Review: Lies Like Wildfire - Jennifer Lynn Alvarez

Review: Lies Like Wildfire - Jennifer Lynn Alvarez - September 2021

There was something about this book that I could swear I have read but I knew I hadn't and then as I thought about it, it could be because I have read a few stories with the similar theme of wildfire, arson, and secrets. In Lies Like Wildfire, we have our group of friends known as the Monsters as when they were children - they all played the role of the monsters in Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. This made me smile as back in 2019, I did plays with the school visits when I worked in the library and this was one of the plays, we used with the school children. The other thing I loved about this book is the events that happen on July 7th which is my birthday. The day starts like any other with Luke, Hannah, Drummer, Violet, and Mo down at the Gap swimming and hanging out until Luke wants to smoke some weed. Hannah knows how easy it is to start a fire and gets angry at Luke and whacks it out of his hand. From there you can guess what happens - boom - wildfire spreads like crazy and the whole town and surrounding areas are engulfed and fatalities occur. Violet wants to tell the truth but Hannah convinces them not to as she believes it will blow over. The group make a pact and lie but then when evidence starts pointing their way that they cannot deny, some of their group goes down for it. The second part of the book is called The Missing and when one of the groups wants to tell the police everything, she goes missing. What happened that night? Who is protecting who and will the whole group go down for arson and murder or will one of them, the one with the most to lose get away with it all? 

Find out in this thrilling YA mystery read by Jennifer Lynn Alvarez and fans of The Apology Box by Naomi Ulstead and Playing with Fire by April Henry will fit right at home with this Arson/Murder read. 

Amazon:https://amzn.to/3q5gVUV