On Fire

by Dianne Linden

Matti’s life is not easy. She has Tourette’s, a bio-neurological condition characterized among other things by involuntary spasms or tics. In her case these tics are primarily vocal.

When a young man with amnesia wanders out of the heart of wildfire country and collapses at her feet, Matti believes she’s found a purpose, and she promises to save his life. But the world Dan comes from is far darker than Matti’s, and the price of keeping her promise greater than she could have imagined.

239 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2013

Reviews

[Kadi P · Rating 3 out of 5]

(On the Tourette’s Syndrome book list recommended by CraftyChara)

*More like 3.5 stars than 3.*

This was a bit of an odd book. It was hard to get a grip on the tone and who the target audience for this book was. I thoroughly appreciated the links to Dante’s Inferno, but as a middle grade book, the references would’ve been lost on a younger reader. Although explained by a character in the story, it doesn’t have quite the same effect. Also, the seemingly middle grade protagonist felt simultaneously mature due to not interacting with basically anyone her age, and immature for being stubborn with a few meltdowns, albeit understandable ones.

The mystery element was a little drawn out and anticlimactic. The dual perspective worked very well, but wasn’t utilised enough. The ending really was the most abrupt I’ve ever encountered; I had to flip the pages back and forth to check I hadn’t missed any. There was no closure nor pay off for the mystery and it made the book seem aimless at the end.

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this book up yesterday while waiting for my slow computer and thought I'd just give it a quick few pages before going back to work. Not such a good plan, that. I was drawn in to this layered story very quickly. You could read this book just for the plotting, just to find out what happens next, and that would be satisfying enough, but there's so much more going on. We're given glimpses of life with mental illness, life with Tourette Syndrome, life after your world has literally burned down around your ears. The author weaves together all of these experiences into a remarkable tale of mystery, of resilience, and of the building of family. The references to Dante's Inferno may whistle over the heads of many readers (mine included, not having read it), but enough explanation is provided to understand the general gist and entice curious readers at least to the Wikipedia article for further explanations.

This is a story I expect will percolate in my head for quite a while. Highly recommended.

[Holley Rubinsky · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wrote a cover blurb for On Fire by Dianne Linden because I admire this writer who grapples with the enigma of identity, how to define it, when (in some cases) for renounce it and start over. In this book, which could be a cross-over YA/Adult, Linden writes about Matti's Tourette's Syndrome. (A person with Tourette's has spasms or other tics. The most famous case of Tourette's was the surgeon Oliver Sacks wrote about in An Anthropologist on Mars. Into Matti's life roars a forest fire and from the fire stumbles a young man with amnesia and mysterious marks. Matti takes him on, with the intention to save him...the serious purpose she's been looking for. Linden's writing is edgy, at times magical, as if words are light we're chasing.

[Ampersand Inc. · Rating 3 out of 5]

The main character feels remorse about the death of her mother, but I never did figure out what exactly happened. She takes an obsessive interest in a burn victim from nearby forest fires. He turns out to be a teen with mental illness. I’m not sure that I understood or believed her compulsion to save him. She suffers from Tourette’s Syndrome and feels a like a bit of an outcast. The plot twists in the end as they are trying to figure out the identity of this boy, who has amnesia. There are many references to Dante and I don’t know if that works for the age group. I think I studied that in university.