For me, the book was slow to start and might I add a little much on the sexually oriented scenes...HOWEVER, once the story picked up about halfway through, I was engaged thoroughly, rushing to reach the ending. My lingering question is actually about the ending. It's a bit of a mystery, and makes me wonder if a second book will be written or ...POOF....that's it? Interesting story premise with characters you will come to care for...Emery is full of fire, and Arson...literally is. Definitely an interesting read.... ( )

The highest compliment I can give Arson is that it is unlike anything I've read so far this year. That's a huge deal. I'm not even sure how to classify this book to be completely honest. It's not entirely paranormal, although there are elements. It's a little bit thriller, mixed in with a little bit contemporary. In all honesty, Arson is it's own beast, and I loved it for that.

Arson Gable is one unique young man. He was born in fire, and out of that came the ability to create fire as well. However as cool as that might sound, it's really not. Arson has no way to control his ability and it causes him all sorts of troubles. Added on top of this is the fact that his only family is his grandmother, who may or may not still be living in reality. Arson has to navigate the road to manhood alone, and it almost breaks him multiple times. With so many facets visible to the reader, Arson Gable is a deeply wounded and flawed boy. His personality literally thrums off the page. If you can fall in love with him, you'll be completely immersed in his struggle.

To be sincere though, I almost didn't make it far enough into the book to really understand Arson because the beginning of the book is a little odd. Not bad, just kind of broken and a little slow. Once I read through the whole book I completely understood where Vega was coming from. Being in Arson's head doesn't always make sense at first. It isn't until the pieces of the puzzle start to fall into place that you completely understand where this boy really came from. In fact, when Emery came into the picture is really when I was most invested. I won't spoil, but she is the perfect companion for Arson. The two of the compliment one another beautifully, even as they confusedly stumble down a road that seems to end only in darkness.

It was the ending of the book that really threw me off, but intrigued me at the same time. Honestly, by the time I devoured the last half of Arson, I was more than ready to see where this duo went next. The beginning may have started out slow, but the middle and end of the book well make up for it, as do Vega's stunning characters. I give this one a solid four stars and you should know I'm already halfway into Ashes, the second book in the series. To be honest, this won't be a book for everyone, but if you're ready to step into the darkness and discover something unique, you'll be happy to meet Arson Gable.
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Originally Reviewed At:Mother/Gamer/Writer
Rating: 2.5 out of 5 Controllers
Review Source: Blog Tour
Reviewer: AimeeKay



I liked Arson…in the beginning. There were secrets about Arson and his family that kept me turning the pages. Plus I liked Emery. She was fascinating.



Nevertheless, as I got farther into the book I began to become irritated. The story keeps hinting at Arson’s ability be we don’t actually get to see anything of it until the last few chapters in the book. Instead the book seems to focus on everything else that is going on around Arson; his crappy job, his unstable grandmother, Emery’s parents and their failing marriage. Some of it made sense. Arson’s life IS one of misery and misunderstanding, so I see the author is showing us how miserable and isolated Arson truly is. But I didn’t see why it had to focus so much on Emery’s parents. I thought the book was about Arson, not about a failing marriage. It eventually started wear on my nerves because I started to loathe her parents by the end of the novel.



In fact, the only character I really had any interest in at all by the end was Emery. Yes she was self righteous, and more than a little big off, but she didn’t whine about EVERYTHING, she stood up for herself. She had a backbone, something that seemed to have been beaten out of Arson. I understood how he was manipulated by his grandmother. However, I don’t understand how he keeps letting Mandy play with his head. Especially after he decides he is in love with Emery.



It was just extremely frustrating. The majority of the book felt drug out, there is some action at the end, and then it just drops off in a straight cliffie. I don’t know if I would want to read the next book in the trilogy. If it focused more on Arson and Emery, maybe, I still really didn’t understand why it spent so much time on Emery’s parents. I give it 2 and 1/2 out of five controllers. Overall, I don’t think the author focused enough of the books attention on the main characters or the paranormal part of the story. A grave tragedy. ( )

I came across this book in my inbox. If the cover wasn’t enough to intrigue me, the synopsis just put it over the top! Honestly, I didn’t know what to make of this book when I first started reading it. There wasn’t really much of a lead up. It was just all the sudden – BAM! – awesome story time! I kind of developed a love/hate relationship with it as I read. I know some people might think that is a bad thing, but it really isn’t. To me, it means the story has FEELING.

