Breakaway Books

Authored by Anita Shreve; Published in 2017; Historical Fiction

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 🏖️

Yet another novel in which a woman is treated terribly by a man. The Stars are Fire shouldn’t be reduced to such a description—not with the woman in question being such a capable and independent protagonist—but I would be lying if I didn’t say that was my first thought.

In The Stars are Fire, Grace is trapped in a marriage that could be called, at best, boring, but trends more toward miserable. But when a fire rips through her small 1950s Maine town and her husband Gene goes missing, Grace finds herself with no house, no possessions, and two toddlers to take care of. She discovers herself to be incredibly capable on her own, but is set back once more when Gene reappears, severely injured and at risk of permanent disability.

Gene sticks with me as one of the most difficult villains for me to come to terms with. The thing about Gene that made him such a hideous villain, to me, was that he had no excuse. Yes, he suffered a horrific injury in the fire, but treated his wife like she had no agency and no brain far before the fire. Afterwards, the level of control he attempted to exert over Grace gave me chills. Grace, so afraid to stand up to Gene before the fire, seems to gain a strength she didn’t know she had when faced with the prospect of surviving life alone, and I found her success encouraging, even inspiring. Daunted by starting again, Grace nevertheless keeps putting one foot in front of the other, and I was delighted by the joy she clearly derived from providing her children as an independent working woman.

Grace proves herself remarkably cool under pressure, saving herself, her children, and her best friend’s family from the devastating fire, and the recounting of the event and its aftermath is harrowing. The author describes beat by beat the process of losing everything and trying to start again down to the haggling with the insurance company. It was heartening that, to weigh against Gene’s cruelty, Grace enjoys kindness from many strangers along the way, who want nothing more than to help those around them. It made me wonder about whether victims of today’s wildfires are able to access the same kind of hospitality, or if it has gone extinct along with the tight-knit communities of the past.

The Stars are Fire captured both some of the ugliest and loveliest behavior I’ve read in recent novels. If you’re looking for hope to start again, this is the novel for you.