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Into the Fire
A year after her best friend died in a house fire, Lara can't come to terms with the loss. Logic says there was no more she could have done to save the mercurial and unhappy Alice, but Lara can't escape the feeling that she is somehow to blame for the tragedy.She spends a weekend at the rebuilt house with Alice's charismatic widower, Crow, and his three young children. Rummaging through the remains of their shared past, Lara reveals a friendship with Alice that was as troubled as it was intense. But beneath the surface is a darker, more unsettling secret waiting to be exposed.Through exquisite prose and searing insight, Into the Fire explores the many ways, small and large, we betray one another and our ideals. It's a compelling story about power, guilt and womanhood from an outstanding voice in Australian fiction.
238 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 29, 2019
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359 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 71 reviews
January 31, 2019
This is a slow burn of a book, a little too slow for me. Lara is having survivors guilt after her friend Alice dies after her house burns down. She wonders if she could have done more to help her friend, who was suffering from mental illness. It follows the women's lives from the day they met until a year after the fire. Yes it has some salient points philosophising about life, but all in all it wasn't for me.
My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
November 26, 2018
I received a free e-copy of Into The Fire by Sonia Orchard from NetGalley for my honest review.
An intense and heartfelt book with raw emotion dealing with friendship, mental health, guilt, betrayal, and even tragedy. A book of reflection and strength and self discovery. I didn't want this book to ever end.
An intense and heartfelt book with raw emotion dealing with friendship, mental health, guilt, betrayal, and even tragedy. A book of reflection and strength and self discovery. I didn't want this book to ever end.
February 6, 2019
Orchard perfectly captures life at Melbourne Uni in the ’90s and this gave me some strong nostalgic feelings (Women’s Studies lectures!). Female friendship and the ways we betray, bolster, disappoint and damage each other are what Orchard sets her sights on and she offers real insight into our complexities. Her commentary about the promises of ’90s feminism and the nature of capitalism really spoke to me. The ending shook me up quite a bit and there’s a lot I didn’t see coming and I must admit it broke my heart which was definitely her intention.
January 5, 2019
"history is made not through events but through their retelling"
This is a deeply moving, very sad story about two women who meet when they are young and in college and the story of their friendship. Their friendship was rowdy and unapologetic as they bantered and bounced ideas off each other, shared sodas and their room and their time. But as they grew, who they were changed and they had a choice to make - continue to hold to each other or drift away.
This is also an interesting look at toxicity in friendships - that drive to have more and get more but also the push to only show your best self. We should have those that we push those barriers down for and show our weakness - and these two seemed unsure as they became adults if they could do that with each other. It's a touching story but also gut-wrenching. I saw the ending a mile away but I also saw so many signs that she chose to ignore.
I'm glad I read this. It was very good.
This is a deeply moving, very sad story about two women who meet when they are young and in college and the story of their friendship. Their friendship was rowdy and unapologetic as they bantered and bounced ideas off each other, shared sodas and their room and their time. But as they grew, who they were changed and they had a choice to make - continue to hold to each other or drift away.
This is also an interesting look at toxicity in friendships - that drive to have more and get more but also the push to only show your best self. We should have those that we push those barriers down for and show our weakness - and these two seemed unsure as they became adults if they could do that with each other. It's a touching story but also gut-wrenching. I saw the ending a mile away but I also saw so many signs that she chose to ignore.
I'm glad I read this. It was very good.
May 23, 2019
Part nostalgic trip through 90s hipster life, part suspenseful thriller and part examination of the ways friendships shift and weaken over time. Some of the twists and turns weren't quite as unexpected as the author meant them to be, but I really liked the way Orchard explored the central relationship between Lara and Alice.
January 11, 2019
Alice, Crow, Lara – three close friends.
And then Alice dies…… in a fire. Was it an accident?
That’s Sonia Orchard’s Into the Fire in a nutshell. It chronicles the journey of three people- Alice and her husband Crow and her best friend, Lara, who narrates the story. It showcases Lara’s and Alice’s journey from their days in the university till Alice’s death several years later.
Into the Fire was not an easy read for me because it held up a mirror to many uncomfortable truths. This book shows how people who were once close to each other (so close that they were privy to each other’s secrets) drift apart slowly and painfully. This novel also conveys how foolish decisions ruin our lives—not drastically and not outright, but slowly so that every waking moment is painful to endure. A significant part of the book is about our refusal to accept the consequences of our actions and our ever-increasing wants. Finally, Orchard also touches upon mental illness. The drudgery of life exacerbated by an unsupportive spouse who gradually turns into a malicious one can crush even the strongest of hopes and the happiest of persons.
Long after I finished the book and was wondering what to rate it, these thoughts hit me. However, when I was leafing through the book, it was, unfortunately, a dreary, rambling story. Orchard has prolonged it unnecessarily by quoting studies on philosophy most of which I didn’t understand. It’s only the last 20% of the book (Kindle edition) that’s gripping because Lara doesn’t prattle here at all. With no studies quoted or any dense, philosophical musing to disrupt the flow of the story, I could clearly perceive Lara’s feelings in the last few pages. A sense of unease grew as if the cold, clammy hand of reality was closing about me. Orchard never corroborates what happens between Alice and Crow. It’s always Alice’s version of events versus Crow’s version. Whom should Lara believe? The hysterical, emotional Alice who has got a short fuse, or the calm and controlled Crow.
If only the story was more compact, and Orchard hadn’t played peek-a-boo with Lara’s feelings by shrouding them in philosophy, I would have rated it higher. Although I did not understand the esoteric musings, that may not be the case for everyone. People who prefer heavy books will like it. Those looking for mystery should brave a slow first and middle part. The book deals with dark themes, so, go for it if that’s your cup of tea.
Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with a free eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
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And then Alice dies…… in a fire. Was it an accident?
That’s Sonia Orchard’s Into the Fire in a nutshell. It chronicles the journey of three people- Alice and her husband Crow and her best friend, Lara, who narrates the story. It showcases Lara’s and Alice’s journey from their days in the university till Alice’s death several years later.
Into the Fire was not an easy read for me because it held up a mirror to many uncomfortable truths. This book shows how people who were once close to each other (so close that they were privy to each other’s secrets) drift apart slowly and painfully. This novel also conveys how foolish decisions ruin our lives—not drastically and not outright, but slowly so that every waking moment is painful to endure. A significant part of the book is about our refusal to accept the consequences of our actions and our ever-increasing wants. Finally, Orchard also touches upon mental illness. The drudgery of life exacerbated by an unsupportive spouse who gradually turns into a malicious one can crush even the strongest of hopes and the happiest of persons.
Long after I finished the book and was wondering what to rate it, these thoughts hit me. However, when I was leafing through the book, it was, unfortunately, a dreary, rambling story. Orchard has prolonged it unnecessarily by quoting studies on philosophy most of which I didn’t understand. It’s only the last 20% of the book (Kindle edition) that’s gripping because Lara doesn’t prattle here at all. With no studies quoted or any dense, philosophical musing to disrupt the flow of the story, I could clearly perceive Lara’s feelings in the last few pages. A sense of unease grew as if the cold, clammy hand of reality was closing about me. Orchard never corroborates what happens between Alice and Crow. It’s always Alice’s version of events versus Crow’s version. Whom should Lara believe? The hysterical, emotional Alice who has got a short fuse, or the calm and controlled Crow.
If only the story was more compact, and Orchard hadn’t played peek-a-boo with Lara’s feelings by shrouding them in philosophy, I would have rated it higher. Although I did not understand the esoteric musings, that may not be the case for everyone. People who prefer heavy books will like it. Those looking for mystery should brave a slow first and middle part. The book deals with dark themes, so, go for it if that’s your cup of tea.
Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with a free eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
My Blog
January 30, 2020
Into the Fire (Affirm Press 2019) by author Sonia Orchard is an engaging and thought-provoking exploration of friendship, motherhood, ambition, jealousy, gender equality issues, mental health and the choices we make along life’s path. In a fluid back and forth narrative, Orchard builds the lives of the main characters Alice, Lara and Crow, by introducing their idealistic younger selves, full of dreams and idealism and activism, and depicting their maturation into adulthood, where pragmatism and the needs of others tend to come before selfishness; where the reality of our lives is sometimes very far from the idea of what our younger selves imagined, or the illusion of what we see as the truth. This is a close and tender examination of relationships – between women, between friends, between lovers, between parents and their children – that raises existential and ideological questions about our true identity, our true fears and our true desires.
Set a year after her best friend Alice died in a tragic housefire, the book is narrated by Lara who is still reeling from the loss. She knows Alice was unhappy and cannot shake the feeling that it may have been her – Lara – who is somehow responsible for what happened. As she spends the weekend visiting Alice’s widower, Crow, and their children, Lara tries to capture the threads of the recent and distant past in an attempt to understand the intense relationship between her and Alice and Crow, and why the situation got so out of control.
A meditation on love, loss, control, power, guilt, shame and betrayal, Into the Fire is a literary tale of insightful prose and perceptive character assessments, but it also contains a mystery at its heart; a mystery concerning the fire. Like fragile and ephemeral pieces of floating ash, the truth of what happened that night is all around Lara yet impossible for her to grasp.
This book opens up the lids of many boxes that people – especially women – tend to keep tightly closed: our secret thoughts, our hidden shames and desires and jealousies, the way we submerge the space between what we think and how we believe we are supposed to act. In addressing the timeless issues of the responsibilities of parenting and the pull of family, with the more recent conflicts of judgement around women’s lifestyle choices, and the struggle for women to ‘have it all’ or to concede defeat in one or more areas of their lives, Orchard is fearless in asking the difficult questions that many of us have formed in our minds but are too afraid to ask or answer, and certainly too afraid to dissect with any level of vigour. We recognise these characters, and parts of many of them may well be the parts of us that we are tempted to ignore or are ashamed to confront. And as this slow-burning book reaches its shocking conclusion, we are forced to reconsider not only the characters in this story, and their role in the events that occurred, but also our own culpability and the choices we would make if faced with the same circumstances.
Set a year after her best friend Alice died in a tragic housefire, the book is narrated by Lara who is still reeling from the loss. She knows Alice was unhappy and cannot shake the feeling that it may have been her – Lara – who is somehow responsible for what happened. As she spends the weekend visiting Alice’s widower, Crow, and their children, Lara tries to capture the threads of the recent and distant past in an attempt to understand the intense relationship between her and Alice and Crow, and why the situation got so out of control.
A meditation on love, loss, control, power, guilt, shame and betrayal, Into the Fire is a literary tale of insightful prose and perceptive character assessments, but it also contains a mystery at its heart; a mystery concerning the fire. Like fragile and ephemeral pieces of floating ash, the truth of what happened that night is all around Lara yet impossible for her to grasp.
This book opens up the lids of many boxes that people – especially women – tend to keep tightly closed: our secret thoughts, our hidden shames and desires and jealousies, the way we submerge the space between what we think and how we believe we are supposed to act. In addressing the timeless issues of the responsibilities of parenting and the pull of family, with the more recent conflicts of judgement around women’s lifestyle choices, and the struggle for women to ‘have it all’ or to concede defeat in one or more areas of their lives, Orchard is fearless in asking the difficult questions that many of us have formed in our minds but are too afraid to ask or answer, and certainly too afraid to dissect with any level of vigour. We recognise these characters, and parts of many of them may well be the parts of us that we are tempted to ignore or are ashamed to confront. And as this slow-burning book reaches its shocking conclusion, we are forced to reconsider not only the characters in this story, and their role in the events that occurred, but also our own culpability and the choices we would make if faced with the same circumstances.
