Book Review:: How to Set a Fire and Why

Hello, lovely people!

 I'm going to be sharing a review of a book I read recently, titled How to Set a Fire and Why, written by Jesse Ball. This post contains spoilers for the book so proceed with caution.

 Let me start off with the disclaimer that all thoughts in this post are my own honest opinions, and no one else's, and I am in no way being compensated for writing this review. Now, onwards we go!

"Lucia's father is dead; her mother is in a mental institute; she's living in a garage-turned-bedroom with her aunt. And now she's been kicked out of school—again. Making her way through the world with only a book, a zippo lighter, a pocket full of stolen licorice, a biting wit, and striking intelligence she tries to hide, she spends her days riding the bus to visit her mother and following the only rule that makes any sense to her: Don't do things you aren't proud of. But when she discovers that her new school has a secret Arson Club, she's willing to do anything to be a part of it, and her life is suddenly lit up. And as her fascination with the Arson Club grows, her story becomes one of misguided friendship and, ultimately, destruction."
-taken from the inside of the book cover

  To start off, I was super excited to begin this book. I think the cover art is really fascinating, and the summary from the inside cover makes it sound super exciting, maybe even action-packed! However... that wasn't the case at all. I've broken down my thoughts into bite-sized sections so I don't ramble on for hours, so keep reading if you want to hear my specific thoughts on the book!
 Spoilers ahead, so beware!

Plot

 The plot was, frankly, not well done. The idea of it was very interesting, until it was put on paper, and it fell flat. The "arson club" ended up not truly existing, most of the book itself was her writing down her predictions of how the day will go, what she will do (though it is more of a routine, so... quite boring).
 It's like the internal monologue of a self-asorbed, pyromaniac, wanna-be arsonist. It was the same plot (or lack thereof) all the way until the last few chapters, and even then it was short-lived and the ending was abrupt and unfufilling.

Characters

 Lucia's- the main character- so called 'biting wit' was more her being sarcastic, rude, and sometimes a down-right jerk to those around her, even those who are just desperately trying to help her out. She was a jerk to her aunt at times, to her teachers (even the ones who wanted to help), and she was extremely violent. Our first introduction to her character is literally after she stabbed someone in the neck with a pencil!
 Any other side characters had little to absolutely no character development, and the one truly interesting, kind-hearted character in the novel (SPOILERS AHEAD), Lucia's aunt, died. After that, I all but completely lost interest.

Writing Style

 The writing style rambled on, following no certain path, and considering Lucia is a teenage girl, her thought process is NOTHING like any teenage girl I know, no matter how intelligent or 'anarchist' they are. Often, words were used that seemed strange or out of place, and Lucia was so wrapped in unimportant thoughts that there was no plot development happening.
 Plus, when we finally got to her writing her pamphlet, it felt forced, awkward, and out-of-place.

Other

 There was also mentions of inappropriate situations/scenarios as well as quite a few minor & major curse words in this novel. I definitely don't recommend anyone under 17 or so reads it. I wish I hadn't, personally.

Overview

 This book was supposed to be a raw, dark, coming-of-age novel but it fell more into the boring, dry, and slightly annoying category. I wish I could say I liked it, but the only redeeming quality in it was Lucia's sweet old aunt. There are no consequences, no true plot, and dry, 1-dimensional characters. All in all, this novel gets maybe 2/10 stars.

Have you ever read this book? What did you think, and why? Tell me in the comments below!

Ciao!
Hannah