Fire

De: John Boyne

Narrado por: Anna Friel

Brought to you by Penguin.

On the face of it, Freya lives a gilded existence, dancing solely to her own tune. She has all the trappings of wealth and privilege, a responsible job as a surgeon specialising in skin grafts, a beautiful flat in a sought-after development, and a flash car. But it wasn’t always like this. Hers is a life founded on darkness.

Did what happened to Freya as a child one fateful summer influence the adult she would become – or was she always destined to be that person? Was she born with cruelty in her heart or did something force it into being?

In Fire, John Boyne takes the listener on a chilling, uncomfortable but utterly compelling psychological journey to the epicentre of the human condition, asking the age-old question: nurture – or nature?

©2024 John Boyne (P)2024 Penguin Audio

Compelling as ever

Looked forward to the third book and I was not disappointed . This one is dark and compelling . Love the references to the other two. I found myself holding my breath while I listened . The perpetrator was so complicated and how John Boyne manages to elicit sympathy for such an awful character is genius . Narrator was brilliant .

Brilliant series

This, the third part of The Elements series is a much darker and more challenging read, I found myself physically clenched during some scenes. It is however an unflinching character study of a deeply flawed individual, offering the reader the historical facts and allowing us to determine whether or not they amount to mitigation.

Fantastic!

Another triumph from John Boyne. I loved this book although parts of it were very difficult to listen to. Anna Friel is fantastic as the narrator, aside from her less than convincing Irish accent! But I really enjoyed listening to her. It’s interesting how Boyne tied in the previous two books in this series, Water and Earth. This is probably the best out of the 3 so far but should probably come with some sort of trigger warning as there is distressing content throughout.

Excellent story and excellent quartet. Confusing accent for one of the main characters.

I have enjoyed all the books in this quartet and have felt the narrators to be excellent but I’m confused as to why the character of Rebecca was given a Northern Irish accent in this book. She was raised in Terenure and in both other stories in which she appears; Water and Air,has been given a South Dublin accent. It felt like a mismatch that she had a Belfast accent in this story. Otherwise Anna Friel’s narration hit the right notes between a sinister narrator and victim.