Thank you to NetGalley for the digital ARC. All opinions are my own.

I found the book summary intriguing enough to request a copy, but found that the story wandered and did not hold my attention as well as I hoped. I found the organizational/view point structure a bit cumbersome, which may have created the disconnect. I do think that author Stephanie Oakes did a good job of creating scenes the reader can visualize. The descriptions are the only thing that kept me going to actually finish.

Very convoluted mystery. There were clever aspects, but overall it wasn't enjoyable for me.

Three people are brought together throughout time. The mysteries surround Ava Dreyman's life and death, Molly's mother's disappearance, and Pepper's key to it all create this fast-paced journey to answers. Ava Dreyman and her family fought against the Stasi, or the government of the German Democratic Republic during the Cold War. When they were close to being found out, the family attempted to leave. This sent Ava on a horrific trajectory which ended in her death, maybe. Molly begins receiving clues from who she believes to be her mother. These clues tie closely to Pepper, a high school flunky, and Ava Dreyman's bestselling diary. These unlikely characters cross and make for an interesting story.

This novel's prose is well developed and dense. The character's faults are presented starkly along their talents. This novel was interesting and unique.

“My heart had become hot in my chest, burning and slippery, and the heat slid up from the back of my throat like acid. As the car crossed the fields and small industrial villages and vacant smells of Germany, my heart cooled. Stiffened, like molten metal hardening. Now, it is solid. It doesn’t even make a tick. I fear it never will again.” (Advanced Reader Copy, pg. 136)

A riveting tale of historical fiction wrapped in a modern day mystery, The Arsonist is an epistolary novel that deftly examines courage, friendship, and what makes us all burn.

Molly Mavity is a school outcast in part because her father is a convicted murderer. It’s also been three years since her mother’s alleged suicide, but Molly still believes she’s out there somewhere. As her father’s execution nears, she receives the first clue that her mother may be alive: a letter containing a photo of a guy she’s never met scrawled with the words, “He has the answers.”

Pepper Al-Yusef is not much of a popular guy either, and at the end of his senior year he learns he may not even graduate. Given one last chance, one of Pepper’s teachers tasks him with writing a series of essays throughout the summer. While he has resigned to the idea of never achieving much of anything, what he really doesn’t expect is to become wrapped up in the mystery of Ava Dreyman’s death, and to learn more about himself along the way.

Ava is known to the world through her Anne Frank-style diary, which was published under strange circumstances after her murder at the hands of the Stasi. At the urging of a note left behind in a copy of this book, Pepper and Molly team up to uncover the truth behind Ava’s death – and her life.

Each character in The Arsonist had a memorable and unique voice, which isn’t always the case in novels with multiple points of view. Pepper’s essays to his teacher are “peppered” with hilarious lines, many of which are self-deprecating. Molly’s chapters vibrate with anger and sadness, while Ava’s nearly turn themselves with action and suspense.

I loved Ava’s story in particular and how it was set in East Germany during the Cold War. I can’t recall many young adult books set in this historical period, so this felt fresh and new in the context of the genre. I also loved how Ava’s story was relayed to the reader, as if we were reading it right along with Pepper and Molly.

Overall, I found The Arsonist presented a fresh example of a historical fiction novel that would likely appeal to teens, which not all historical novels seem able to do. I would highly recommend this to fans of Code Name Verity, and twisty, complex mysteries in general. While there were a few times I found the plot a little predictable, I really cared about the characters so I was still satisfied by the reveals.

Thank you to NetGalley for this Advance Reading Copy.

The Arsonist is the story of Molly Mavity and Pepper Al-Yusef. Molly, a loner, is best known as the daughter of the man on death row for setting fires that killed 6 people. Her mother also died when she was 12, so she lives with her father’s cousin and her daughter. Pepper is a Kuwaiti immigrant who suffers from seizures, has a useless seizure pug and a high school drop-out. While Pepper has a group of friends, he feels like he does not fit in, not because he is an immigrant, but because all his friends have a future and he feels he does not. They are brought together when Molly receives a mysterious package in a post office box she believes belongs to her mother. Although everyone believes Molly’s mother dead, Molly believes her mother faked her own death and will come back to her. The package includes a picture of Pepper, who, the mystery sender of the package says, is the key to the mystery in solving the death of Ava Dreyman. Ava was a teenager in East Berlin, whose tortured death helps lead to the fall of the Berlin Wall, when her diary is published after she dies. As the two teens try to find out who really murdered Ava, they begin to discover truths about themselves. Molly, Pepper, and Ava each narrate separate parts of the story so the reader gets to see through the eyes of both Pepper and Molly as they investigate, as well as going back to experience Ava’s life as well.
This was a book I could not put down. Each voice was fresh and unique, Pepper’s voice was distinct to someone who learned English as a second language. This book made me laugh out loud and cry as secrets were learned and as Molly began to accept what happened to her mother five years before. I feel Pepper made the most growth throughout the novel as he realized he does not need to be defined as a high school drop-out, but is instead so much more.
“The worst crime you can do to yourself is to forget why you chose the path you’re on, but keep walking down it anyway.” This statement made to Molly by Georg defines what the true underlying nature of this novel. Molly is driven to discover what happened to Ava Dreyman, hoping that when she discovers the truth, her mother will come back to her. She is both very wrong and so very right.