With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo

With the Fire on High

by Elizabeth Acevedo

'A delicious, evocative story' THE GUARDIAN

From the author of THE POET X comes a sumptuous prose novel, perfect for fans of Angie Thomas' On the Come Up, Justin Reynolds' Opposite of Always and Nicola Yoon

Ever since she got pregnant, seventeen-year-old Emoni's life has been about making the tough decisions - doing what has to be done for her young daughter and her grandmother. Keeping her head down at school, trying not to get caught up with new boy Malachi. The one place she can let everything go is in the kitchen, where she has magical hands - whipping up extraordinary food beloved by everyone.

Emoni wants to be a chef more than anything, but she knows it's pointless to pursue the impossible. There are rules she has to play by. And yet, once she starts cooking, and gets that fire on high, she sees that her drive to feed will feed her soul and dreams too. And anything is possible.

'With its judicious depth and brilliant blazes of writing that simmer, then nourish, With the Fire on High is literary soul food' New York Times

Reviewed by Renee on

2 of 5 stars

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Sorry, I don't get the hype.
First, the positive things about this book. I loved seeing a mix of Spanish and English without having every word translated. There was a lot of Latina representation. I do not know how well it was done, but I enjoyed it. The main character faces real struggles that were not so easily fixed. It has amazing descriptions of food.

Now, let's talk about the reasons why I didn't like this book. Every character was so extremely flat in this book. Even the main character seemed to be a stereotype. And don't even get me started on this Leslie girl. She didn't have any personality except for being the pretty mean girl, which we only saw because the main character told us this. It didn't always reflect in her actions, especially since we saw no side character ever interacting with anyone else throughout this whole book.
Months passed but relationships didn't change even in the slightest. No development, no news, just exactly where they left off.
I am sick of the main character being 'oh so special'! I was looking forward to reading about a Latina character who loved to cook, but instead got a character that 'had a gift' and every time someone ate her food, they got memories of the past. Oh and just everyone loves Emoni's food. Literally everyone. People have different tastes. It would have been nice if just one person would have been like 'yeah it's good, but I prefer the original recipe' you know? Especially because this was such a huge deal in her cooking class.

Also, authors please stop using the phrase 'She released a breath she didn't know she was holding'. Normally I don't mind it, but now it popped up so frequently and in the weirdest times.

Also, the description of Sevilla didn't seem to be correct. But honestly, that was the least of my problems.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 7 January, 2020: Finished reading
  • 7 January, 2020: Reviewed