I’m not sure why I own so many YA books.
Maybe because they’re easier to find at the thrift store. The grown-up section is just a wall of Harlan Coben and James Patterson books, but the YA section is full of eclectic choices.
I enjoy YA, but I needed a change of pace from the fantasy YA series I’d been reading (The Iron Fey by Julie Kagawa).
One day, I found A Slow Fire Burning by Paula Hawkins and decided to give it a try.
And let me tell you, it did not disappoint!
What I will remember most about this book is the characters. Paula Hawkins creates such emotional depth with each character, without resorting to shock-value.
The complexities, flaws, and strong points of the characters reminded me of my favorite books by Fredrik Backman. Books such as A Man Called Ove, My Friends, and Anxious People.
I love it when characters have adversity in their backgrounds, and they’re trying to do their best in life ~ and yet, that doesn’t always work out in their favor.
I love when characters, due to their inner wants and fears, make the wrong choices (thinking that they’re the right choices!).
Which is way different than “making stupid choices to move the plot forward.”
What I mean is, they are doing the best they can with what they have, but me (the reader) can see how that choice is both understandable, yet still wrong.
I like when a character does something I would’ve done if put in that situation, with past hurts, limited knowledge. And this is something that Paula Hawkins did very well in this book. I could see where everyone was coming from, regardless of whether I thought it was right or wrong.
The plot itself was solid, with lots of interesting twists.
But the characters are what did it for me.
I hope to someday see such complexity in characters in YA books, because I think teen minds can handle it.
A lot of YA that I read seems to fall into the trap that a dark, brooding, emotionally unavailable boy is “deep,” when he’s really not. He’s just lacking maturity and bordering abusive behavior…
But that’s a topic for another post ;-]
For now, I curl up with another book. I might finish Evermore by Alyson Noël or I might stick to Dead Girls Can’t Tell Secrets by Chelsea Ichaso.
We’ll see where my next read takes me!
Take care,
Dear Quiet
signal.log: 7.17.2026
initiating _ reading/mode
engaging: imagination