The Arsonist by Stephanie Oakes
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| (Source: Kelsey Darling) |
Ava Dreyman lives in East Germany before the fall of the Berlin Wall. She's tough, she's determined, and she wants a life better than the one she's been dealt. Molly Mavity's mother killed herself three years ago, but Molly doesn't believe it. Her father is about to be executed for his crimes. Molly's world is imploding on her. Pepper Al-Yusef is a Kuwaiti immigrant who spilled too much to a girl, has a seizure dog who's always finding new ways to embarrass him, and unless he can write some really good essays, he won't graduate high school. How are all of their lives connected? The Arsonist; a diary written by Ava, sent to Pepper, and filled with clues for Molly. But they might be connected in other ways.
"But I knew your dad, like it says in the interview.... Yeah, the American soldier," I said, nervous that this information was going to make things worse. "He saved my life when I was born. Tat's why I always wanted to meet you. I'm alive because of him, and you could say you're alive because of him, too." (p. 114)
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| (Source: Giphy) |
Ava Dreyman is a force to be reckoned with. After the Stasi connect Ava's family and some family friends of arson and other attacks against the Stasi regime, they agree it is time to make a run for it. Although Ava and the family friends make it across the border, her parents aren't so lucky. After that, Ava is haunted by the ghost of her father with his half blown off face. However, the friends do not want to drag Ava along. They shake her a few times, but she always manages to find them. Finally, they do something horrible. They pay the staff at Rake Island to take her off their hands. Rake Island is an insane asylum, and her stay there is both frightening and freeing. Here, Ava meets Lido, an attractive boy who never speaks. She forms a bond with Lido and they agree to run away together; but life has another plan and only Ava makes it off the island. Ava makes it back to her homeland, with the intent of killing the Stasi soldier who killed her father, and maybe her mother, but Ava is caught and becomes the voice of the resistance when her diary is discovered and distributed. As the Berlin Wall is taken down, people chant Ava's name.
"Editor's Note: Ava Dreyman's body was never recovered, and its exact location remains unknown. In 2001, forensic investigators found traces of her DNA inside sub-basement 3 and a Stasi crematorium in Stasi headquarters, the former German Democratic Republic." (p. 425)
A copy of Ava's diary ends up in the hands of Pepper and Molly, who have been connected by a random letter sent to Molly. Molly believes the letter is from her mother, but Pepper has a different idea. He is hesitant to follow Molly, but she won't take no for an answer. But the further they dig, even Pepper has a hard time admitting Molly's mother isn't the sender of the letter and the diary. Through their research, the find the Stasi soldier who killed Ava, the family friend who turned her into Rake Island, and they even fly to Germany to find the boy who loved Ava before her family ran for the border. They look for Lido, but he is no where to be found. For every stone they turn over, and for every answer they get, they get even more questions that seem impossible to answer. And even if they get the answers there looking for, it might not be the ones they want. And while Molly feels this is all leading back to her mother, Pepper has no clue why he is involved. Are he and his seizure pug just comic relief?
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| (Source: Giphy) |
I was pleasantly happy with the end of the book. I got all of my answers. I do wish Pepper and Molly had some sort of romantic make up at the end of all of it, but I'll settle for friends. I couldn't put the book down the entire time I was reading it, and would definitely read it again.
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| (Source: Giphy) |
Genres: Young Adult, Mystery, Historical Fiction
Author: Stephanie Oakes
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