Hotshot A life on fire

Review by Booklist Review

Fighting wildfires is a dangerous and outrageous job for anyone but especially so for a woman, as sexism is rampant among the crews. Selby, young, recovering addict, bulimic, and product of a truly dysfunctional upbringing, seems an unlikely candidate for this sort of work, but this is the path she sets for herself. Her unrestrained sexual exploits speak to her lack of self-respect, and bouncing from one fire crew to another shows her lack of satisfaction in what she finds in the work. This memoir was written more than a decade after Selby moved on to a far different sort of life, and she writes of the fires with a historical perspective on how human behavior has contributed to natural disasters. She also writes of her own personal disasters, attempting to come to terms with her emotional needs, and her mother's death by suicide. More than an adventure story about high-stakes firefighting, Hotshot is a compelling story of personal growth.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

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Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Former firefighter Selby debuts with a fierce examination of identity, climate change, and the shortcomings of U.S. fire policy. At 19, Selby turned to firefighting as an escape from their emotionally abusive upbringing, having already fled home several times and developed an alcohol habit as a teenager. Over the next seven years, Selby battled blazes across the American west, including in California's Sequoia National Forest and remote corners of Utah. They alternate descriptions of the backbreaking work of firefighting with profiles of their mostly male colleagues, accounts of their struggles with bulimia, and reflections on their dawning realization that America's suppression-based fire practices were "both ugly and intimately interconnected" with "the impact of colonization on ecological landscapes and Native Americans." "I couldn't see that the landscape needed cleansing by the flames I was supposed to extinguish," Selby writes, artfully paralleling their belief that excessive fire suppression worsens wildfire seasons and their growing resolve to stop pushing down their own emotions. Poetic, wise, and haunting, this seamless blend of memoir and science writing leaves a mark. Agent: Chris Bucci, Aevitas Creative Management. (Aug.)

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Review by Kirkus Book Review

A female firefighter's time as an elite hotshot. Selby had been a sex worker, a heroin addict, and a runaway by the time they began wildland firefighting at age 19. As much to their surprise as anyone's, they found themself both loving and excelling in the firefighting ranks. In this debut memoir, they recount their years on the most elite--and male-dominated--firefighting crews in the country. With visceral prose, they bring readers directly to the heat and intensity of the front lines day and night, where in the darkness "coursing waves of embers shot upwards from conjoined flames as if the sky were reclaiming its lost stars." Despite the dangers, many of their biggest challenges were not to come from the fire itself, however, or even the grueling days of hiking through dense brush carrying heavy packs and tools. Selby recounts the barrage of sexism they encountered on the fire lines in the early 2000s, where their fellow firefighters were often all male and Selby's presence was the focus of constant harassment. Selby writes with immediacy of the intimidation they faced, from stalking to verbal degradation, and their struggles to remember "that I was a person who existed in my own right, not just as agirl firefighter." Shot through with their own challenges of bulimia, alcoholism, and relationships, the story is one of power and resilience, of someone struggling to make a life for themself in the inhospitable and challenging career of wildland firefighting. Spliced within it are historical and scientific examinations of firefighting in the American West. Deeply researched, these segments provide context for the book, but it is the narrative that is most gripping. With fortitude and admirable vulnerability, Selby brings readers directly into a tumultuous time and place. Like fire, this book burns hot. Selby molds personal and ecological acceptance into a moving narrative about fire and humanity. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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