I want to tell you right off the bat that this review will not come close to doing this book justice. I want to tell you all how amazing and awesome this book is in a coherent way that really conveys the perfection of this book. But I am going to fail.

This book is amazing and awesome-- wait, I already said that. Okay, let me try again. This book is about so much more than I thought it would be about. I thought I was getting a story about a serial arsonist-- and it WAS about that-- but it was about so much more. It was about Ava Dreyman, a historical figure who became the Anne Frank of 1980's Berlin. It was about Pepper and his smooshy dog Bertrand and his dad's sadness. It was about Molly's complicated family and their story. But it all wove together so beautifully and perfectly, that I couldn't believe I was reading YA.

Not to say YA isn't smart or detailed, but this felt like more than what I think of YA to be. Again, I'm not explaining that well because I LOVE YA. I would defend YA to the death. But I don't necessarily equate YA with super literary books (and I think that's a good thing)-- THE ARSONIST is literary. It should be read in classrooms.

I FELT like I was reading something real. I FELT Ava's story as real. I FELT like I was on Pepper and Molly's epic adventure, and the implications of it felt real.

Was I 100% happy with the way the ending came together?? No. I was hoping for a much neater bow to put on the top of this package-- but that fact didn't diminish my love for the experience of this book.

Friendship, Adventure, History, Family. That's what this book was. It was a journey and a mystery, and I was glad to be along for the ride.

OVERALL: Do you want to go on a journey to unravel a historical mystery that could change EVERYTHING for 2 unlikely friends?? This book was exceptional, and definitely one of the best books I've read in 2017. I highly recommend for fans of adventure, mystery, and historical elements in books.

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teen/adult fiction-suspense-mystery (historical 1989 East Germany and modern-day Monterey). Though it took a bit to get started, the way that the story unfolds (even if the twist is not so much a surprise) is fascinating. Each of the narrative voices is distinct and I really enjoyed this. Diversity notes: several characters have had treatment for psychological/mental issues, Ava's family are political refugees, and Pepper and his dad are Iraqi refugees/US immigrants. ( )

Molly Mavity has a hard life for a teenage girl. Her father is about to be executed for burning people to death, her mother died a few years ago, and everyone at her high school hates her. Pepper Yusef is doing a bit better than her, but he's just found out that he won't be graduating high school. His last chance is to write extensive papers in all his failing subjects to graduate. He also has a seizure disorder, a useless service animal for said disorder, and major reputation problems centering around his crush Petra. When Molly crashes into his life and insists he has answers, Pepper thinks she's crazy, but she draws him into an international mystery that involves Ava Dreyman, the Anne Frank of the Cold War.

The Arsonist is a twisty, light hearted mystery told through three perspectives: Molly, Pepper, and Ava. Molly is convinced that her mother, who killed herself ago, isn't dead and is sending her clandestine messages. These messages lead her directly to Pepper, who doesn't conciously know anything about her situation at all. Pepper is kind of stumbling through life. His crush pretty much used him to get into a prestigious school through an embarassing interview that exploited his background as an immigrant from Kuwait and his dream to become the president of the United States. Molly and Pepper are both on their way to being alone and alienating everyone around them until they join forces and work together. Ava's narrative is her diar published in book form, detailing her experience from her mother and her friends murdering GDR officials and police to her death as a young adult.

This book deals with a lot of dark subjects such as murder, oppression, and death. However, it always has this quirky, comedic tone that makes everything have a lighthearted feel. I think things like living in the GDR under threat of death for being revolutionaries and Molly's dad killing numerous people in a fire should be looked at a little more seriously. There are also a number of bizarre incidences that seem a bit out of place and weird like Molly drinking 30 small milk containers and peeing herself in class when the teacher wouldn't let her go to the bathroom or when Papper takes ipecac to avoid graduation and then acts like he's fine later. Some of this could be edited out to make a more streamlined book. The actual mystery is pretty convoluted in and of itself, so this stuff feels like time wasted.

The Arsonist is a bit of a mixed bag. I really liked the journey, but I wouldn't reread this book. I really liked that everything is somehow connected in the novel. Even through every bizarre development, the plot is moving towards revelations and unconvering a mystery. It's practically impossible to guess what it is, but the journey is fun nonetheless. I did want to know if Pepper actually passed high school with his essays as they were written in the book. Even though it takes a very healthy dose of suspended disbelief, the story is a fun, weird mystery that takes our odd heroes out of their comfort zones. ( )

A complicated story with lives woven together, a mystery that is slowly unwound as Molly and Pepper work together. Pepper tells a version of the story through letters written to a teacher as a way to meet the requirements for graduation. Molly tells much of her story through letters written to Pepper during his time in a coma. The third narrator is Ava, who tells most of her story through her book, The Arsonist. The lives of the narrator are intertwined through wild coincidences and family connections. I enjoyed the complex story and think it will work for more sophisticated and patient student readers and students who are fans of A Night Divided. ( )

A four star rating feels too high but when I tally up everything I ended up liking about this book giving it a three feels like a disservice.