January 23, 2020
What a read!
Orchard has done a great job at weaving tension through the relationships in this novel. It is a stark and honest look at the optimism of 90s feminism, and the flaws within while exploring romantic and platonic relationships and how they shift and change over time.
I really connected with Lara. I really wanted to see Crow as the good guy, the guy who loved his family and worried about his troubled wife. It was almost too late before I saw the red flags Orchard planted, so cleverly were they dropped into the narrative.
What Orchard has accomplished here is something real, because we have all looked away when things are too hard or we don't want to see them for what they really are. We have all been guilty of ignoring things in front of us.
Orchard has done a great job at weaving tension through the relationships in this novel. It is a stark and honest look at the optimism of 90s feminism, and the flaws within while exploring romantic and platonic relationships and how they shift and change over time.
I really connected with Lara. I really wanted to see Crow as the good guy, the guy who loved his family and worried about his troubled wife. It was almost too late before I saw the red flags Orchard planted, so cleverly were they dropped into the narrative.
What Orchard has accomplished here is something real, because we have all looked away when things are too hard or we don't want to see them for what they really are. We have all been guilty of ignoring things in front of us.
October 9, 2018
A realistic look at friendship. The lives of Alice and Lara came together and grew apart over the span of more than a decade as we explore Lara's views, highs and lows of her relationship with Alice. I found the prose meandering (in a good way), the characters became real people and the pacing made the story. I felt this was more realistic or literary fiction than mystery or thriller. While there was a little mystery woven into the plot, I found it much more a story about finding closure than about finding the answer.
Told in first person through Lara's eyes, we are introduced to a grieving woman who is coming to terms with the loss of her closest friend. As she spends the weekend with her late friend, Alice's husband and children, Lara reminisces of her times with Alice. She remembers good times and bad times, arguments and joys. Throughout it all, the author orients us solidly in Australia: "The moon is not yet visible in the sky, I can't see more than a metre off the side of the road, just the poa grasses lining the edge of the dirt and the palsied limbs of the stringybarks jutting overhead, bleached white in the headlights."
While flawed, I found I cared about the characters and wanted to know more about them. As the narrator, Lara had secrets from the reader, but we also saw the most growth in her character. At the beginning of her friendship with Lara, she was in college and trying to find herself. Later, she was trying to figure out who she was apart from Alice and at the end we know she is going to discover a self without Alice. We know because we have faith in the growth and changes she has already experienced. I would love to access to Alice's journals and see how her mind was working throughout the story. I couldn't decide if I liked Crow or not, but I am pretty sure that is what he would prefer. He was a person and I certainly felt I could be angry with him, laugh with him and sympathize with him at different points in the story.
At the end of chapter 3, Lara writes "I was enjoying the kind of serene benevolence that can settle on you like a mist when everything in life seems to be in a perfect equilibrium." At just 10% into the novel, this was exactly how I felt. There was a comfortable feel to the narrative and the story. We knew things were not going to stay that way, but for the moment, life was good. The path we follow from college to adulthood has detours and bumps galore, but all relatable. After a traumatic loss, our minds reel and will flit from one memory to the next, picking apart the details of what was important and what we may have done wrong. A year removed from the accident did distance both the reader and the narrator from some of the fresh emotions occurring closer to the death, but even muted, they were there.
Interspersed throughout the story there were some interesting psychological theories and ideas. I found the one about the differences between male friendships and female friendships sticking with me. The basis of friendship is an interesting topic and the differences between men and women is certainly a global one. The comment towards the end "We were not the women we once were, and we were the ones who could best bear witness to that change. Sad as it was, it was easier, simply, to look away." also struck a chord with me. We depend on people to know us at our best and our worst. Sometimes, it's hard to see the ones we love at their worst and it is easier to busy ourselves with the day-to-day of our own lives. It is also sometimes easier to avoid those who may notice we are not living our best lives.
I enjoyed this excursion down under. I think I may need to go call my best friend and remind her that I love her! I found I could not quite give this the full five stars because of the I found myself thinking about this book and its characters long after I set the book down for the day. Thank you to NetGalley for providing this reader a new book and introducing her to a new author!
Told in first person through Lara's eyes, we are introduced to a grieving woman who is coming to terms with the loss of her closest friend. As she spends the weekend with her late friend, Alice's husband and children, Lara reminisces of her times with Alice. She remembers good times and bad times, arguments and joys. Throughout it all, the author orients us solidly in Australia: "The moon is not yet visible in the sky, I can't see more than a metre off the side of the road, just the poa grasses lining the edge of the dirt and the palsied limbs of the stringybarks jutting overhead, bleached white in the headlights."
While flawed, I found I cared about the characters and wanted to know more about them. As the narrator, Lara had secrets from the reader, but we also saw the most growth in her character. At the beginning of her friendship with Lara, she was in college and trying to find herself. Later, she was trying to figure out who she was apart from Alice and at the end we know she is going to discover a self without Alice. We know because we have faith in the growth and changes she has already experienced. I would love to access to Alice's journals and see how her mind was working throughout the story. I couldn't decide if I liked Crow or not, but I am pretty sure that is what he would prefer. He was a person and I certainly felt I could be angry with him, laugh with him and sympathize with him at different points in the story.
