other. There is genuine emotion there. Their protectiveness and closeness felt natural, and earned after the events of the first book. They would be willing to do anything for each other, and that become even more obvious as the events of Fire With Fire unfold.
The characters, even the secondary ones, change throughout the novel. Their experiences shape them, and cause them to react in certain ways. Reeve's character will surprise you, and you'll see him differently many times throughout the novel. The 'wronged parties' are not totally innocent, and the 'villains' are not strictly horrible. Each person is complex. At various times I felt different things about each of the characters, and seeing them evolve with each bit of information I got was intriguing.
The end packs a delicious punch that left me excited. Excited about the possibilities of what is to come. Excited about where the story is going to go next. Excited about the fate of these three girls, and their friendship. Fire With Fire is, at it's core, the delicious aftermath revenge and how embarking on it really does require you to build two graves.
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