There are two kinds of books that I give three-star ratings. One is books that I like throughout, but don't stand out to me in any way. The other is books that I have so many mixed feelings about throughout that when I have to condense all of my feelings down to a number, three stars seems to average things out as nicely as possible. This is definitely the latter kind of book. There were moments in here that absolutely <i>shone</i>, and paragraphs that took my breath away. There were also pages that left me horribly frustrated, and sections that I strongly disliked.

I think that I might appreciate this more after a reread. However, any future reread is going to be a long time from now.

This was a movie before it was a book, and I'm definitely still interested in seeing the movie!

Representation: Own voices for indigenous representation, own voices for gay representation.

Reading this book was one of the hardest things I have ever done. Not because the book was bad, it wasn’t. The writing style pulled me in from the beginning and my heart ached for Shane.

It was hard because all I wanted to do was cry. Cry for this boy who has been through so much. His story was not an easy one to read but worth it. Also cry for his sister!!

The whole book just made me cry but I liked it. However, I did have some issues with pacing and I wasn’t the biggest fan of David and Shane’s relationship, A reason I felt I couldn’t give this five stars.

Overall; heartbreaking but truthful. I don’t think I’ll ever forget this book.

*Thank you for netgalley and publisher for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.*

I gave Fire Song by Adam Garnet Jones a one star, but I actually didn't finish it. I had to put it down I just really couldn't get into this book. The writing style didn't do it for me and made me not able to remember anything I read but also made it so hard to continue to read it at the same time,

Fire Song is one of the best books I read in 2018. As a Canadian, it resonated, and as a queer white Canadian, it gave me powerful insight into life in our First Nations communities and how it affects young people, especially those struggling with issues such as sexuality, mental health, family, etc. The prose is gorgeous and lyrical, and I was absolutely entranced by the characters and heartbroken at many points along the way. However, a thread of hope runs through this title, and I came away with a deeper sense of understanding and the need to share this book with others. A really beautiful, powerful read. Absolutely recommend.

This was a powerful novel. I couldn't put it down. No one warned me that their would be triggers for Death, Suicide, Self harm, and many more. That took me a bit to get my emotions through some of those parts. I did have a few issues with the writing and with it was a bit better, but for a Debut novel by an Author who normally writes screenplays, I think he did a good job. This was a book written based on a movie with the same name. I will definitely be checking out the movie and also future works from this Author.

Unfortunately I just didn't enjoy the writing style of this book and was unable to finish it, but I am certainly interested in checking out the film it is based on. It's an important and heartbreaking story.

The premise is gripping; however, the writing style, unfortunately, left something to be desired by me.

This is anything but your typical coming out/coming of age love story. Surviving grief, finding hope when hope is gone and making choices where there are none-- these are a few of the difficult themes that haunt this deeply affecting work by Adam Garnet Jones.

Jones paints his dark landscape with faint glimpses of light, rich with detail and eloquent prose.

Having read nearly 200 books this year, Fire Song rises to the top in terms of quality, execution and enjoyment.

This is not a book for everyone. It is extremely dark and some may find the themes too depressing, especially if they hit close to home. When I read it, I had forgot that it was actually an adaptation from a screenplay (written and directed by Jones) and having not seen the film (it's now in my Netflix queue); it reads like a unique, original work. Often I find books from film are poorly written and assuming that the reader had seen the film. Fire Song is fresh and stands on its own.

For anyone that enjoys challenging, vivid writing that speaks a special poetic truth-- I highly recommend it.

I received a copy from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

An important reflection on the experience of coming of age under conditions of extreme poverty and government neglect. The characters were compelling and well developed. My one concern — and the reason I would hesitate to assign it to students — is that i don’t think the book did an adequate job of demonstrating how the homophobia within the community is the result of colonialism and cultural genocide, and not something that is inherent to native culture. There were hints of this critique, of course, but I worry that students would come away from reading it with a less-than-nuanced understanding of homophobia in this cultural context.

