Fire Color One

Gemma Dawson's narration reflects the contrast between the author's lyrical writing and the ugly inner world of this novel's protagonist. Deftly, she portrays the intense feelings of 16-year-old Iris, a pyromaniac. Setting fires provides Iris release from the fury that arises from living with her self-absorbed, greedy mother and her stepfather, whom she calls "an aging pinup boy and current no-hoper." When she's dragged from America to England to visit her dying father, who abandoned her, Iris doesn't expect her life to improve. But she shares her father's passion for art, and his stories of his life supplant her mother's hateful tales of him. As a loving bond develops between them, Dawson depicts the glimmerings of a more positive outlook in Iris. Listeners may be surprised by the startling twist at the end of this quiet story. S.W. � AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine