Flash Fire

by Caroline B. Cooney

Disaster strikes on a Wednesday afternoon when a huge orange fireball emerges from the top of the canyon, and fifteen-year-old Danna Press begins a long and terrifying journey to safety. Reprint.

Genres: Young Adult, Fiction, Adventure, Thriller, Realistic Fiction, Horror, Teen

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Caroline Cooney knew in sixth grade that she wanted to be a writer when "the best teacher I ever had in my life" made writing her main focus. "He used to rip off covers from The New Yorker and pass them around and make us write a short story on whichever cover we got. I started writing then and never stopped!"
When her children were young, Caroline started writing books for young people -- with remarkable results. She began to sell stories to Seventeen magazine and soon after began writing books. Suspense novels are her favorites to read and write. "In a suspense novel, you can count on action."
To keep her stories realistic, Caroline visits many schools outside of her area, learning more about teenagers all the time. She often organizes what she calls a "plotting game," in which students work together to create plots for stories. Caroline lives in Westbrook, Connecticut and when she's not writing she volunteers at a hospital, plays piano for the school musicals and daydreams!
- Scholastic.com

Reviews

[The Kawaii Slartibartfast · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wanted to strangle every character but Matt.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this after Teenage Me had devoured The Face on the Milk Carton and Whatever Happened to Janie?, and loved it... possibly because it hit a little close to my biggest fear.

[Pandora · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book very akin to Flight 116 is down although at least for me is not as tragic. Characters are well drawn with a mixture of good and bad characters. A bit heavy maybe on the spoiled California attuice but, it is believeable. Does show how in a disater good and bad descions can be made. The ending doesn't tied up all the loose ends but, there is hope that there can be a happy ending. It fits for what the book is trying to be - a 70's disater movie in book form taking place in the 90's. Multiple narrative voices are used.

Big plus though written for the teen market the book can be a cross over and fit on the children's shelves. Bought for the Summer Reading Program which forces my library to have to take some teen books.

SPOILER ALERT -
A character does die but, only one and you are warned that it is going to happen. It also fits the story.

[Melissa (she/her/hers)]

caroline b cooney tries to start a class war by writing a story about rich, vacuous people in l.a. mansions rushing to escape bush fires that decimate their petty lives.

[Laiten]

This book goes to different characters' point of view. It starts out with a girl named Danna talking about fires in California and how her town never has any. A brush fire happens just five miles up a road. Another girl named Elony had a babysitter named Chiffon and they were watching boy named Geoffrey and Chiffon left the two of them at their house. Chiffon left to go see a fire happening there was a big ember the size of a doughnut fell into her hands. She runs away and falls into a pit and burns part of her body. There are 6 kids in a suburban one kid running back into a burning house for his brother's ashes. He dies from breathing soot and burns. The other 5 kids get out of the fire and back to their parents.

[Cora · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was okay, I've definitely read other teen books that were way better than this one. It's very short but that's probably a good thing because there isn't much to it. You don't really get to know the characters, they're just kind of introduced and then the story goes on - so you don't fully care about them that much. Most of the characters were also very unbelievable so it just seemed very fake. There were no bad words, no sex scenes so at least it was a clean book. I did read it all but about 40% in I started to wonder if it was even worth finishing. I definitely wouldn't recommend this book.

[Eva K · Rating 5 out of 5]

3 different families are brought together when they try to escape the raging fires of California. They must be smart, prepared, and resourceful if they have any hope of making it to safety.
Flash fire by Carline B. Cooney was a very interesting book to me. It was a short read, fit into the time frame of 2 hours, but it was never boring. There was always some action going on, and some characters were really likeable, while others didn't seem too real. I'd say this is a good book for anyone who likes to read.

[Renee Van · Rating 3 out of 5]

Absolutely devastating and so realistic. It reveals how people react in their last moments, when facing horrors and weren't prepared for anything.
I just finished reading this and I'm reeling. It was so heartbreaking. There were many unlikeable characters that were so selfish and self absorbed, very focused on material things and not on their own loved ones, who they couldn't even think of in the worst moments. These people shouldn't have kids I don't think.
Such a graphic book.
Well written, just devastating content. Not my cup of tea at all.

