Customer Reviews

Losing Christina: Fire (previously titled The Fire)

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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!!!

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. :)

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.

"The Fire" was a wonderful book for mystery and horror lovers everywhere! The way Caroline B. Cooney explains how the Shevingtons have a love for destroying lives, makes you stop and think, "What kind of people would find joy in making others suffer so badly?" I also found the whole book suspenseful and thrilling. The way Caroline explained Christina's obsession over fire was very vivid. I felt as if I was Christina and I was the one going insane. This is an excellent book and I recommend it to everyone who likes a good thrill!

Losing Christina: The Fire is the reissue of Caroline B. Cooney's original book The Fire. Why they decided to retitle the three books I have no idea, but the pages are set up just like they were in the original versions, so really the covers just look a little more slick. The Losing Christina trilogy details a year in the life of thirteen-year-old Christina Romney from Burning Fog Isle, who moves onto the mainland of a small town in Maine so that she can continue secondary school. She and three other students board with the Shevvingtons, the school principal and his wife, who delight in destroying the souls of young women. Christina has no choice but to fight the Shevvingtons, which isn't easy when she has no friends and her parents believe the Shevvingtons, not her.

The Fire, as well as its counterparts Fog and Snow, is a chilling story because it presents a child's worst nightmare: for adults to ignore you when you're telling the truth. The Shevvingtons' evil power lies in the fact that they are the adults in charge whom everyone believes, rather than Christina. Their actions will make your blood boil because it is so easy to see how wrong, and how sick, they are, but it is also easy to understand how the townspeople would believe the polished faces they present.

Caroline B. Cooney's gothic horror trilogy is not just about evil, though. Christina experiences all kinds of emotions that most people can relate to: the fear when she has to move away from her family and friends, being nervous about making friends, wanting a boyfriend, facing unfair teachers and assignments. She is a normal, well-drawn thirteen-year-old who unfortunately has to face something that most thirteen-year-olds do not.

As the last book in the trilogy, The Fire ends more hopefully than the first two because the Shevvingtons perish in the fire that they claimed Christina set. It's probably my favorite book of the three because it does end somewhat happily. Christina has learned much about evil in her year at school. She says that it is no good to shield children from evil, that "in another town another thirteen-year-old girl might come face to face with evil for the first time. She should know what to do." It is probably one of the most beautiful lines in the book, and the most truthful.

A Review by Laura
A girl named Christina who lives in Maine and is staying with Mr. And Mrs. Shevvington at Schooner Inn for the school year. The Shevvingtons seem really nice but Christina soon finds out that they aren't nice at all. They try to destroy the lives of teenagers that stay at schooner inn.

This book is very interesting; it had a good story line and way of hiding certain characters real identity. I like the way they expressed Christina's feelings toward other characters. I like that Christina is really strong and doesn't let the shevvingtons get her down or anyone else. Christina didn't really have anyone to turn to when the shevvingtons were trying to "take her down" because all the adults were on the shevvingtons side and some of the kids also. I thought this book was kind of inspiring, because Christina didn't care about what the other kids or adults thought about her. For a while Christina did fall into the shevvingtons plot against her, but she was really strong and didn't let them get to her.

I would recommend this book to people who like to read books with a little danger and mystery. It is easy to fallow and very interesting.

In the Losing Christina trilogy the Shevvingtons are evil people who find innocent island girls and turn them crazy. In turn they find a way to blame the girls, and their upbringings on their mental breakdown. The Shevvingtons keep files of the girls they have made mentally unstable. In the Inn the own they have 7 rooms 1 for each of the girls they have turned crazy. Each room reflects the girls personality. This trilogy is titled Losing Christina because in the enitre trilogy the Shevvingtons are working on getting Christina. First Anya, the pride of Burning Fog. then Dolly, sweet, innocent Dolly.Now its Christina. But Christina is srtong. She will not let them take her. In this trilogy Christina is different then the other victims, she knows what is going on. While it does take a while read three 200 page books it is well worth it. If you really get into the books you will not think of it as a long, boring book. But as an adveture. This book is guaranteed to take you on an emotional rollercoaster ride. You will learn to deeply care for the characters, and how they will get away from the Shevvingtons. I do however recommend that you read all three books, and not just the last one, Otherwise you will be very confused, and most likley will not like it.

"The Fire" is a psychological thriller for young adults. It has a character, Christina, that girls 11-14 can relate to, but that doesn't mean it is only for that age group. Caroline B.Cooney is the only auther that i have read so far that I really liked their style of writing. She hits with action in the begining of he book, and continues all the way through.

Caroline B. Cooney, Losing Christina: Fire (Scholastic, 1991)

The closing book in Cooney's Losing Christina trilogy shows the same strengths and weaknesses as the previous book, Snow; the main annoyance of the author choosing to spend a great deal of time reprising events from previous books in the series is balanced by Cooney's mastery of pace and somewhat interesting (if a bit stock) characters. Certainly worth continuing on if you've read the first two in the series. ***

I'd like to start my review by saying that I am currently twenty-five years old and I still have a copy of this book on my shelf.

The reason for this is when I was 13 years old, there was a series of horror books out called Point Horror. I was an avid reader at that age and I saved up some money to buy myself some books from this series. This was the very first book I bought, so it will always be special to me.

I must admit that when I read this book, I didn't quite understand it, but this was because I did not know at the time that this book was actually the last book in a trilogy (the other two are called The Fog and The Snow) and that it was picking up where the other two books left off.

So, I got the other two and read them, then re-read this book.

It was absolutely brilliant. The story revolves around thirteen-year old Christina who gets involved in a terrifying psychological mind game with the two malicious Shevvingtons.

She watches two friends - Anya, a beautiful, brilliant senior collapse mentally and Dolly, an innocent sicth-grader become a trembling nervous wreck.

In this book, the Shevvingtons turn their attention to her and attempt to destroy her ...with fire.

I loved this series back then, and I still love it now.