Bonfire by Krysten Ritter, 3 3/4 Stars

Okay, I have to say I’m a big Krysten Ritter fan. And I actually don’t even watch her in Marvel’s Jessica Jones. But her work in The B in Apartment 23 was amazing (alongside old Dawson, poor guy, he will always be known in my mind as Dawson), and I loved her in Breaking Bad, and she’s been in several indie movies I’ve enjoyed.

Really, she’s just kind of a badass. I aspire to be her. Except I will never be a badass. That’s a title I promise I will never be able to pull off. Maybe I could just be her for Halloween one year? That’s as close as I will come.

But I love her, and I don’t even know if I was completely cognizant of the fact that she was the author of Bonfire when I requested it from Netgalley, but once I found out she was, that made it so much better for me. And of course, the whole time I was reading the book, I saw her as the main character, Abby.

And she did say in a recent profile in Women’s Health (which may have been when I figured out that she was the author of Bonfire), she admits that everything she writes is semi autobiographical.  She pulled from experiences growing up when she had being bullied. Seriously. Who bullied Krysten Ritter? They must feel so stupid right now!

From the Publisher:

It has been ten years since Abby Williams left home and scrubbed away all visible evidence of her small town roots. Now working as an environmental lawyer in Chicago, she has a thriving career, a modern apartment, and her pick of meaningless one-night stands.

With tantalizing twists, slow-burning suspense, and a remote, rural town of just five claustrophobic miles, Bonfire is a dark exploration of the question: can you ever outrun your past?

My Review

You know how sometimes celebrities will write a book and its clear they barely wrote it but relied HEAVILY on their co-author to actually write the book? Or it just really isn’t very good and it’s clear that if they weren’t already a celebrity, they wouldn’t be getting this book published?

Well, I am happy to say that Bonfire is nothing like that. The book is good, and it sucked me in. And the heroine, Abby, is a realistic and fully developed character. Clearly, some people just get all the talent, and Krysten Ritter is one of those people.

Its the classic tale of a small town girl who just has to get out, and then finds herself returning, a success, to help the town overcome a problem. And even though the premise is a bit clique, I really enjoyed the book. It can be interesting seeing how people turn out as adults, when the teen version of that same person suggested something different. And of course, we all have demons from our past that we must ultimately revisit in order to leave them in the past forever.

I highly recommend you check this one out, whether you are a Krysten Ritter fan or not. It’s a great mystery that slowly unfolds to a satisfying ending.

I probably would have rated it slightly higher, had I found that it was full of shocking twists and turns. For me, it wasn’t a thriller, just more of a slow-burning mystery. Yup, I just said that Bonfire was slow burning. So that wasn’t ultimately a bad thing, just maybe not exactly what I was expecting.

The good news is, this book came out November 7, so you can run right out and pick up your copy!

Special thanks to Netgalley and Crown Publishing for an e-galley in exchange for my honest review.

Buy it now!

Indiebound