With The Fire on High – Elizabeth Acevedo

Trigger Warning for teenage pregnancy

Blurb:
Ever since she got pregnant, seventeen-year-old Emoni’s life has been about making the tough decisions – doing what has to be done for her young daughter and her grandmother. Keeping her head down at school, trying not to get caught up with new boy Malachi. The one place she can let everything go is in the kitchen, where she has magical hands – whipping up extraordinary food beloved by everyone.

Emoni wants to be a chef more than anything, but she knows it’s pointless to pursue the impossible. There are rules she has to play by. And yet, once she starts cooking, and gets that fire on high, she sees that her drive to feed will feed her soul and dreams too. And anything is possible.

My Thoughts:
I think that this was a really interesting book because I have never read/listened to a book in which the main character is a teen mum and I know a couple of teen mothers. I think it’s important to have this kind of representation because it does happen.

This story follows Emoni’s last year of school, and the struggles of trying to juggle school, being a mother and her job, and while she has sworn off men this changes when Malachi joins their school.

I think the thing I liked best was the descriptions of the food, I am a massive foodie and whenever I was listening to this I kept getting hungry and just wanted to eat everything Emoni was cooking.
The character development of Emoni was interesting because it seems as though she was very different when she was just dating Tyrone from what she is now and I know that a lot of it has to do with Emma but I think that part of it is to do with growing up. But you can also see her development within the year that the story is set. She starts to open up more and learn from others in her year.

I really enjoyed Tyrone’s development as well, he started thinking for himself and not just what his parents were telling him.

One of my absolute favourite things was the incorporation of Spanish, because Emoni is half Peurto Rican and the inclusion of Spanish gives the book more depth. And I love when a book uses different languages!

Although I enjoyed this book, I wouldn’t say it was my favourite, it was a really solid story but I think it was missing a bit of depth that I would have liked if it was an adult book instead of YA.

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