I liked the book well enough. At times I felt the writ8ng was disjointed. I think more details could have been given. It left a lot up for speculation. In the area of suicide it definitely left a lot of unanswered questions I’d say I would recommend it to others that like this style of writing.

Plot in a sentence: While Shane is still struggling with his sister’s suicide, he needs to care for his mother, find a way to pay for university and hide his relationship with another boy on the reservation.

Recommended age: 13 and up

Diversity:
- LGBTQ+: The main character is gay.
- Race: Most of the cast is Indigenous.

Who will love this book:
- People who have been looking for tales of queer indigenous youth.
- Fans of the movie of the same name, Fire Song.

What I liked about this book:
- The hopelessness, Shane’s but also that of his community as a whole, is oppressive. It’s a nearly physical force in the novel.
- Shane’s sister, who literally haunts the novel, and who’s death is a mystery that weighs on all the other characters.
- There are no easy answers, perfect people or simple happy endings, which is realistic, though not necessarily cheerful.
- It is an honest an insightful look at reservation life for Indigenous Canadians (including a glimpse at the problem of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women). We need more books like this.

I want to thank Net Galley and Annick Press for allowing me to read this book in exchange for a honest review.

To me, none of the characters grew from where they were at the start to where they end up at the end. This is a dark and heavy book that deals with some important subjects (Native American culture, LGBT+, etc.) but I feel like there wasn’t enough substance given for these topics?

I really enjoyed my time reading this book; the writing style was very well done and I felt a lot for Shane as a character in particular, but this wasn’t the route I thought was this story was going to take.

Would I recommend this book? I’m not sure because while it was a very good book, I at the end of my reading experience felt like something was missing.

This is a quieter coming-of-age, coming-to-grips story. Shane doesn't go through a magical transformation; love doesn't set him free, he doesn't figure his life out entirely, and he doesn't end up living the dreams he starts the book with. He goes from being a very sad, bright boy, to being a less sad and maybe a little less sure boy (but in a hopeful way). Bittersweet.

I got this book for free from netgalley in exchange for an honest review. I’ll be honest, the first about 40 pages of this book I really thought I was going to hate it. Mostly because of the writing style, it took me a bit to figure out who was who and what was happening at first but man, once I got past that, I couldn’t stop. This book was very dark (trigger warnings for suicide and sexual assault). I liked how all the characters had their own ways of dealing with all these terrible things going on. I also enjoyed the discussion surrounding the Indian reserves and it really shows the inner struggle for the main character as Asks himself what he’s willing to do to change his life. one thing that bugged me though was the romance and some of the decisions made were very selfish and irritated me. The whole being with someone just so you can hide the fact that you’re with someone else thing rubbed me the wrong way.
All in all though I really enjoyed this book, and I think that if it was maybe a tad longer the emotions would of built up a bit more and packed a much bigger punch

Reading is an exercise in empathy; an exercise in walking in someone else’s shoes for a while. —Malorie Blackman

This quote is one thing I love about stories. There are so many things I’ll never experience, but stories help me live lives that aren’t mine. Some are delightful, and some are graphically brutal. Fire Song by Adam Garnet Jones is the latter. I can relate to not fitting into the community you’re born into and struggling to break out of the norms. But I am not native to either of the countries I’ve lived in, and I have the skin tone that’s considered “normal.”

That’s why I thank Adam Garnet Jones for writing the screenplay, and then this book of life on a Canadian Indian Reserve.

It’s easy to be despondent or write off the real-life people inspiring this novel. Fire Song is fiction, but it’s the story of hundreds of young adults. It’s hard for Shane to follow his dreams. He wants to go to university in Toronto and learn urban development to come back and help his family and the tribe. Except his sister recently committed suicide (the latest in a long list of tribe members to do it or be murdered), his mother can barely function in her grief, he has to choose between using the insurance money from his father’s death to cover university or replace the rotted roof on his mother’s house, his secret boyfriend is in the tribe. Then his girlfriend announces she’s leaving with him, and funding for university is stalled because of tribal memberships and budgets. And the adults in the tribe see the city as a terrible place and don’t want him to leave.