At the end of chapter 3, Lara writes "I was enjoying the kind of serene benevolence that can settle on you like a mist when everything in life seems to be in a perfect equilibrium." At just 10% into the novel, this was exactly how I felt. There was a comfortable feel to the narrative and the story. We knew things were not going to stay that way, but for the moment, life was good. The path we follow from college to adulthood has detours and bumps galore, but all relatable. After a traumatic loss, our minds reel and will flit from one memory to the next, picking apart the details of what was important and what we may have done wrong. A year removed from the accident did distance both the reader and the narrator from some of the fresh emotions occurring closer to the death, but even muted, they were there.
Interspersed throughout the story there were some interesting psychological theories and ideas. I found the one about the differences between male friendships and female friendships sticking with me. The basis of friendship is an interesting topic and the differences between men and women is certainly a global one. The comment towards the end "We were not the women we once were, and we were the ones who could best bear witness to that change. Sad as it was, it was easier, simply, to look away." also struck a chord with me. We depend on people to know us at our best and our worst. Sometimes, it's hard to see the ones we love at their worst and it is easier to busy ourselves with the day-to-day of our own lives. It is also sometimes easier to avoid those who may notice we are not living our best lives.
I enjoyed this excursion down under. I think I may need to go call my best friend and remind her that I love her! I found I could not quite give this the full five stars because of the I found myself thinking about this book and its characters long after I set the book down for the day. Thank you to NetGalley for providing this reader a new book and introducing her to a new author!
June 7, 2020
Reading others’ reviews, it’s clear that I’m smack-bang in the middle of the target demographic: a mum of a young child, negotiating the challenges of friendship with long-term besties on the other side of the parenthood divide, judgemental of husbands who don’t pull their weight at home, nostalgic about my decade spent studying Arts at Melbourne Uni then working while living in friend-filled sharehouses in Melbourne’s inner-north, and with a love of the bush and coast near the fire-prone Otways.
This book was written for people like me and I couldn’t put it down. The characters and relationships seemed so familiar and so real, it’s almost like Lara was a real person who sat two rows in front of me in my undergraduate psychology lecture, but I never talked to her because she was pretty and I was intimidated by pretty people.
Orchard has captured the reality of friendship and early adulthood with such clarity and honesty that this book is quite startling. A friend and I were discussing last week about how “coming of age” stories can feel universal but the “early 30s” age is rarely captured in a relatable way in books because it’s a life-stage that’s evolved considerably in recent decades. At the time I couldn’t think of a book that had done it well. Now I can.
This book was written for people like me and I couldn’t put it down. The characters and relationships seemed so familiar and so real, it’s almost like Lara was a real person who sat two rows in front of me in my undergraduate psychology lecture, but I never talked to her because she was pretty and I was intimidated by pretty people.
Orchard has captured the reality of friendship and early adulthood with such clarity and honesty that this book is quite startling. A friend and I were discussing last week about how “coming of age” stories can feel universal but the “early 30s” age is rarely captured in a relatable way in books because it’s a life-stage that’s evolved considerably in recent decades. At the time I couldn’t think of a book that had done it well. Now I can.
January 1, 2019
This book wasn’t quite what I was expecting according to the blurb I read but that didn’t make it any less enjoyable. I was expecting a sort of psychological thriller but it was actually a reflection of friends growing into adulthood, expectations of your life and dreams, friendship and regrets.
With a thread of mental illness and domestic manipulation running throughout.
Totally unexpected storyline, which gave me cause to think about the book more deeply.
It could be a good book club book for discussion.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy to read.
With a thread of mental illness and domestic manipulation running throughout.
Totally unexpected storyline, which gave me cause to think about the book more deeply.
It could be a good book club book for discussion.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy to read.
October 2, 2018
As much as I was intrigued buy this book, I was disappointed. The location attracted me, but there will little about it in the book. The story is about a woman and her best friend and how their relationship evolves over time, relationships, children and mental health.
As with all relationships. there are misunderstandings, miscommunications and frustrations that affect how everyone deals with one another.
To me, the tragedy at the end was more intriguing than the agozning way of her getting there.
I appreciate the thoughtfulness that went into writing this book, but at the end, all i wanted to know what was what happened.
As with all relationships. there are misunderstandings, miscommunications and frustrations that affect how everyone deals with one another.
To me, the tragedy at the end was more intriguing than the agozning way of her getting there.
I appreciate the thoughtfulness that went into writing this book, but at the end, all i wanted to know what was what happened.
April 22, 2019
I definitely liked this book but I didn’t love it. It was well written and I enjoyed how it explored changing a friendship dynamic between two women over time. There was a lot of introspection from the main character Lara about so many aspects of the various relationships that they both had with men, and in quite a few places this book touches on themes of patriarchal power through the actions of male characters. Lara makes so many references to her and Alice’s feminist ideologies, but even in those instances her character doesn’t say much of substance. I really felt myself wishing for a stronger interrogation of the instances of male violence and power- particularly considering the ending.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 29, 2019
If you’re looking for a slow burn book with the most realistic characters I’ve ever read about, than “Into The Fire” is the book for you. I honestly wasn’t sure what I was getting myself into when I started this book, but by the end I was completely sucked into it and couldn’t believe what I was reading. Lara’s world changed the day her best friend Alice died, but what she learns after will change everything.
Check out my full review here!
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Check out my full review here!
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September 28, 2018
Into the fire by author Sonia Orchard is a novel about one woman’s journey to uncover the truth about her best friend, a year after her death. Lara, spending the weekend with the deceased friends husband and children, starts to uncover darker secrets than she ever imagined. The plot was good, the characters were well thought out and overall I enjoyed the book.
Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for an arc copy of into the fire in exchange for an honest review.
Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for an arc copy of into the fire in exchange for an honest review.
October 5, 2018
I was given an advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review.
