Inner Fire is Rachel Stedman’s second novel. It is about a teenage girl Corinne who, in addition to all the normal challenges of adolescence, can’t get angry! When she does things and people around her catch fire. After one particularly nasty incident her grandmother comes to take her away and train her about her abilities.
I’m liking
I really liked that this book is based on a real medical condition Malignant Hyperthermia – but it’s extrapolated well past what is likely to actually happen in reality.
This is a genuine young adult novel. While I am well past teenage years it reminded me of how confusing and uncertain those years were. The time Corinne spent wondering about the boy neighbour felt quite realistic.
Things that made me go hmmmm
I found the grandmother very interesting, there was obviously a lot of backstory to her. So I was curious in finding out more about her and was disappointed that some more of her history wasn’t revealed. The shadowy security company SecurEYES makes for a great baddy, but some more details especially about how the grandmother controlled the cameras would have been good.
The conclusion
I like reading New Zealand authors and appreciated how the Christchurch earthquakes were worked into the story. The quakes were cleverly incorporated into the book and provided a nice piece of backstory for the characters.
As with her previous novel, Rachel Stedman doesn’t spoon feed you, this isn’t a book where you can sit back and turn off your brain, you need to keep thinking about the sentences looking for the clues they contain. While more of a standalone book that Necklace of Souls Inner fire still leaves you wanting to know more about what happens.
