Nothing Burns as Bright as You

Starred review from February 28, 2022
In a tautly written, fast-moving novel in verse that captures the unbalanced experience of an all-consuming love, two unnamed queer Black teen girls move rapidly from strangerhood into a protective best friendship before becoming dysfunctional lovers and mutually destructive partners in crime. Beginning with the couple’s parting after their fateful decision to set fire to the dumpster behind their high school, the story switches nonlinearly between their dissonant perspectives. One is the starry-eyed, compulsively dishonest daughter of an attentive family; the other an avoidant latchkey kid, for whom “fire was always a joke.” Exploring themes of loyalty, infatuation, and the value of self-love over romance, Woodfolk (When You Were Everything) peppers this fraught, almost suffocating love story with eye-catching lines that signpost the teens’ deepening codependency from their bond’s initial spark (“And our soft brown hands collided/ like stars”) through its fiery conclusion (“You loved me more than I knew./ I loved you more than you could take”). Ages 12–up. Agent: Beth Phelan, Gallt & Zacker Literary.

Starred review from March 1, 2022

Gr 10 Up-This novel in verse tells the story of a burning first queer love between the unnamed narrator and the somewhat undefined, more-than-friend she refers to as "you." The narration alternates through time, detailing the history of their intense relationship before and after a pivotal fire that drastically changes their relationship. Woodfolk's lyrical verse and poignant language highlight the consuming power, the push and pull, the passion, enormity, confusion, and overwhelming feeling of this wild and immature first love between two young hearts. All of Woodfolk's choices-every line break, indentation, and italicization-enhance the feeling, tone, and pace of the work. Even the blank space on the page helps to carry this piece to its full potential as a feverishly gripping, immersive, and emotional ride that will stick with readers for a long time. Both main characters are Black and attracted to girls. One of them is bisexual. VERDICT A masterfully crafted love letter to tumultuous, young, queer love and its lessons. Recommended for all libraries.-Kayla Fontaine

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Starred review from April 15, 2022
Grades 9-12 *Starred Review* This blistering novel in verse follows two 16-year-old girls, both Black and queer, as they share a final, combustible day together following two-and-a-half years of friendship that bled into a messy, passionate, undefinable romance. Sections of the present are intercut with flashback vignettes, gradually assembling a collage of the intimate history that informs the girls' impetuous last outing. And while there are certainly dramatic events--the day is bookended by (relatively innocent) arson--Woodfolk doesn't rely on shocking twists or gimmickry to propel readers, instead immersing them in the raw emotions of the characters, heightened by the intensity of first love, with all its promise and problems. The verse, written in direct address from a first-person perspective, is tight and energetic, effective and deeply affecting. There's a kind of minimalism to the story's tight focus--character names are omitted; backstory is limited to this couple's relationship--and many of the novel's elements, such as the setting and events, double as metaphor, making for an elegant overall construction that causes the novel (which, yes, is in verse) to feel like a poem itself. This is no genre romance, and a happily ever after is not the goal. Rather, this book is an uncommon exploration of girlhood and its messier relationships: the ones that, though they go out, burn bright and big and leave an indelible mark.

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Starred review from February 1, 2022
Friendship evolves into a fiery, complex first love for two teen girls. This nonlinear novel in verse begins at the end, as a queer Black couple stand on opposite sides of a bridge, their relationship crumbling. The first and last poems--both titled "After the Fire"--are the only times the story is told from the point of view of the partner, a girl only ever referred to as "you." The unnamed narrator begins by alternating between the history of their tumultuous relationship and the day things begin to unravel, when the pair set fire to a dumpster in their high school's parking lot. In addition to exploring queerness--the narrator is attracted to other girls, her partner is bisexual--Woodfolk also writes about how girls, especially Black girls, learn that what other people think about how they look can put them in danger. The two met at a coffee shop and soon became friends, partners in trouble, and each other's everything. Through the economical and expressive poems, readers are pulled into the narrator's deep, shifting emotions as her feelings for her friend change. The rich language describing the way the two love each other is magnificent: "we added up to a little too much. // You loved me more than I knew. / I loved you more than you could take." Fire is a symbol throughout, and the final flames aptly represent the passion and volatility of this relationship. A beautiful, emotionally charged novel. (Verse novel. 14-18)

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