The Incendiaries

"I drank more... I barely slept; I wanted every prize."

A book plot in a sentence, you'd think after reading the first few chapters of The Incendiaries. You feel like you're reading something more akin to Gatsby than a novel about belief and longing and a dangerous cult. But, for me, that's what made this such a fascinating, compelling novel. A slow burn that builds, hits its climax with remarkable subtlety, then nestles inside your bones after it's complete.

It feels at first like a typical college novel. People finding themselves, searching in others, looking for a meaning beyond what they had before. The novel focuses on a Korean-American student who was on track for greatness when tragedy changed her course. You know right away that Phoebe is chasing meaning in places that won't fulfill her - elaborate parties, bottles of liquor, late nights. Then, you watch through her boyfriend's eyes as she tumbles towards even greater tragedy, following a charismatic man with a questionable past towards an ending only she can't see coming.

Her boyfriend, Will, is searching for meaning, too. A one-time missionary who loses his faith - only to watch the woman he loves searching so desperately to find it. He's longing for her, she's longing for something else. And, they both make terrible mistakes in their quest.

This is a compact and complex novel with flawed characters, language that doesn't necessarily fit them and incongruous imagery of how most of us experienced our college years. Yet, it works.

And that slow burn? It heats up throughout, always leading you believe the whole thing is about to blow. When it does, quite literally, the author never strays from the simplicity with which she tells the rest of the story. The story itself is a roller coaster; the book, though, is steady and powerful.

This was a quick read. It took me just a couple of days and it kept me coming back for more. It's getting a ton of hype and it's worthy of that. Simple and powerful. Just enough to make it great.