A Frenzy of Sparks – Book Review

Hey guys! I am back with a book review!

It’s 1965, and thirteen-year-old Gia, along with her older brother and cousins, are desperate to escape their sleepy, tree-lined neighborhood where nothing ever happens. The only thing Gia would miss is the surrounding marsh, where she feels at home among sea birds and salt water.

But when one of Gia’s cousins brings drugs into their neighborhood, it sets off a chain of events that quickly turn dangerous. Everyone will be caught in the ripples, and some may be swept away entirely. Gia is determined to keep herself and her family afloat while the world is turned upside down around her. Can she find a way to hold on to the life she was so eager to leave behind, or will she have to watch it all disappear beneath the marsh forever?

At turns heart-wrenching and hopeful, A Frenzy of Sparks explores a world where survival is the attempt to move forward while leaving pieces of your heart behind.

No. of pages:- 252 pages

Date published:- will be published on November 3rd 2020

Genre:- Historical Fiction/Crime

Thank You Netgalley, Lake Union Publishing and the author for providing me the ARC of this book!

A Frenzy of Sparks is a story set in 1965 about a teenage girl named Gia set in the 1960’s and whose life changed when her cousins, Ray and Tommy introduces drugs to them.

This story is very emotional and realistic–the author has done a good job doing research about the life in the 1960’s and how drug overdose became very common during that era. Gia’s brother, Leo, gets addicted to drugs and due to his addiction to drugs, it shows how Gia and her family were destroyed due to consequences of drugs. The story is told from Gia’s perspectives and the way she deals with the life, particularly her anger towards Ray who actually destroyed their lives by introducing drugs. The struggles that Gia’s parents going through, particularly when Leo gets overdosed was emotional.

Overall, this is a heartbreaking, emotional read to be but was well written, keeping the reader hooked into the story–worth five stars!

Kristin Fields grew up in Queens, which she likes to think of as a small town next to a big city. Fields studied writing at Hofstra University, where she received the Eugene Schneider Fiction Award. After college, Fields found herself working on a historic farm, teaching high school English, and designing museum education programs. She is currently leading an initiative to bring gardens to New York City public schools, where she lives with her husband.