Pepper Al-Yusef is an almost high school dropout that has been given a second chance to graduate with the credits necessary to get a high school diploma. All he has to do is write a three thousand word academic thesis for the subjects that he failed. In theory it could be an easy task that anyone could accomplish but for Pepper it was something that he thought he was going to struggle with because of his dislike of school mandated writing assignments. At first it was only Pepper's POV I wanted to read because I. Related. So. MUCH. it. Hurt. but after a while I forced myself to read on and learned to enjoy both Molly and Ava's part of the story.

Molly Mavity has struggled with school because of the Milk Pee Mavity incident back when she was twelve. She's uncool to the point where even her younger cousin Margaret is more popular than she could ever hope to be. But Molly is resigned to being the weirdo from school with the serial arsonist father and suicide victim mother, totally fine by her since there are always books she can escape in. Until she receives a mysterious note sending her on a quest to find a boy who has the answers to her mother's disappearance that she's convinced herself was not a suicide. Eventually, her letters directed towards Pepper start to make sense when she meets him and they start chasing down the mystery behind Ava Dreyman's murder through Ava's published diary.

Ava Dreyman is a teen living in East Berlin during the days when the wall was up. Her mother was a journalist rebelling against the Stasi writing defamatory pieces about the injustices they were living in a paper called The Arsonist. After her parent's friends commit a crime they can all be linked to the Dreymans are forced to make their escape and find a way out. Her last entry in the diary is of her bleeding profusely from a knife wound in her abdomen. The diary is published for the world to read and Ava becomes a martyr for the wall to come down. So what do all three have in common? It all goes back to that diary that was seemingly lost or stolen from Ava's old boyfriend Paeder. And it's up to Molly and Pepper to find out what happened.

I don't know why but when I started the book I did not like Molly or Ava's first two or three chapters I was bored to tears. I literally fell asleep. Maybe I wasn't ready to have a long reading session, maybe I didn't get enough sleep, the fact of the matter is that I thought the three points of view made the story start off slowly and were hard to follow. Molly was needed to be placed first so that the ending could be explained as well as the current situation they were in but I didn't care because I still didn't know Pepper nor did I care about their friendship at that point. I don't know who made the decision to give the POV changes such a methodical order: Pepper, Molly, Ava; and I'm not complaining but could get frustrating when Pepper or Molly (mostly her) would mention something that was not revealed in Ava's chapters yet. It felt like lazy writing withholding information that would pop up only to not be so surprising when Ava finally touched upon it.

But enough about the negative let's talk about the positive. Pepper was born in Al Ahmadi, Kuwait. His father brought moved the two of them to America because their former home was smack dab in the middle of oil during the war for oil. He has his pose ridiculously named the Horsemen (their reason had me hollering) made up of his best friends from high school and has a cute service dog named Bertrand, and by cute I mean a pudgy pug. His chapters were basically essays directed towards Ms. Eldridge, a counselor sent to help him graduate, but in the end, I think I was probably more invested in his stories than she was. I didn't like Molly for a long time. It's not a bad thing, she was an immature teenager still mourning her mother's absence. In a twisted way to feel close to her she had climbed to a high area and looked down just to see what her mother would have seen when she jumped, or so claims everyone else, and high off adrenaline she kicked a moving train shattering her foot. Molly should be an angry girl, hating the world and everyone who still makes fun of her but she doesn't. And the moments of vulnerability she shares with Pepper through her letters to him are what makes her so good. The friendship she builds with him is so good for her. Then instead of tallying up all the times her cousin has wronged her Molly swipes them away when she needs her. Yay for positive female relationships. Ava's diary enteries were not as bad as I probably made them seem, I swear. In fact, I think I liked them almost as much as I was into Pepper's essays. Her story of bravery and strength were perfect.

There are times where I want more from one POV but it's only because the others are weak in comparison. The more I think about the story as a whole it was the perfect blend of each one. Sometimes I touch upon what I didn't like first because it's easier to get that out of the way then start gushing about what I absolutely loved. ( )