Review: With The Fire on High

Yesterday I told you all how much I’ve been loving the Young Adult genre. So today I’m sharing my review of one of my favorite YA books, With the fire on high by Elizabeth Acevedo. She has become one of my favorite authors and I loved this book so much!

Synopsis

With her daughter to care for and her abuela to help support, high school senior Emoni Santiago has to make the tough decisions, and do what must be done. The one place she can let her responsibilities go is in the kitchen, where she adds a little something magical to everything she cooks, turning her food into straight-up goodness. Still, she knows she doesn’t have enough time for her school’s new culinary arts class, doesn’t have the money for the class’s trip to Spain — and shouldn’t still be dreaming of someday working in a real kitchen. But even with all the rules she has for her life — and all the rules everyone expects her to play by — once Emoni starts cooking, her only real choice is to let her talent break free.

Why did I choose to read this book

I read Clap when you land by Elizabeth Acevedo last month and I loved it so much that I knew I had to read her other books. Also, I included this book in my Summer Reading Guide and I’m trying to read as many books from my list.

Rating

This is an absolutely amazing book! Check out my rating system here.

My Thoughts

I loved this book! I loved the writing, the characters, the food talk, everything. This book has everything I like in the structure of a book: short chapters, chapter titles, a plot and amazing character development. This is a story that is easy to connect and you find yourself rooting for the main character Emoni. Overall this book is about family, generational trauma, the love of a mother and love for food!

This book will make you hungry. It actually inspired me to cook some Puerto Rican food, I went and got some plantains one night when I was reading the book because it gave me that craving. All the foods she was cooking were foods I grew up eating and love so much.

If the verse format of Elizabeth Acevedo’s books intimidates you or is not for you this may be a better one to pick up because it is not written in verse. I listened to the audio book format of this book and I think this book is meant to be listened to in audio. The book is narrated by the author and it is perfection.

I can’t recommend this book enough and I hope you love it as much as I did!

Characters

I’m having so much fun putting together these character templates! There aren’t as many characters in this book but hopefully this is helpful.

Content Warnings

Death of a parent, teen pregnancy, feelings of abandonment

Who I recommend this book to

If you love YA you’ll love this book but even if you are not a fan of the genre I think you should give it a try. Elizabeth Acevedo’s books don’t feel too much as YA for me.

Get the book!

Did this review of With the fire on high for convince you to read it? You can get the book from Bookshop.org here. Please consider ordering it from a Black owned independent bookstore. This list of Black owned independent bookstores accepts online ordering.