Book of the Week

If you go down to the woods today, you’re sure of a big surprise. But what happens in Robin Wasserman’s Girls On Fire is no teddy bears’ picnic.

It all begins with the discovery of high school student, Craig Ellison’s body on Halloween. His death is attributed to suicide, but in the insular conservative world of Battle Creek, it doesn’t take much to instil in people the fear that there is a darker force at play.

For student Hannah Dexter, life has always been pretty run of the mill. But when she befriends teen rebel Lacey Champlain, Hannah is introduced to a whole new world of fun, excess and danger. Nothing it seems can come between Hannah and Lacey, except that is golden girl, and Craig’s former girlfriend, Nikki Drummond.

Hannah learns from Nikki that Lacey may not be who Hannah thinks she is, that there are secrets Lacey’s been keeping from her, secrets that could tear them apart. The evil at the heart of Battle Creek may just be real.

Robin Wasserman has created a modern fable about female adolescence gone horribly wrong. An unsettling cautionary tale of friendships aligned and realigned, alliances made and broken, lives beginning and ruined, this is one of the most gripping reads of the year.

Heady, atmospheric and thrilling, you’ll be turning the pages long after you’d planned on putting the book down. And it is well worth staying up for.