Who by Fire

Released last fall, Diana Spechler’s Who by Fire is an intense and provocative novel of loss, pain, and the aftermath of family tragedy. Told in three alternating voices, we experience the perspectives of a mother, sister and brother who are all searching for ways to manage their long-standing grief after the youngest child of their family was kidnapped thirteen years earlier.

As each chapter begins, the reader needs no explicit introduction to the new narrator, as the three voices are quite distinctive in their language and tone. The scenarios that unfold in this narrative often made me uncomfortable; I became invested in these characters and concerned about their physical and mental well-being, and it was painful to witness the myriad of self-destructive choices they all made. I chose to neither condone nor condemn their actions, but rather to continue along the path beside them, hoping that the end would bring some much needed balance and peace to their lives.

Without giving away any plot points, as I approached the end of the story, I worried that I would soon be reading a trite completion of the story. You know the kind– all the pieces of the puzzle finally fit together and everyone’s lives are suddenly transformed completely. Thankfully, this was not the case. While there is personal growth in a positive direction for the main characters, there certainly are still many issues that need to be addressed in their lives. The reader is left with the sense that the pain that fairly leaped off the page at the beginning of the novel was diminished to a dull ache, but more importantly, that the characters were on their ways to finding healthier coping mechanisms that would benefit their changing lives.

I give major kudos to first time novelist Diana Spechler for creating a story of flawed characters who captivated me until the very end.

Dawn reads anything she can get her hands on- including the bottom of a tissue box in a pinch. Her blog, my thoughts exactly, is a hodgepodge of cute kid stories, rantings, and senseless blather.