Welcome to my review of A Slow Fire Burning By Paula Hawkins. This was this month’s book club pick, and I loved The Girl on the Train by the same author, which I read some time ago a couple of times, which is quite unusual for me, so I was really excited to get my hands on a copy, so much so that I bought myself a hardcover copy thinking I would love it. What a different read this turned out to be, though.
‘What is wrong with you?’
Laura has spent most of her life being judged. She’s seen as hot-tempered, troubled, a loner. Some even call her dangerous.
Miriam knows that just because Laura is witnessed leaving the scene of a horrific murder with blood on her clothes, that doesn’t mean she’s a killer. Bitter experience has taught her how easy it is to get caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Carla is reeling from the brutal murder of her nephew. She trusts no one: good people are capable of terrible deeds. But how far will she go to find peace?
Innocent or guilty, everyone is damaged. Some are damaged enough to kill.
Look what you started.
PAULA HAWKINS worked as a journalist for fifteen years before turning her hand to fiction. Born and brought up in Zimbabwe, Paula moved to London in 1989 and has lived there ever since. Her first thriller, The Girl on the Train, has been a global phenomenon, selling 23 million copies worldwide. Published in over forty languages, it has been a No.1 bestseller around the world and was a No.1 box office hit film starring Emily Blunt.
Into the Water, her second stand-alone thriller, has also been a global No.1 bestseller, spending twenty weeks in the Sunday Times hardback fiction Top 10 bestseller list, and six weeks at No.1.
Paula’s latest thriller, A Slow Fire Burning, was released on 31st August 2021.
This is a well-written book, the words flow nicely, and the title was a great success, depicting the slow fire burning of anger, resentment, jealousy, hatred and deceit. Although fires are usually ferocious and burn fast, I expected a fast-paced book where I would fly through the pages. I did get through this quickly due to the short chapters, but it was a disappointing read for me overall.
The plot didn’t hold my interest well, though. We start at the end with the finding of Daniel’s body on his rented canal boat and then work back through the character’s backstories and who could possibly be responsible and why. There are several possibilities, all with slightly plausible reasons why they may have wanted Daniel gone.
A Slow Fire Burning has a large cast, which I found easy to keep track of, with interlocking stories that they aren’t aware of themselves. A book within a book initially adds to the intrigue but ends with a very unbelievable twist.
The characters we unlikeable and unreliable aside from tragic, young Laura. I felt a lot of the plot relied upon the vagueness and mental instability of many characters, including Laura. Without this, I felt the story wouldn’t hold together well. However, it is a book you need to pay attention to so that you don’t miss anything along the way.
Laura was in a horrific accident when she was ten years old and has been left with significant injuries, including some social issues where she cannot control herself or act appropriately at times. Always getting herself in trouble, she has been tragically abandoned by her awful parents and has been left to defend herself, which she very clearly struggles with. The relationship she forms with the 80-year-old lady (whose name I can’t remember) is lovely, they care for one another, and it’s an excellent example of young and old helping each other and keeping company to the benefit of both parties.
Carol and her ex-husband Theo are an odd couple. Daniel is Carol’s nephew, and they are grieving the loss of their three-year-old son, Ben, fifteen years ago. Miriam lives on the boat next door to Daniel’s and has a history with Theo. The relationships are pretty complicatedly entwined, so pay attention!
Unfortunately, I felt this was a slow and, at times, laborious read. The ending was what put an end to a better review though. There were unbelievable occurrences, what felt like a rushed ending where parts were tied up but felt very lazily done. I am not sure who was responsible, despite someone being convicted of the crime, and some of the characters didn’t really have any input at the ending.
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| Title | A Slow Fire Burning |
| Author | Paula Hawkins |
| Series | N/A |
| Format | Hardcover |
| Page Count | 320 Pages |
| Genre | Psychological Thriller |
| Publisher | Doubleday |
| Release Date | 31st August 2021 |
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