Fire Will Fall, while not a bad book, attempted to condense a story into a single book that should've been two and expanded on things more. To start with what the book did right, the main characters, all of whom were teens, seemed very life like. Scott Eberman, the oldest of the group and a former paramedic, is displayed as being charismatic, charming, but manipulative, while Cora Holman, the daughter of a famous news reporter who became an opium addict, is displayed and quiet, often fragile, but resilient when it was absolutely necessary. The book also has each teen narrate different parts of the story. It begins with Scott, and the rest of the "Trinity Four," as the main characters are referred to, being the four worst victims of a terrorist attack in Trinity Falls, New Jersey, get a turn to narrate, but they aren't the only narrators. Two additional teens take their turns narrating as well. Both of them are college drop out who hack for the U.S. government illegally. The section they hack for is called the U.S.I.C., standing for United States Intelligence Coalition, and their sections are very interesting as what Ms. Plum describes is a very real possibility in today's society. The terrorists communicate anonymously online in chat rooms and code their messages, even though they never speak English in these chat rooms.
The book is a very intriguing concept, but it is far from flawless. It starts with the U.S.I.C. itself. United States Intelligence Coalition is a unique name, but that's the only one. The terrorist group has the most cliche name a villainous group could have. It is called "ShadowStrike", their biggest funder goes by the name "Chancellor" in the chatrooms, and while unique, their lead scientist is called "OmarLoggi" and that isn't an intimidating name, a cliche name might even be better. The book also tries condensing to much into a single 400 page book. Around halfway through the book, the Trinity Four, two males and two females, start getting real mushy with each other, and while it's not necessarily a bad thing, it seemed very abrupt and rushed. The book also over played their villains. The villains are portrayed as being untouchable, always one step ahead, and always having an out, but they never really feel like a threat. The terrorists are shown as planning, getting ready for a second attack that will be even more dangerous than the last, and yet the villains are taken down completely after the "Chancellor" is taken down. This book had the potential to be amazing, but it should have slowed itself down and delved into it's topics more, and if a third book was needed, that would've been fine. If it wanted to introduce romance, that's fine, but it was too fast, and the villains needed to feel like a bigger threat. A terrorist organization like ShadowStrike seems like it would have a fall back plan if it's lead funder was captured or killed, but apparently not.