Book Review: With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo

Title: With the Fire on High
Author: Elizabeth Acevedo
Publisher: Quill Tree Books
Publication date: May 7, 2019
Length: 400 pages
Genre: Young adult fiction
Source: Library
Rating:

With her daughter to care for and her abuela to help support, high school senior Emoni Santiago has to make the tough decisions, and do what must be done. The one place she can let her responsibilities go is in the kitchen, where she adds a little something magical to everything she cooks, turning her food into straight-up goodness.

Still, she knows she doesn’t have enough time for her school’s new culinary arts class, doesn’t have the money for the class’s trip to Spain—and shouldn’t still be dreaming of someday working in a real kitchen. But even with all the rules she has for her life—and all the rules everyone expects her to play by—once Emoni starts cooking, her only real choice is to let her talent break free.

I’m going to stick to a quick take on With the Fire on High: I loved it.

Told with beautifully descriptive language, this first-person story follows Emoni through her senior year of high school. She navigates college essays, caring for her toddler, and thinking about her future while also working part-time to help her abuela pay the bills. Emoni never regrets her daughter Emma, but she does dream of using her astonishing gifts with food to someday have a career as a chef, maybe even open her own restaurant.

Her charter high school adds a culinary arts elective that seems tailor-made for Emoni, even when her more practical side thinks it might make more sense to take an extra study hall instead and really get her grades up. Even once she starts culinary arts, she has doubts — why must she follow the instructor’s detailed recipes when she’s itching to put her own spin on the flavors?

Emoni is a strong, sensitive character who hasn’t had it easy. She’s had to learn responsibility the hard way and embraces her role as a mother, even while sometimes despairing that she’ll ever be able to work, study, and find a way to explore her dreams. She loves her family, her neighborhood, her hometown of Philly, but she’s also still a teen who loves her friends and maybe even is interested in the cute new guy who just transferred to her school.

I loved the writing in this book, and loved Emoni’s openness and vulnerability. She has doubts and worries, but also knows what’s right and where her priorities need to be. She’s loving and generous, and having ended up pregnant as a high school freshman, she’s learned to hold her head up even when the world seems to want to drag her down into shame.

I listened to the audiobook, narrated by the author — it was wonderful. I’ve been hearing great things about this author’s books for years, and now I see why. I will definitely be reading more by Elizabeth Acevedo, and recommend With the Fire on High wholeheartedly!