The first third of this novel was quite interesting, but then the pace slowed and the characters themselves are not enough to carry the suspense. By the time I was 2/3 in, I no longer cared about what happened to them at all. So by the time we got to the big reveal I just wasn’t present. Meh
The first third of this novel was quite interesting, but then the pace slowed and the characters themselves are not enough to carry the suspense. By the time I was 2/3 in, I no longer cared about what happened to them at all. So by the time we got to the big reveal I just wasn’t present. Meh
June 20, 2019
A book about friendship. Lara's best friend Alice settles down with 'Rockstar' Crow, who turns out to be a controlling abusive man. Sadly there was little focus on this as all focus was on the loss of friendship Lara felt.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 4, 2019
Into the Fire by Sonia Orchard is about the friendships and relationships among four adults: Laura, Alice, Crow and Christian, over time. The story is told from Laura’s point of view and covers the time from the beginning of her friendship with Alice to a year after Alice’s death in a house fire. It’s a bit of a slow burner in the beginning but becomes more engaging as the story unfolds and is well worth reading, so hang in there!
The book centers on the friendship of Laura and Alice, but also deeply delves into the relationships of the various combinations of the four. Laura and Alice meet during their first semester at the university. They quickly bond over their mutual fierce feminism and become inseparable. Crow enters the picture during their second semester, and the three of them do everything together, even after Alice and Crow become a couple (who eventually marry.) Christian is Crow’s best friend from prep school. He and Laura become a couple after university.
While they once shared the same views of the future, life takes Laura and Alice on different paths, and this begins a rift between them. Crow and Alice marry when Alice becomes pregnant; Laura feels that Alice has betrayed the feminist cause and the plans they had made together. Laura travels abroad for five years before settling back in Melbourne and beginning a live-in relationship with Christian. Where she once declared she would never be tied down by children, she now finds herself longing to be a mother. Christian, on the other hand, is clear about not wanting to be a parent. Meanwhile, Alice has had several more children, is totally overwhelmed, and is sinking into mental illness.
The different choices each of the women made for her life leads to each judging the other, even though they are not totally content with or fulfilled by their own choice of paths. Telling the other only what they want to share, the real truths about their lives go unspoken. This takes a further toll on their friendship.
“It was important for me to be proud of my choices, I was intent that my life should appear better – more interesting, more fulfilling – than hers.”
“…it wasn’t just that I didn’t want to see her problems… I also didn’t want her to see mine.”
“A gulf that was more to do with acceptance of one another’s lives and pride or shame in our own.”
Into the Fire would be a great selection for book club discussions. There is much to ponder within these pages. How long do you hang on to a friendship that doesn’t work anymore? How do you determine when to let a friendship go? What responsibility do you have for your life choices influencing others negatively?
This book gets a solid 4 stars from me; it would’ve been higher but for the slow start.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Affirm Press for allowing me to read an ARC of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.
The book centers on the friendship of Laura and Alice, but also deeply delves into the relationships of the various combinations of the four. Laura and Alice meet during their first semester at the university. They quickly bond over their mutual fierce feminism and become inseparable. Crow enters the picture during their second semester, and the three of them do everything together, even after Alice and Crow become a couple (who eventually marry.) Christian is Crow’s best friend from prep school. He and Laura become a couple after university.
While they once shared the same views of the future, life takes Laura and Alice on different paths, and this begins a rift between them. Crow and Alice marry when Alice becomes pregnant; Laura feels that Alice has betrayed the feminist cause and the plans they had made together. Laura travels abroad for five years before settling back in Melbourne and beginning a live-in relationship with Christian. Where she once declared she would never be tied down by children, she now finds herself longing to be a mother. Christian, on the other hand, is clear about not wanting to be a parent. Meanwhile, Alice has had several more children, is totally overwhelmed, and is sinking into mental illness.
The different choices each of the women made for her life leads to each judging the other, even though they are not totally content with or fulfilled by their own choice of paths. Telling the other only what they want to share, the real truths about their lives go unspoken. This takes a further toll on their friendship.
“It was important for me to be proud of my choices, I was intent that my life should appear better – more interesting, more fulfilling – than hers.”
“…it wasn’t just that I didn’t want to see her problems… I also didn’t want her to see mine.”
“A gulf that was more to do with acceptance of one another’s lives and pride or shame in our own.”
Into the Fire would be a great selection for book club discussions. There is much to ponder within these pages. How long do you hang on to a friendship that doesn’t work anymore? How do you determine when to let a friendship go? What responsibility do you have for your life choices influencing others negatively?
This book gets a solid 4 stars from me; it would’ve been higher but for the slow start.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Affirm Press for allowing me to read an ARC of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.
January 29, 2019
Into the Fire was nothing like I expected. It caught my attention because it's set in Melbourne, and I'm loving Australia based stories right now. It's not a psychological thriller, so if that's what you want then don't bother. It's more like a philosophical journey through an old friendship rooted in feminist ideals that fell apart as time passed. Lara and Alice became friends at University. They shared strongly held feminist beliefs. A woman can conquer the world and have it all. But, Alice marries Crow and basically goes to the country to raise kids and be a wife. Essentially, Alice gave up on being a feminist. Lara wants to have it all, but does she? In the story, Lara is visiting Crow over a weekend to catch up and all. Alice died a year ago in a house fire. Alice was mentally not well,and Lara wonders if she could have done anything else to save Alice. Did she see the signs and ignore them? Lara has a lot of guilt. The story is mostly background about their friendship through time and how motherhood and marriage change ideas. It's slow going and so over worded at times, but don't give up. You want to read the end. Thanks to NetGalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.
January 4, 2019
Via my book blog at https://cavebookreviews.blogspot.com/
In Australia, Sonia Orchard creates the life of two young women, Lara and Alice, and shows what their transition from university to adult life might look like today. Both women spent many hours in gender studies and considered themselves indomitable feminists.
