A review by cedardleland
Things You Save in a Fire by Katherine Center

dark emotional medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.0

Given the subject matter of the book, I was surprised how graphically horrible all of the practical jokes are in this book that we're supposed to think are endearing. Like a coworker asking the MC out of the blue to screw when he knows she's panicking and therefore might be trickable, with all of her other coworkers including her boss watching ready to laugh at her for taking too long to refuse. That's how the book opens, and then the next thing is sexual assault, and I really feel like the author doesn't understand that the first thing is actually workplace sexual harassment being enabled by the power structure over the MC, but she things beating someone unconscious is appropriate as soon as touching is involved. But then there's all these "pranks" when she's working that are also assault, just not sexual assault and those are also supposed to be fun and fine. Very uncomfortably mixed messages for me around consent, which undermined the core message of the book. 
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