Review | Wild Fires

by Sophie Jai

Published : 12th May 2022

Publisher : BoroughPress

Format : Kindle, Audio, Hardback, Paperback

Genre : Literary Fiction

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Synopsis

Grief is like an inside joke: you have to have been there to really get it.

The only things Cassandra knows about her family are the stories she’s heard in snatches over the years: about the aunt and cousin she never got to meet, about the man from the folded-up photograph in one of her aunt’s drawers, and of course about her cousin Chevy, and why he never speaks – but no one utters a word about them any more.

When a call from one of her sisters brings Cassandra news of Chevy’s death, she has to return home for the funeral. To Toronto and the big house on Florence Street, where her sisters are hiding more than themselves in their rooms, where the tension brewing between her mother and aunts has been decades in the making, and where sooner or later every secret, unspoken word and painful memory will find its way out into the open.

Moving between Toronto and Trinidad, Wild Fires is a vivid and compelling story exploring the ways we mourn and why we avoid the very things that can save us.

My Review

I really enjoyed this book.

The characters and the setting were very well written and the plot baffled me and kept me guessing for quite a while. Other then the funeral I was kept totally in the dark of how it was going to play out, which I loved, I’m not overly keen on stories that let you know to soon the entire plot.

This book explores and deals with the different types of grief, the timeline jumps back and forth and the secrets and tension is slow burning.

I mostly loved the way the narrative captures the love and constant resilience of the two sisters. Regardless of what has happened or what is revealed their relationship gets fractured but never broken.

Why I Loved It

I really liked the way the author explores the many different ways in which people can grieve and the affects it can have on us. How it can either make family stronger or tear it apart.

I also really enjoyed the bond between the two sisters, I found myself really engaged with their journey.