Alice has a commanding personality who Lara depends on as a friend, family, and partner in exploring twenty-something life. Unfortunately, Alice dies in a house fire. A year later, in one weekend that Lara spends with Alice's husband, Crow, she begins to recall conversations, feelings, and facts about their lives in the heady days of youth and coming of age.
Lara looks at the life Alice chose versus the one she fell into early on. The question of feminism and choosing a career, husband, and children plagues Lara.
She tries to work out what could have gone wrong for Alice. We always ask that question of our young selves and friends' lives, but rarely find any answers. Orchard does an excellent job of laying out a believable story of women that is universal.
I received an advanced copy of this novel from the publisher through NetGalley.
In Australia, Sonia Orchard creates the life of two young women, Lara and Alice, and shows what their transition from university to adult life might look like today. Both women spent many hours in gender studies and considered themselves indomitable feminists.
Alice has a commanding personality who Lara depends on as a friend, family, and partner in exploring twenty-something life. Unfortunately, Alice dies in a house fire. A year later, in one weekend that Lara spends with Alice's husband, Crow, she begins to recall conversations, feelings, and facts about their lives in the heady days of youth and coming of age.
Lara looks at the life Alice chose versus the one she fell into early on. The question of feminism and choosing a career, husband, and children plagues Lara.
She tries to work out what could have gone wrong for Alice. We always ask that question of our young selves and friends' lives, but rarely find any answers. Orchard does an excellent job of laying out a believable story of women that is universal.
I received an advanced copy of this novel from the publisher through NetGalley.
March 27, 2020
I enjoyed the writing in this novel, especially about the mundane daily things of everyday life. I waited and waited for the "unsettling secret" to show up. I like to see how characters handle twists in the tale---but that was not to be. Score is for the writing.
7/10
7/10
April 8, 2019
An story of an intense and at times fraught friendship .It is also a tale of betrayal of ideals and of friends
Beautiful and thoughtful writing with a dark ending
Beautiful and thoughtful writing with a dark ending
January 26, 2019
I really enjoyed reading this book. The characters are very believable and the story echoes life itself. All about relationships and how time and distance can change our perspective.
Thank you Net Galley for allowing me to read this book..
Thank you Net Galley for allowing me to read this book..
March 25, 2019
Lara arrives, a year after the death of her best friend Alice in a house fire that also destroyed the house. to visit with Alice's three children and Crow, her widower. She is pregnant with her ex's baby and almost seems to be looking for something.
The story then flashes back in time to when the two women first met at Melbourne university and their story.
Lara initially notices Crow first and forms an infatuation with him, but later Alice meets him and she gets the guy.
After that Lara is almost always the third wheel in their relationship and you get the idea Crow resents this and resents her.
Subsequent events finds Lara feeling a betrayal of her and Alice's oath of feminism and their paths split down totally different directions, leaving each one to become a stranger of the other one.
Later they reconnect and attempt to rebuild their friendship, but there are unmentioned demons that Alice is battling with and reading between the lines, you realise neither woman is sharing her deepest thoughts and feelings with the other one - its as if they resent (and at the same time envy) the life the other one is living.
Alice's request with an unspoken revelation a few weeks before her death chilled me.
Lara's reaction shocked me and made me question what the bond between her and Alice was really like and if she is actually mother material. I felt she was not only betraying her feminist roots but her friendship. It made me wonder if Lara's reaction to Alice wasn't because of her own first attraction to Crow, which always simmers just below the surface, - a form of jealousy?
The description of the fire and events surrounding it was very powerful - could "see" the story in my mind unfolding.
I found this book very heavy reading as I battled to find common ground with either woman. I really didn't like Lara as a person - found her very selfish. Not that either Alice or Crow were much better - although I did feel slight stirrings of sympathy for Alice at times. The other people in their friendship circles were also not my cup of tea.
This isn't a book I would normally chose to read, BUT it leaves one with a lot to think about.
The closing sentences of Chapter 16 sum up the story very well for me:
"So I never got a chance to say sorry - or rather, I never tried. I was watching her drift away, but I realise now it wasn't just that I didn't want to see her problems which she carried about her like a disease: I also didn't want her seeing mine. We were not the women we once were, and we were the ones who could best bear witness to that change. Sad as it was, it was easier, simply, to look away."
The recollections of events after the fire and the ending was very disturbing.
Did Lara betray Alice and actually cause her death?
Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me to read this book.
The story then flashes back in time to when the two women first met at Melbourne university and their story.
Lara initially notices Crow first and forms an infatuation with him, but later Alice meets him and she gets the guy.
After that Lara is almost always the third wheel in their relationship and you get the idea Crow resents this and resents her.
Subsequent events finds Lara feeling a betrayal of her and Alice's oath of feminism and their paths split down totally different directions, leaving each one to become a stranger of the other one.
Later they reconnect and attempt to rebuild their friendship, but there are unmentioned demons that Alice is battling with and reading between the lines, you realise neither woman is sharing her deepest thoughts and feelings with the other one - its as if they resent (and at the same time envy) the life the other one is living.
Alice's request with an unspoken revelation a few weeks before her death chilled me.
Lara's reaction shocked me and made me question what the bond between her and Alice was really like and if she is actually mother material. I felt she was not only betraying her feminist roots but her friendship. It made me wonder if Lara's reaction to Alice wasn't because of her own first attraction to Crow, which always simmers just below the surface, - a form of jealousy?
The description of the fire and events surrounding it was very powerful - could "see" the story in my mind unfolding.
I found this book very heavy reading as I battled to find common ground with either woman. I really didn't like Lara as a person - found her very selfish. Not that either Alice or Crow were much better - although I did feel slight stirrings of sympathy for Alice at times. The other people in their friendship circles were also not my cup of tea.
This isn't a book I would normally chose to read, BUT it leaves one with a lot to think about.
