“I didn’t ever stop feeling excluded. I just started to wear it and pretend it was my choice. Maybe that’s why I was drawn to the law of poisoned things, and hurt people, and scabby chemical earth. Maybe toxic is the only thing I really understand.”
When Abby Williams, environmental lawyer, takes on a case against Optimal Plastics, she knows that this one will hit close to home. The case leads her back to Barrens, Indiana, the small town where she grew up and wanted so desperately to forget. Abby thought she had moved on from the family dysfunction, high school bullies and painful memories that motivated her to get out of dodge in the first place. But returning to her hometown proves to be more complicated than she ever could have imagined.
Most of Barrens views Optimal as their saving grace, their one way ticket out of abject poverty and giving their town a fighting chance. Therefore it’s hardly astonishing that Abby’s homecoming is met with suspicion at best and outright hostility at worst. As the legal case begins to intersect with her troubled past, Abby finds herself unwittingly unearthing the demons of her rocky adolescence… and they just might drag her under.
Bonfire by Krysten Ritter is the type of book that takes you by surprise. It started out slow and slightly dull; I didn’t find the premise to be particularly striking. Yet, somewhere along the way, Bonfire really got going, building up to a fiery crescendo that left me in a state of utter awe. I found that it had burrowed itself inside the folds of my brain, taking up residence in my headspace. The small town atmosphere is claustrophobic and toxic, evoking shades of Gillian Flynn, particularly Sharp Objects.
2020 has been like living in the upside down, but nevertheless, the unsettling climate of lockdowns and hysteria have created fertile soil for introspection. I’ve found myself deep diving into shadow work with unexpected fervor and exorcising my own personal specters, not unlike Abby. It was gratifying to watch our determined heroine navigate a volatile relationship with her aging father, face the now-defunct high school mean girls and root out the true villain at play here- humankind’s sordid urges and insatiable thirst for power. To expose the seamy underbelly of Barrens, Abby must meet the poison at the source.
The storyline isn’t the only smokeshow here- Ritter writes her characters brilliantly, with a depth and understanding that denotes her acting prowess. Bonfire is a haunting, dark and tautly wound psychological thriller that rings with truth. I look forward to reading more from this talented and enigmatic Renaissance woman.
4/5 stars
