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Your next favorite book
is waiting.
If you do it right, it can be a life. The hothouse, the guys, the glory. But just like that, it can all go up in smoke.
In the beginning it was strange, ya know, because of all that we had lost. But there was something about it that felt so good and so right, too: "I'm so proud of you, Russ." "We'll always be here for you, man." "Heroes don't pay for nothin' in this town." It was nonstop. The mayor shook my hand. Ladies sent food. I've never eaten so much baked ham in my life.
And now? Now the phone won't stop ringing from the crazies ready to blame me. My mom has to cry herself to sleep. They take a firefighter, a man, and they pump him up so big. ... But once they start taking it away from you, they don't stop until they leave nothing on the bones.
First they needed heroes, then they needed blood.
"Lynch doesn't shy away from unresolved questions and subtle character development, and in the end, questions of heroism and perception take second stage to a nuanced exploration of teenage grief and catharsis. Ages 12–up." - Publishers Weekly
"The struggles in this book are largely internal, with action taking a backseat to Russell's coming-of-age process. Grades 9+" - School Library Journal
"Hundreds of YA books deal with the loss of a parent, but few situate that grief within a community as expertly as Lynch's latest. Grades 8-10." - Booklist
"[The] author gracefully weaves the relationship between father and son, the challenges of a firefighter's life, and the truth of bravery, hero worship, and finding the hero within oneself." - Children's Literature
This information about Hothouse was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Chris Lynch is a National Book Award finalist and the author of many highly acclaimed books for young adults, including The Big Game of Everything, Who the Man, and the Michael L. Printz Honor Book Freewill; Iceman, Shadow boxer, Gold Dust, and Slot Machine, all ALA Best Books for Young Adults; and Extreme Elvin. He also mentors aspiring writers and teaches in the creative writing program at Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
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"Smoke is an addictive combination of thriller, fantasy, and historical novel, with a dash of horror. It's chilling and complex and amazingly imaginative." - Marilyn Dahl, Shelf Awareness
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