Bonfire: A Novel - Softcover

Ritter, Krysten

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1524759856 ISBN 13: 9781524759858

Publisher: Crown, 2018

Synopsis

“A suspenseful, psychologically gripping story” (Entertainment Weekly) that explores what happens when your past and present collide, from the star of Netflix’s Jessica Jones, AMC’s Orphan Black: Echoes, and author of the novel Retreat.

“A phenomenal, haunting debut.”—Gillian Flynn

“Dark, disturbing, and compulsively readable.”—Ruth Ware

Nothing burns as bright as the truth.

It has been ten years since Abby Williams, a successful environmental lawyer, left home for the modern apartments and one-night stands of Chicago. But when a new case takes her back home to Barrens, Indiana, the life Abby painstakingly created begins to crack. Tasked with investigating Optimal Plastics, the town’s economic heart, Abby begins to find strange connections to Barrens’s biggest scandal, involving her former classmate Kaycee Mitchell—just before Kaycee disappeared for good. And when Abby unearths a disturbing ritual called “The Game,” it will threaten reputations and lives, exposing a darkness that may consume her.

About this title

About the Author

KRYSTEN RITTER is well-known for her starring roles in the award-winning Netflix original series Marvel’s Jessica Jones and cult favorite Don’t Trust the B---- in Apartment 23, as well as her pivotal role on AMC’s Breaking Bad. Ritter’s work on film includes Big Eyes, Listen Up Philip, Life Happens, Confessions of a Shopaholic, and She’s Out of My League. She is the founder of Silent Machine, a production company that aims to highlight complex female protagonists. Ritter and her dog, Mikey, split their time between New York and Los Angeles.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

PROLOGUE
 
MY LAST YEAR OF HIGH SCHOOL, when Kaycee Mitchell and her friends got sick, my father had a bunch of theories.
“Those girls are bad news,” he said. “Nothing but trouble.” He took it as a matter of faith that they were being punished. To him, they deserved what they got.
Kaycee was the first. This made sense. She was the first to do everything: lose her virginity, try a cigarette, throw a party.
Kaycee walked in front of her friends, like an alpha wolf leading the pack. In the cafeteria, she decided where to sit and the others followed; if she ate her lunch, the rest did too; if she pushed her food around on her tray or just ate a bag of Swedish Fish, her friends did the same. Misha was the meanest and the loudest one.
But Kaycee was the leader.
So when she got sick, we, the senior girls of Barrens High, weren’t horrified or disturbed or worried.
We were jealous.
We all hoped secretly that we’d be next.
That first time it happened was in fourth period debate. Everyone had to participate in mock elections. Kaycee made her way through three rounds of primary elections. She was easy to believe in the role of politician, convincing and quick-witted, a talented liar: I’m not even sure Kaycee knew when she was telling the truth and when she wasn’t.
She was standing at the front of the room delivering a practiced stump speech when suddenly it was as though the tether connecting her voice to her throat was cut. Her mouth kept moving, but all the volume had been turned off. No words came out.
For a few seconds, I thought there was something wrong with me.
Then her hands seized on the podium and her jaw froze, just locked open, as if she was stuck, silently screaming. I was sitting in the first row—no one else ever wanted those seats, so they were mine to take—and she was only a few feet away from me. I’ll never forget how her eyes looked: like they’d transformed suddenly into tunnels.
Derrick Ellis shouted something, but Kaycee ignored him. I could see her tongue behind her teeth, see a wad of white gum standing there. Some people laughed—they must have thought it was a joke—but I didn’t.
I’d been friends with Kaycee, best friends, back when we were young. It was only the second time in my life I’d ever seen her look afraid.
Her hands began to shake, and that’s when all the laughter stopped, and everyone went quiet. For a long time, there was no sound in the room but her hands knocking against the podium, a silver ring she always wore clacking its desperate rhythm.
Then the shaking traveled up her arms and she rolled her eyes back and fell, crashing the podium down with her.
I remember being on my feet. I remember people shouting. I re- member Mrs. Cunningham on her knees, lifting Kaycee’s head, and someone screaming about keeping her tongue from being swallowed. Someone ran for the nurse. Someone else was crying; I don’t remember who, just the sound of it, a desperate whimpering. Weirdly, the only thing I could think to do was pick up her notes, which had fallen, and reshuffle them in order, making sure the corners aligned.
Then, all of a sudden, it passed. The spasm apparently left her body, like an ebbing tide. Her eyes opened. She blinked and sat up, looking vaguely confused, but not displeased, to find us all gathered around her. By the time the nurse came, she seemed normal again. She insisted it was just a weak spell, because she hadn’t eaten. The nurse led Kaycee out of the classroom, and the whole time she was glancing back at us over her shoulder as if to be sure we were all watching her go. And we were—of course we were. She was the kind of person you couldn’t help but watch.
We all forgot about it. Or pretended to.
Then, three days later, it happened again.

Edition details

• Publisher: Crown
• Publication date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1524759856
• ISBN 13: 9781524759858
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 305