Fire (Losing Christina) [Turtleback]

Caroline B. Cooney (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 2002 | Series: Losing Christina

Christina knows the Shevvingtons have left a trail of hollowed-out, lost girls in mental hospitals across the country, and she has seen the secret files that prove it. But the Shevvingtons are determined to destroy the evidence ­ and Christina. This time, they'll use fire. They stuff her pocketbook full of matchbooks, scribble flames over her class notes ­ anything they can do to make it look like Christina is obsessed with fire and a danger to herself and others. With summer vacation and safety just weeks away, Christina must make one last desperate attempt to keep her sanity ­ and her life. This is book three in the LOSING CHRISTINA series.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 5-8-- Christina waits out the last few days of school before she can return to her beloved island off the coast of Maine. But first she must outwit the Shevvingtons, who have frightened and manipulated other students while charming adults into looking the other way. Beyond a doubt, Cooney's final novel in her trilogy of terror will be popular with fans of the first two books. However, wooden characterizations of the adults drag these stories down to mediocrity at best. The psycho Mr. and Mrs. Shevvington are not credible, nor is it believable that all the parents blatantly side with them rather than with their children. Teenage readers will not be happy with the dominance of this theme; while YA novels are supposed to speak to their audience, this one does so in a negative, alienating way. --Alice Cronin, Mountainside Public Library, NJ
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Turtleback
• Publisher: Demco Media (February 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0606221697
• ISBN-13: 978-0606221696
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,608,026 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars this book was great!!!, October 7, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Losing Christina: Fire (previously titled The Fire) (Paperback)

This book was the last in a series of 3 books: "The Fog" "The Snow" then this one. This book is one of Caroline's best! unlike "The Face On the Milk Carton" this one is suspensiveful. It is scary too which I like. Even though I'm not a big fan of most Caroline B Cooney books I loved this one!!!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A surprising read, January 25, 2006

By 

Robyn (Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Losing Christina: Fire (previously titled The Fire) (Paperback)

I'll admit it. I'm actually not a fan of Cooney's. I find her stories to be trite and two-dimensional for the most part (not to mention that - speaking as someone with bipolar disorder - I find her portrayals of the mental health community in many of her books to be rather questionable at best in their accuracy) and yet I am a huge fan of this series and have been since its release. To me this series was where she started to show the maturity you find in her more recent writings instead of the R.L.Stine-esque saw-it-coming-a-mile-away pulp horror books that kept me entertained in like the fourth grade. I'm twenty-five and I still reread this series time and again.

The outward plot is fairly straightforward: Christina Romney is a thirteen-year old girl who has come from a small rural island and a very sheltered life to live on mainland Maine for her first year at middle school (seventh grade). The couple who are boarding her and a handful of other students from the island are Arnold and Candy Shevvington, the school principal and the seventh-grade English teacher. While she likes them at first, Christina quickly catches on that there's something very off about the Shevvingtons, and is convinced after watching her friend Anya slowly collapse in front of her own eyes (Book 1: The Fog). She very nearly lost her friend Dolly in the second book, The Snow - managing not only to save her but also to help Anya recover some of the damage done in the first book's timeline.

In this final installment, the Shevvingtons have turned all their resources to silencing Christina, perhaps determined that they will have at least one successful victim this year, perhaps deciding that the irony of destroying the one person who has been trying to bring them down all year would be too good to pass up. Either way, the Shevvingtons expound on the rumor they started in the previous installment - that Christina likes to play with fire a little too much. In this book she faces the challenge now not only of ultimately discrediting the Shevvingtons and aiding her friends... but of saving herself.

To me this series does a good job of juxtaposing the very ordinary struggles of a student in her first year of middle school (difficult assignments, unfair teachers, noticing boys) against the very dark and chilling theme of a psychological thriller. She isn't just facing a mean or unfair teacher, she is facing two sadists who delight in destroying people just because they can. It's a very frightening idea, having no one believe you when all you can do to fight back is tell the truth.

The first book in this series nearly lost me with the first few chapters - the man in the wet suit, the changing poster - it seemed silly, but as the books progressed and Cooney seemed to settle more into her world and the scenario she had written out, things began to tie together and become cohesive, an interesting read that made me actually go out and buy the series instead of rolling my eyes at the various improbabilities of the situation Christina has found herself in.

In short - they are a fun read, I like them a lot. Now go buy them. :)

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars You can't wait to see wait the lies on the next page!, July 14, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Losing Christina: Fire (previously titled The Fire) (Paperback)

I thought the beginning of the book was a bit cliche. Cooney was using way too many adjectives and her attempts at foreshadowing were obvious. After reading a few chapters though, I was hooked. The book has so many twists and turns that you're left anticipating what will happen next.