Watch You Burn

July 15, 2018
A girl with a penchant for starting fires is sent to live with her estranged father, but she can't break her dangerous habit--and now someone's watching her.Jenny Breland moves from suburban Ohio to an under-construction motel in New Mexico, where her father works. She's there to start a new life--there's an arson investigation back home that she needs to be far away from. Visions of fire haunt her, but that doesn't mean she's going to stop setting things ablaze; the scar on her arm begs for release, so she finds matches and takes to the trees. Jenny makes friends quickly, including Ro, a scrappy girl who hangs around the motel, and Ben, a handsome boy she's drawn to. But as she attempts to acclimate to her new life, violence flares around her. People she knows are found murdered, and Jenny's certain she's being watched. She must figure out who knows her secret and what they want with her before it's too late. Though tension steadily climbs, the perpetrator can be spotted early on. For all of Jenny's wiles, it's difficult to understand why she doesn't figure it out sooner. The true satisfaction comes in learning the full story of Jenny's past and in understanding both her and the villain's twisty inner workings. Major characters are assumed white.Often heady and helmed by a complicated protagonist but frustratingly lacking in mystery. (Fiction. 14-18)

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September 15, 2018
Grades 10-1 After a traumatic childhood accident, Jenny Breland developed a fascination with fire, while trying to control the urge to start fires of her own. While an investigation is going on in her Ohio hometown, Jenny moves to New Mexico to live with her dad, hoping for a fresh start. Jenny soon realizes, however, that there are suspicious goings-on in her new, small town and that someone knows of her fiery tendencies. Despite her wanting to stay out of trouble, trouble finds Jenny and soon threatens to expose her secrets. Searcy delivers another fascinating thriller in the vein of her The Truth beneath the Lies (2017). An explosive first chapter about Jenny's arrival to New Mexico and her suspicious past will grab readers' attention. That attention will be held as secrets are slowly revealed about Jenny's passion for creating fires and a mysterious childhood incident. Topping it all off is a shocking twist that readers won't see coming. Suspense reigns with Searcy's latest, but it also has elements of mystery and romance.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)