With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo

With the Fire on High follows the story of a high school senior and young Afro-Latina, Emoni, as she struggles to allow herself to hone her talent: cooking. What's convincing her otherwise? Her status as a single teenage mother. 
The book is sectioned into three parts, each starting with a unique recipe: one for Lemon Verbena Tembleque, Strawberry Milk, and Beer Bread (We are currently in production of our first youtube video where we will be trying them out for you - so stay posted). The chapters are short - averaging 2 or 3 pages each so the novel's 388  pages are a pseudo quick read. 
I originally didn't have much background knowledge of the story prior to reading the first page. All I knew was what the cover told me: it was written by the same author that wrote Poet X. I have yet to read the book but I hear good things from my friends that already have. As I started my journey with Acevedo's newest novel, it was quickly evident that the story takes place in Philadelphia. As a Philly native, I picked it up by the third page but others might take a little longer to discover the location - and by longer, I mean a couple more pages.
​Acevedo shoves the Philly references down our throats and as a native, it was very cringe worthy. It reminded me of the first season of Netflix's and Spike Lee's She's Gotta Have It when they kept reminding us that the show takes place in modern days. We could barely go two minutes without a "millennial reference". The Philly references are the same in WTFH. I can only imagine how confusing the story might get  for people that are not from Philly. Acevedo neighborhood drops as if the reader has a map of Philly. We honestly could have done without some of the references.

Overall Score
I give the story a 6 out of 10. The story is fairly unique and covers a topic I have not read much about in a novel before. However, we are drowned with Philly references without enough description of them. Also, Emoni is noted early on for daydreaming or getting lost in her thoughts. It happens more often than I would like; It makes it seem as if the author uses them to avoid transitions from one conversation to the next. In the end, the plot and theme were well rounded and cute but the setting and narration seemed to be lacking.

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