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Mortal Fire | July 24, 2013

by Elizabeth Knox (Farrar Straus Giroux/Macmillan, June 2013)

Are you ready for an existential experience? No? Well I wasn’t either when I opened Elizabeth Knox’s Mortal Fire, but boy, I couldn’t put it down once I started. Knox’s ethereal storytelling is simply captivating as she weaves the tale of 16-year-old Canny Mochrie—math prodigy, daughter of a national hero, and social pariah. Everyone except Canny’s mother and her best friend (who is stuck in a hospital bed with a lingering case of polio) thinks her cool detachment from people puts her in the category of—at best –awkward and—at worst—sociopathic.

Then, during the fall break in classes, Canny is forced to accompany her older stepbrother and his girlfriend to a coal-mining town to help them with some historical research. At first upset about leaving her only friend for such a long period, Canny soon gets wrapped up in the fact that a certain large family in this town seems to have the same ability as she does—seeing elemental magic in the air. Not only can they see it, they can manipulate it, and in that manipulation Canny discovers that the elders of the family are hiding something or someone.

Will Canny figure out how to use the elemental magic she thought only she could see? Will she find out what the elders are hiding and why? Will she ever be able to show and feel emotion like a normal 16-year-old girl? Most of these questions are answered but, dear reader, be prepared to continue pondering the end of this book for quite a while after you’ve finished the last page.

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