Fire Song is written with two voices. It’s mainly Shane’s story as the primary narrator, but we also have his girlfriend, Tara’s diary entries. The mix works well. They both have hard lives, and Tara describes her confusion with Shane. Doesn’t he want her? He’s not that physical. Then we have Shane’s side. Being gay just isn’t done on the Reserve and Shane’s careful that no one finds out about David. He knows what he wants, but feels it’s not possible. Shane can’t be himself when he needs to support his mom. And he’s processing his sister’s death. He knows his friends are asking why didn’t he stop it. He’s asking himself the same thing. Why didn’t he see it?

I suppose I should have added a trigger warning earlier. This story is brutal and real. From the time chatting with a Boys and Girls Club director on a Tulalip reservation in Washington state, and also from movies like, Once Were Warriors, Fire Song tells similar stories. Physical abuse is rampant. As is drug and alcohol abuse. Suicide is seen as the only way out. The behavior is cyclical and hard to break. Shane is told that because he’s smart, he could get a job in construction. To the speaker that’s as far as he can imagine. Academia is so foreign, he just can’t imagine it.

I regret starting Fire Song immediately after A Thousand Perfect Notes. Both stories are so well-written, and the characters in both have such harsh experiences that I had to put Fire Song down for a few days. Emotionally it was too much. I recommend both novels, but be warned they aren’t warm and fuzzy. But for a spoiler, both end well.

Fire Song follows our main character Shane, a high school student who has recently suffered the death of his sister, Destiny—by suicide. Shane lives on the reservation with his now depression encapsulated mother and has secrets of his own. On the outside, Shane looks like the ultimate son, he is handsome, athletic, smart and has a pretty girlfriend. On the inside, Shane is in love with Destiny’s best friend, David. Everything seemed okay when Destiny was still alive, but since she died everything seems to be spiraling out of control.
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I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I can always appreciate a book that keeps me interested from start to finish. There were a couple of confusing parts where Shane goes on what he refers to as “Drifts” in which his mind leaves his body and goes somewhere else. I took that to be equivalent to a daydream as a way for Shane to mentally check out from whatever experience is happening in front of him, a coping mechanism. I mostly felt bad for Shane during this story. He lost his sister, his dad passed away years ago, and now his mom won’t leave his sister’s room. Their house is falling apart, Shane’s relationship with his girlfriend, Tara, is getting rockier and there are murmurs throughout their tight-knit community about Shane and David being gay; a huge no-no for their people and their ancestors. The writing is easy to follow and keeps the reader wanting more from the story. I found it hard to put this one down because I just wanted to know what happened next! I would definitely recommend this story.

Candid, visceral, and heart breaking. This book digs in and doesn't let go until it's clawed its way into your heart. The prose is gorgeous and vivid, expressing a complex range of emotions with precision and nuance. This book will hurt and then heal you.

This book was a really good, and from what I can tell, accurate view of certain Native American reservations, while also dealing with LGBTQA+ topics and the idea of two-spirited persons in Native American culture. I definitely recommend this book with the warning to keep in mind that this story does not represent all of the different values and traditions held throughout the various tribes and/or bands.

Again, thanks to NetGalley. Fire Song is a very good read I only can recommend. I remembered watching the movie so therefore I was familiar with the story. I'd suggest reading the book first though.

This is a well-written story about grief and the questions left behind when someone takes their own life. Since the protagonist is a gay Anishinaabe teen living on a reservation, it provides a different perspective from what most YA readers will be used to. Shane's voice is good, and readers will care about him and want him to be happy even as he makes mistakes and unintentionally hurts other people.

I thought the big event that happened near the end was a bit rushed/forced. It felt a bit like shock for shock's sake. Otherwise, this is a good story with wide appeal.