The closing sentences of Chapter 16 sum up the story very well for me:
"So I never got a chance to say sorry - or rather, I never tried. I was watching her drift away, but I realise now it wasn't just that I didn't want to see her problems which she carried about her like a disease: I also didn't want her seeing mine. We were not the women we once were, and we were the ones who could best bear witness to that change. Sad as it was, it was easier, simply, to look away."
The recollections of events after the fire and the ending was very disturbing.
Did Lara betray Alice and actually cause her death?
Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me to read this book.
October 27, 2018
I received a copy of Into The Fire from Netgalley
When I first started reading Into The Fire I wasn't sure if I'd like it. It seems like a pretty straightforward story but like life, there are quite a few twists in turns along the way that happens when people grow and change. It's about friendship, and how we all change as we grow older. No one stays the same and what's interesting about the book is how realistic the characters are. They're selfish and have their own motivations as they age. We can see Lara and Alice drift apart and sadly that happens a lot in real life. The book hinges on these characters, how they interact with each other. There's no action here so it's the characters who have to carry the weight of the novel.
Orchard is a talented writer who is able to pull us into the story and allows us to feel as if we're not simply reading a novel, but experiencing it along with Lara. We see just how selfish she is, even resentful at Alice for settling down. It's the feeling of betrayal that winds its way through the book and makes you examine your own life a little. The ending itself is even a shock because Orchard subtly takes a left turn and you never see it coming. You begin to think that Alice is really mentally ill, but is she? Was she the cause of the fire that took her life? Into the Fire is a compulsive read that examines two lives but it's never boring despite the lack of action. We see these characters drift apart and make their own decisions and they aren't always the best decisions. I like a great story. I like characters who are realistic and flawed. Here there are plenty of flawed, selfish characters, and they know they are, but it's just how they are. They can't change who they are.
Into The Fire is the kind of book you read for the characters. It's a slow-moving novel without a lot of action or big revelations. The ending is the most jarring aspect of the book and you never see it coming. It's a book that you become absorbed in and you soon find yourself unable to stop reading.
When I first started reading Into The Fire I wasn't sure if I'd like it. It seems like a pretty straightforward story but like life, there are quite a few twists in turns along the way that happens when people grow and change. It's about friendship, and how we all change as we grow older. No one stays the same and what's interesting about the book is how realistic the characters are. They're selfish and have their own motivations as they age. We can see Lara and Alice drift apart and sadly that happens a lot in real life. The book hinges on these characters, how they interact with each other. There's no action here so it's the characters who have to carry the weight of the novel.
Orchard is a talented writer who is able to pull us into the story and allows us to feel as if we're not simply reading a novel, but experiencing it along with Lara. We see just how selfish she is, even resentful at Alice for settling down. It's the feeling of betrayal that winds its way through the book and makes you examine your own life a little. The ending itself is even a shock because Orchard subtly takes a left turn and you never see it coming. You begin to think that Alice is really mentally ill, but is she? Was she the cause of the fire that took her life? Into the Fire is a compulsive read that examines two lives but it's never boring despite the lack of action. We see these characters drift apart and make their own decisions and they aren't always the best decisions. I like a great story. I like characters who are realistic and flawed. Here there are plenty of flawed, selfish characters, and they know they are, but it's just how they are. They can't change who they are.
Into The Fire is the kind of book you read for the characters. It's a slow-moving novel without a lot of action or big revelations. The ending is the most jarring aspect of the book and you never see it coming. It's a book that you become absorbed in and you soon find yourself unable to stop reading.
December 11, 2018
"I'd always treated individualism as the pathway to self-actualisation, but now I was beginning to wonder if individualism was actually just the most effective way of shoring up one's place in the pack."
I really liked this book, it wasn't anything that I thought it would be but it was a great read.
Lara is still coming to terms with the death of her friend and recounts various memories throughout the novel of her friendship with Alice, the deceased, and how things slowly went sour. This was a great book about how friendships from youth can fizzle out with the stresses and strains of life and how we go down different paths and end up drifting away from the ones we loved so much.
Along the way we learn more about Alice's personality, the beliefs she thought she held dear and how womanhood changes those beliefs. Lara is a little behind in learning much of the things that Alice has already learned and that's where their friendship begins to fray. Looking back Lara also notices the warning signs that at the time didn't alert her enough to her friends slow and steady demise but she also learns that not everything is as it seems. People hold secrets and those secrets and those lies will always come out in the end, and they do.
It was a really interesting read to hear about Lara's views on feminism and also seeing how she grows in her worlds view as she goes through different things in life.
"I began to wonder if that was indeed my problem: I'd believed my own feminist propaganda. I'd believed I could have it all- that 'all' was in fact rightfully mine."
Ultimately this is a very good book, full of honesty and beautiful prose that really shows that not everything is as it seems..
Thank you to NetGalley for providing an ARC in turn for this review.
I really liked this book, it wasn't anything that I thought it would be but it was a great read.
Lara is still coming to terms with the death of her friend and recounts various memories throughout the novel of her friendship with Alice, the deceased, and how things slowly went sour. This was a great book about how friendships from youth can fizzle out with the stresses and strains of life and how we go down different paths and end up drifting away from the ones we loved so much.
Along the way we learn more about Alice's personality, the beliefs she thought she held dear and how womanhood changes those beliefs. Lara is a little behind in learning much of the things that Alice has already learned and that's where their friendship begins to fray. Looking back Lara also notices the warning signs that at the time didn't alert her enough to her friends slow and steady demise but she also learns that not everything is as it seems. People hold secrets and those secrets and those lies will always come out in the end, and they do.
It was a really interesting read to hear about Lara's views on feminism and also seeing how she grows in her worlds view as she goes through different things in life.
