American Fire

Love, Arson, and Life in a Vanishing Land

By: Monica Hesse

Narrated by: Tanya Eby

Length: 7 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's summary

Shocked by a five-month arson spree that left rural Virginia reeling, Washington Post reporter Monica Hesse drove down to Accomack County to cover the trial of Charlie Smith, who pled guilty to 67 counts of arson. But Charlie wasn't lighting fires alone: he had an accomplice - his girlfriend, Tonya Bundick. Through her depiction of the dangerous shift that happened in their passionate relationship, Hesse brilliantly brings to life the once-thriving coastal community and its distressed inhabitants, who had already been decimated by a punishing economy before they were terrified by a string of fires they could not explain.

Incorporating this drama into the long-overlooked history of arson in the United States, American Fire re-creates the anguished nights that this quiet county spent lit up in flames, mesmerizingly evoking a microcosm of rural America - a land half gutted before the fires even began.

©2017 Monica Hesse (P)2017 Dreamscape Media, LLC

Missing the feel of the area.

I was looking forward to this book as I have family in the area. I feel like the author could have pulled back a bit and developed the small town feel. Lots of people mentioned, but not depth. It was written as part story, part true crime, and part documentary, but no very cohesive. Some well phrased statements though.

Good story but writing choppy and narrator mediocre

The story was choppy in that it went back and forth and the author included a little too much fluffiness describing the rural life of the eastern shore and the changes it underwent.

The narration was mediocre at best. Choppy reading and read at inconsistent speeds that I found distracting.

Interesting Story- Narrator very difficult to listen to

I really liked the arc of the story- alternating between past and present until the two stories collide. The narrator speaks in a very choppy intonation that makes it hard to listen to, but worth the story if you can get passed the first few chapters and get used to it!

Great story, robotic narration

I really enjoyed the story. The only part that made it hard to listen to was the narrator’s robotic voice. She did not sound like a real person.

Intriguing Real Life Crime Novel

I really enjoyed this non-fiction piece about an arson spree. The arsons took place fairly recently, so the context was familiar. I particularly enjoyed the parts about Psychology and the court system. I would recommend to those who enjoy true crime books.

Come here

Living in Accomack County since 2012, these fires were all the talk. As a come here from across the MD line with ancestors that landed here in the 17th century, I found the book very interesting. I especially enjoyed the history of what was and is now. I wonder how much just pure boredom played a part in their poor decision to set these fires. It is sad because there are probably hundreds more of once loved but now abandoned homesteads and buildings mingled in with all the burned remnants of the many arsons. There is nothing on the ESVA other than pure beauty and if you live here it is simply the beauty of this county that keeps you here.
Thanks for caring and sharing about an unnerving time in our county.

As an Eastern Shore person, I was keen to

read this story as it unfolded in my neighborhood.

The story is good and well researched and well-written. My only negatives were several misspelled place names and the butchering of place names the reader managed.

Still, a good read.

Lots of Love and Arson, Not Much Vanishing Land

This book is a riveting account of how Charlie Smith and Tonya Bundick carried out a series of arsons in rural Virginia. Monica Hesse paints a vivid picture of complicated characters, and she juggles the opposing tasks of showing the scope of this story while still focusing on the real human beings at its center. So the story itself was expertly told.

The book did a weaker job of tying the story to the larger them promised in the title: "Life in a Vanishing Land." Hesse gives a lot of detail about the lives of the characters, but there's not a lot of connection made to the forces that economically ravaged Accomack County and places like it. I'm not sure that connection exists, but it's a promise made by the title that doesn't necessarily play out. That doesn't take much away from the book, however, as the story is propulsive and incredibly interesting.

In depth look at arson

All about arson and a damaged couple who are drawn together by circumstance and symbiotic dysfunction who choose arson as a way of coping with their emotions and mental capacities shaped by everything that they experienced up to that point

Narration is horrible

If you want to hear Siri read you a book, then this is the book for you! The story is good but the narration is hard to overcome.