Falling from Fire
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5.0 • 2 Ratings
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- $4.99
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
High school freshman Teri Dinsmore is a nobody. Daughter of the oft-married “Best Lookin’ Gal in Town,” younger sister of a popular member of the “rowdies,” her only real friend is the rumpled, eccentric Wesley.
Then a fire, indirectly caused by her birthday celebration, burns down her home and sends her family into a tailspin. All of a sudden Teri begins to see herself and her family in a whole new way. At school, everyone knows who Teri is, including Doug, her secret crush. Even Wesley, the most maddening person she knows, is looking at her with a new light in his eye. When her past disappears in the fire, Teri must put the pieces of her life back together, this time in a way that really fits.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Neither a "Rowdy" nor a "Holy Roller," 14-year-old Teresa Dinsmore is a "Nobody" at school until her 15th birthday when her house burns down and gives her celebrity status. This first novel traces Teresa's reactions with only mixed results. While the protagonist saddened by her family's loss but secretly pleased with the attention it brings her emerges with some complexity, the other characters seem stereotypical. Teresa's mother, known as "Timberville's very own Marilyn Monroe," searches for a man to fulfill her dreams. Teresa's older sister plays the role of the rebel, and Wesley Wilton, the classic nerd, eventually wins Teresa's heart after she realizes that handsome Doug Stewart from history class is shallow. There are problems with the pacing as well, with so much time spent establishing the heroine's background and woes that readers have to wait until the middle of the novel for the fire (mentioned in the first chapter). Booth does not always balance her storytelling between the tragic and the trivial, yet some of her scenes are remarkably poignant. The author is at her best when crystallizing Teresa's feelings about herself and her altered world. Ages 12-up.