"I began to wonder if that was indeed my problem: I'd believed my own feminist propaganda. I'd believed I could have it all- that 'all' was in fact rightfully mine."
Ultimately this is a very good book, full of honesty and beautiful prose that really shows that not everything is as it seems..
Thank you to NetGalley for providing an ARC in turn for this review.
March 5, 2019
Almost a decade ago, I read Sonia Orchard’s debut novel The Virtuoso (2008) which won the Indie Award for Best Debut Fiction. I was impressed, but it’s been a long time between novels, so I refreshed my memory of the theme from my review, to find that in this new novel — though the plot is entirely different — once again it’s a case of a friendship that sours…
Lara is a thirty-something high-achiever about to become a mother for the first time when she visits the surviving family of her best friend Alice, a year after Alice died in a house fire. Lara is devastated by this loss, even though their long-term friendship was as good as over.
That friendship originated in a shared view of the world, nourished by the feminist ideals they aspired to after completing Women’s Studies at the University of Melbourne in the 1990s. But plans to travel the world together and ‘have it all’ fell apart when Alice opted to keep an unplanned baby and in her early twenties took up an ‘earth mother’ lifestyle in the bush. With the charismatic musician Crow she has two more children, and the gulf between her life and Lara’s widens as Lara takes off around the world and builds her career.
It was nostalgia for the shared good times that sustained continued contact — and Orchard writes brilliantly about the hectic lifestyle they had, following Crow’s band and partying hard.
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2019/03/05/i...
Lara is a thirty-something high-achiever about to become a mother for the first time when she visits the surviving family of her best friend Alice, a year after Alice died in a house fire. Lara is devastated by this loss, even though their long-term friendship was as good as over.
That friendship originated in a shared view of the world, nourished by the feminist ideals they aspired to after completing Women’s Studies at the University of Melbourne in the 1990s. But plans to travel the world together and ‘have it all’ fell apart when Alice opted to keep an unplanned baby and in her early twenties took up an ‘earth mother’ lifestyle in the bush. With the charismatic musician Crow she has two more children, and the gulf between her life and Lara’s widens as Lara takes off around the world and builds her career.
It was nostalgia for the shared good times that sustained continued contact — and Orchard writes brilliantly about the hectic lifestyle they had, following Crow’s band and partying hard.
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2019/03/05/i...
November 18, 2018
I loved reading Into the Fire, but beyond that -- I was intrigued with it. A group of Australian university students form intense, lasting connections, with the book spanning the next 15 years, seeing them through very different choices and into divergent, perhaps incompatible, lifestyles.
Lara adores and admires best pal and roommate Alice. Alice falls in love with Crow, who early on becomes a rock star. One of his school mates, Christian, later woos and wins Lara. Someone in this group is mentally unbalanced, manipulating the others for obscure, narcissistic purposes. Author Sonia Orchard draws each character so fully that I could see each as pawn, each as chess master.
Still, it is the women's story. From their youthful, ardent feminism to the sobering discoveries of real-world intimacy and motherhood, Lara and Alice each sees herself through the other. The tragedy of a house fire, revealed at the outset, forces Lara to examine her follower role in the group and confront true independence
I loved the Melbourne setting, and the generous helping of solid psychological theory deftly applied as each relationship developed. I loved the spot-on depiction of their youthful Idealism, their adult cynicism, and Lara's hard-won wisdom. Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC of Into the Fire.
Lara adores and admires best pal and roommate Alice. Alice falls in love with Crow, who early on becomes a rock star. One of his school mates, Christian, later woos and wins Lara. Someone in this group is mentally unbalanced, manipulating the others for obscure, narcissistic purposes. Author Sonia Orchard draws each character so fully that I could see each as pawn, each as chess master.
Still, it is the women's story. From their youthful, ardent feminism to the sobering discoveries of real-world intimacy and motherhood, Lara and Alice each sees herself through the other. The tragedy of a house fire, revealed at the outset, forces Lara to examine her follower role in the group and confront true independence
I loved the Melbourne setting, and the generous helping of solid psychological theory deftly applied as each relationship developed. I loved the spot-on depiction of their youthful Idealism, their adult cynicism, and Lara's hard-won wisdom. Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC of Into the Fire.
February 16, 2019
The novel explores the intense friendship between two young women, Alice and Lara, through their turbulent university days and into their adulthood. What I found engaging was the vibrant backdrop of feminism in the 1990s in Australia and its impact on their choices, their relationships with each other and with their lovers/partners. I wonder, however, if I would have enjoyed the novel more had I been of their generation. As a young woman of the 1960s in America, I kept wondering why in the 1990s these women were embracing the ideology as something new. And, I often felt I was reading a stereotyped scenario that had somehow been resurrected from decades earlier.
Although Orchard does explore the complexities of love, loss, motherhood, and mental health, the novel lacked the intensity I look for. The characters themselves (Alice, Lara, and their partners) were predictable in their portraits; thus, the mystery towards which Orchard worked was diluted by the end.
Although Orchard does explore the complexities of love, loss, motherhood, and mental health, the novel lacked the intensity I look for. The characters themselves (Alice, Lara, and their partners) were predictable in their portraits; thus, the mystery towards which Orchard worked was diluted by the end.
October 27, 2018
This multilayered novel deals with the friendship and lives of two inseparable friends Lara and Alice. During their university time they were best friends adapted feminism and wanted to be modern women not anything at all like their mothers. However life unfolds in very different ways and both choose different paths. This impacts their increasingly strenuous friendship and leads to reflections about the chosen way of life. All is told after the death in a fire of Alice and layer upon layer is peeled back and what the reader sees are themes like belonging, betrayal, guilt and womanhood. I found it a fascinating read as both women are strong and yet fragile and have to adapt . A very worthwhile novel.
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