Elizabeth Acevedo is the author of The Poet X, which won the National Book Award for Young People's Literature, the Michael L. Printz Award, the Pura Belpré Award, and the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award. She is a National Poetry Slam champion and holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of Maryland. Acevedo lives with her partner in Washington, DC. You can find out more about her at www.acevedowrites.com. You can also follow Elizabeth Acevedo on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram. You can find more of my reviews of Acevedo's books here.
Ever since she got pregnant freshman year, Emoni Santiago's life has been about making the tough decisions, doing what has to be done for her daughter and her abuela. The one place she can let all that go is in the kitchen. There, she lets her hands tell her what to cook, listening to her intuition and adding a little something magical every time, turning her food into straight-up goodness. Even though she's always dreamed of working in a kitchen after she graduates, Emoni knows that it's not worth her time to pursue the impossible. Yet despite the rules she's made for her life—and everyone else's rules, which she refuses to play by—once Emoni starts cooking, her only choice is to let her talent break free. From the author of National Book Award winner The Poet X comes a dazzling story of a girl with talent, pride, and a drive to create that keeps her fire burning bright.
The immediate first thing I love about this book was Emoni's voice. It's just so full, so cheery and sassy and encompassing. Even if one finds it hard to relate to Emoni's specific life experiences, one can definitely relate to her teenage voice, which is just so incredibly spot on. The way Emoni shares her story is so compelling, and it's because her voice is universal without sacrificing any of her individuality. That seems contradictory, but let's just say that Acevedo has a certain type of magic and charm to make it entirely possible.
I read The Poet X for a class and just absolutely fell in love with how it was a novel written in verse. With With the Fire on High, though, Acevedo takes a stab at the more mainstream novel in prose format, and I daresay she does exceed! Because, even in the prose, you can feel the rhythm of it, and you can tell that stylistically this book is superior to a lot of other young adult novels in prose. This goes hand-in-hand with Acevedo's ability to craft and stay true to Emoni's voice, and there is something lyrical about Emoni's voice. Another note on the style of the novel was the short chapters. I enjoyed how the story was delivered in bite-sized pieces, despite being a story that was really vast, and stretched out over the course of an academic year. Each of these bite-sized pieces went a really long way in building up Emoni's character, in providing commentary on the world Emoni lives in, and giving readers a big picture of what Emoni's life is like with the smallest of details. This was very well done.
I had hoped for there to be a plot to this story, knowing that the book would be in prose, but when I couldn't find a singular plot in the book jacket summary, I knew it probably wasn't coming, and that With the Fire on High might feel a bit more like Isabel Quintero's Gabi, a Girl in Pieces. Having read The Poet X and knowing that, too, also followed more of a "diary of high school" situation helped prepare me going in that this novel would be similar. Even though near the beginning of the book, when I felt like a plot was maybe missing, I felt that that decision really gave the lyricisim of the prose and Emoni's voice the most power. It also allows readers to really reckon with the implications of Emoni's past and present and future, and to put themselves in Emoni's shoes with all the choices she has to make. There are pros and cons to this sort of story, for sure (one that isn't driven by a singular trackable plot, but rather one driven by specific characters as they go through a timely experience) and I think With the Fire on High is one of the better examples of a story like this. Because it's driven by a character with a really strong voice, it's easy to feel compelled to turn to the next page and discover what happens next, and to want to hear what Emoni has to say about the world around her.
I have to say, I've noticed a lot of YA is very much focused on food lately—and I can't entirely say I'm complaining! From Laura Taylor Namey's A Cuban Girl's Guide to Tea and Tomorrow to Jennieke Cohen's My Fine Fellow, it seems like all the rage in YA is about the food, and about the stories that food can tell. With the Fire on High is no different. Acevedo jumps right in, including her own recipes and metaphors that surround the culinary world Emoni is entrenched in. I loved how a lot of the major plot points involved Emoni's food, as it went a long way to show how her character is deeply tied to her relationship with cooking. With quarantine (even though this book was published prior to that), I think people more and more are realizing the full power of food in tandem with loss and happiness. One is always powerful with food, and you really got that feeling through the depictions of Emoni's culinary skills. All I have left to say is that I wish this book came with a taster plate—I would have loved to try a bite of all of Emoni's dishes!
For more Elizabeth Acevedo, visit her on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram. You can find more of my reviews of Acevedo's works here.
*This review can also be found on my Goodreads page*
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