[Stephanie]

I have decided to no longer use star ratings. They are too arbitrary to me. Instead, I will be ranking an author's books against their other books. This does not mean that I do NOT like their books, just in what order I enjoy them most.

1) Wanted
2) Fatality
3) Hush Little Baby
4) Driver's Ed
5) Enter Three Witches
6) Flash Fire
7) Burning Up
8) Twins
9) Code Orange
10) Losing Christina Trilogy
11) The Terrorist

[Livvi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dear Caroline B Cooney, I hate you. How come the scum Swann and her family get to live? All the asshole parents who treat their kids bad, the self absorbed baby sitter? They get to live but Beau dies trying to save his step brothers ashes. No no no. I hate it and I hate this book. All that drama and dumb kids and you kill the only good one. It was so frustrating to read and at the end I just sobbed. I’m so mad about it lol

[Jean Hidden · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars, pretty good

[Vicki · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the story it was written in a similar way to flight 116. Good characters and lots of drama.

[Matt Kratz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good and exciting book with excellent characters about a fire. I enjoyed reading it.

[Bella Starr · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was interesting and sad. I loved how it was in the point of view of unsuspecting people and then everything just happens so fast.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thrilling and just as wonderful (if not better) than I remembered it.

[Erin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I felt like there were too many characters to keep track of. The main plotline was fine, but I had a hard time keeping track of everyone and how they were related to each other.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

The cover was deceiving as I expected (hoped) it to be a story of children racing through the fire. However, they were in a Suburban. Definitely kept my attention.

[Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Originally read in high school; gave it two of five stars. Review added and rating updated in 2016.

I originally read this book back in high school. It's really, really hard to believe that was over 15 years ago now!! I re-read it in December 2016, to fulfill an item on the PopSugar Reading Challenge checklist: "a book you haven't read since high school." I gave myself imaginary arbitrary bonus points for reading the exact same slightly battered paperback that I had purchased back in high school. It still had my maiden name printed on the inside cover and everything.

Flash Fire is an excellent book for what it is. We must remember that in the year it was released (1995), we didn't have bulging YA sections in bookstores and libraries. There were small sections, if any at all. I remember my local public library had half of one side of an aisle for YA. It was feasible that a teen could literally read all the (YA) books in the library during their high school years! I honestly can't remember if the bookstore that my family frequented had a YA section when I was growing up, or if the few YA titles were just shelved somewhere among the Children's section. We've come a long way! I'm currently reading Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas. When you hold up Flash Fire next to Heir of Fire, you're going to be disappointed. If you travel back in time to 1995, there's a good chance you'd be at least satisfied, if not thrilled, with Flash Fire.

Flash Fire is the story of some very well-to-do teens in CA who are all home alone when a wildfire reaches their neighborhood. They must escape without the help of any adults. This book is a suspenseful thriller! It's told from many different viewpoints, which really gives the fire itself a three dimensionality. It does, however, leave the actual people characters pretty flat. It's not a long book at all; it would have had to be told from a single viewpoint in order to give even one character a chance at being well-rounded. The suspense is what drives this book. Each chapter is titled with a time stamp, so the reader gets a good sense of how quickly the fire is moving and how quickly decisions need to be made. So no, I wouldn't say that any of the characters really grow or develop, but the book cannot be put down- it's a true page-turner!

When I first opened my Goodreads account, I remembered reading this one and rated it two of five stars. After this re-read, I'm bumping my rating to three out of five stars.

[Les · Rating 2 out of 5]

Basic premise was good, how would kids handle escaping a forest fire without any adults around to help them? The problem was that all the characters, particularly the parents, were like caricatures. No one was normal, everyone was just so over-the top: the tofu-eating tree huggers; the harpy mom browbeating her plain daughter to be more glamorous because she's impacting mom's status with the country club mothers; the brooding dad who his son can never please; the narcissist mom who works out for hours each day to keep herself beautiful but won't interact with her kids; the socialite pissed at her son because he became a fireman instead of heading to Wall Street, etc.

