Fire is a strong element in this novel, both from actual fire and from the temperature of the sweltering heat in New York the summer of 1977. Nora just wants to graduate high school and escape from her trouble-making younger brother and controlling mother. On top of all of that there is a serial killer on the loose which creates fear in all the dark places.
She keeps her secrets close, never telling even her best friend, Kathleen, that her mother is short on rent, her brother is obsessed with fire, dealing and doing drugs, and her father is consumed with this new life and child. Nora is counting down the days left of school and her 18 birthday when she will legally be able to go to dance clubs and dance all night long. Nora also has a job at a local grocery store where sexy Pablo has just been hired. She hides her wages in a boot in the back of the closet so her brother can’t find her escape money.
Medina builds the suspicion and worry of walking in the dark, even if only for four blocks. What was that noise? Is someone in the bushes? Who is driving that car? The sketchiness of the store room below ground of the grocery store and the back alley where you dump the garbage could be a hiding place for a killer. Readers will keep waiting for an attack each time Pablo is trying to get the keys into the ignition. Will the serial killer ever be caught?
Then one day while out on a date with Pablo in the movie theater, there is a blackout due to the heat. The streets are crazy as people start breaking windows and looting from local stores and the pharmacy. As they are exiting the movie theater, Nora thinks she recognizes someone flick a lighter just as fire erupts. Was that who she thinks it was?
Nora and Pablo’s relationship is accurately depicted and healthy for the time. The way Nora describes feeling objectified by those around her in addition to the women’s lib movement is historically accurate and written in a reachable way.