Arson – who is quite freaking awesome – has the most fitting name EVER. Why? The dude can just conjure up some fire with his mind. (YES PLEASE! This would totally come in handy in all aspects of my life! Where can I sign up for this?!) Here is someone who is just trying to… well, live. He isn’t moving forward.. or backwards for that matter and he has the insanely “horrid” task of his love/hate relationship with his grandmother. Eventually, something good will happen to him!

That something good comes in the form of Emery, his neighbor who wears a mask… and by mask, I mean hideous mask. Intrigued now aren’t you?! I thought the relationship between the two of them was an epic kind of beautiful. I loved watching everything happen. (You know, on the magic movie reel inside my head!) It was very real. By real I mean I could relate. It wasn’t so over the top that I couldn’t picture it happening to someone in real life. When it comes to Emery though, I LOVE her. Everything about her fascinates me. She has the personality of some of my friends, which makes her pretty awesome in my book (:

My favorite part of this book would have to me Emery’s mother. The book even gives HER perspective on this. Yes, an ADULT perspective. How often do you see that man!? Kudos on that Mr. Vega. Originality at it’s finest! The other thing that really caught me with this book was the ending. Normally, I am not one for cliffhangers, simply because I am impatient and want to know RIGHT THEN what is going to happen! However, Vega did it with skill. I actually loved the cliffhanging ending in this book. I cannot wait to read Ashes! (be sure to check back for that review!)

My ONLY pet peeve with this book was one of the secondary characters, Mandy. She is seriously one of those people that you just want to shank in the eye.. with your stiletto. No joke, she was THAT bad.. I literally cringed every time she had a part in the book! Then again, the book wouldn’t have been the same without her, so it was just one of those things I had to deal with. ( )

Arson is an unexpectedly dark and edgy novel that had me hooked from the very first chapter. Although the story is mainly about seventeen year old Arson Gable, who can create fire with his mind, glimpses into the complicated lives of those around him – his grandmother Kay, his neighbour Aimee and Joel, and of course, their daughter Emery make the book more substantial.

Arson wants to die. He hates his strange power – he believes it killed his mother at his birth and causes his grandmother to call him a devil. In some ways Arson is beyond depressed: he is broken. When a new family moves in to his street, he finds himself intrigued by the daughter – Emery – who wears a mask to hide her face. Emery is also depressed, but handles it much better than Arson and genuinely tries to be happy. Their mutual loneliness pulls them together and they slowly heal one another’s hurts and start dating (sort of).

Estevan Vega explores isolation and loneliness in a multitude of ways in the novel. Not only through his two protagonists, but those around them as well. Arson’s grandmother suffers from a mental illness (not going to speculate on that it was because I don’t know) and treats Arson horribly because he’s a devil in her eyes. Emery’s parents are extremely unhappy in their relationship and have moved to make a new start on life. In contrast to them there is Abe – a man dying of lung cancer in the hospital that Emery’s mother Aimee works at and where Emery and Arson volunteer their time. He has lots of regrets with how he lived his life and keeps telling Arson and Emery to be braver, love harder, take more risks.

Arson is very much a problematic character for me. I understand that he is shy and depressed, but he acts extremely stupidly around both Emery and Mandy, the hot girl he has always had a crush on. He really has no idea what is going on most of the time and it frustrated me. His constant moroseness got under my skin a few times – he has plenty of opportunity throughout the novel to have fun but no, he wasn’t letting go of his issues, choosing instead to pile them onto Emery in an effort to push her away. It would be so awful to have a friend, now wouldn’t it? In contrast, Emery is a great character. Determined and sarcastic, she really thinks that Arson and her can hit it off and become good friends, and she’s absolutely right, if only he would give her a chance. She also has a healthy sense of self-worth and doesn’t let Arson treat her badly, which I enjoyed.

The plot of Arson is enjoyable but left a little lacking in terms of explaining Arson’s powers. I feel like I finished the story with no real inkling of how he does what he does, and why. It is also unclear if the peculiar trait runs in his family ( in my mind it’s likely it does) and I hope this is explored further in the next book. Since this is a very short read, it makes sense that all the action is right at the end, but I still wish there had been a better conclusion to the story. I’m fine with cliffhangers, but to me it felt like the author simply stopped writing without really concluding anything.

I can’t stress how much I enjoyed this book, regardless of the little hiccups I had with it. It is well executed and an engaging read, I recommend it to anyone looking for an atypical YA novel. I’m surprised at how much ground Estevan Vega is able to cover in this short work, and am looking forward to reading Ashes soon.

You can read more of my reviews at Speculating on SpecFic. ( )