The kids were pretty much stereotypes as well, the only unique one being a mentally challenged Romanean boy that a family adopted then dumped off on sitters when they got tired of playing parents. The one thing all the kids had in common was that their parents were total nut jobs. They're all on their own when a forest fire flames up into their isolated canyon. Did have some good fire safety advice and portrayed the difficulty of firefighting in isolated locations.

[Tywyll]

How suddenly life can change within an hour and a half. In that time, a small kindling turns into an inferno outside of L.A. Snaking its way through valleys and brush, it ravages the homes and lives of a quiet, upscaled neighborhood.

Told from multiple perspectives (about 16 total), this book is a play-by-play of the fire unfolding - its birth, its growth, its wake of destruction, and what little it leaves behind. While the almost omnipotent POV was an interesting approach in seeing this story from all angles, it became, at times, quite distracting and unnecessary.

Despite its numerous flaws, Cooney's novel truly captures the ridiculous and prevalent lack of common sense humans display when faced with a natural disaster. How instead of running away from danger, we hurry towards it. Instead of obey evacuation orders, we say "it'll never touch us." And that the only way to survive is to acknowledge the danger and act accordingly, to work together, and above all, realize the preservation of life is far greater value than material possessions!!

[Valentina :) · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good fast-paced book, zooming in on the lives of the 'beautiful people' and their lives at Pinch Canyon while there is a rampant brush-fire. In the taut two-and-a-half hours, the failed adoption, failed parents, disappointing and not so disappointing children have to come together to save their lives. Not only do they have to think about themselves, but for the whole neighborhood, and the dead.
This book is separated into different places, eg: the office & the house.
My favorite part is when Beau risks his life for the ashes of someone who is close to him, in a way, but at the same time very distant.
Read it to see how it ends.

[Cindy · Rating 3 out of 5]

It takes a lot to impress me when it comes to 90s YA thrillers and horror, I mostly read them out of nostalgia. Flash Fire impressed me. I read it in one sitting, unable to put it down. The description of the various inhabitants of pitch canyon, the different family life they had/classes they came from and reactions they exhibited towards the fire, gave the book depth and really invested you their survival. I wish they had all made it out. This is my third CB Cooney novel and she is great at writing stories from different characters viewpoints and excels at the trauma drama genre.

[Mason T · Rating 1 out of 5]

Honestly, this was not a very good book. I would not recommend this book for too many people because it is not that exciting. I also didn't like it because it waited till the very end to get excting. Although, I did like a character. The character is Hall; I liked him because he was a little like me.

[Wade · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was a pretty nice book. It actually felt like you were in L.A during a forest fire. It is an emotional and tragic story. You can almost feel the heat and smell the smoke. You probably will feel sad for all the lives, homes, and forest that have gotten destroyed. I would recommend this book to people who like action and drama.

[Kristal · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish her disaster books were longer because they're always so exciting. I'd love to have longer to savour the danger. I read this as a teen and after picking up a vintage copy at a used book store, I spent a delightful couple hours reliving it. Fun, fun, fun and I love her descriptions of how fire moves. Really cool.

[Auston Nagata · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was very descriptive. It descriped the fire and the people very well. All the characters were different and had different emotions. It was good but the ending character didn't really have good motives for what he did. It was a good read and I think Cooney did a good job.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cooney's YA thrillers are always fun to read. I really enjoyed the frightening description of the fire and how it burned and flared.
The characterization was a little undeveloped, perhaps because it was a short read.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this book, but I didn't like the end.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

really suspenseful! Caroline B. Cooney is a fabulous author!!

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just love Caroline B. Cooney. I read books of hers constantly as a teen and all of which I'd probably give a rating of 4 or 5 stars to.