Notes on Surviving the Fire
Christine Murphy
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars
3.83
· 6 ratings · 288 pages · Published: 25 Feb 2025
At a PhD program in southern California, Sarah and her best friend Nathan spend their time working on their theses, getting high, and keeping track of the poor air quality due to nearby forest fires. No one believes Sarah when she reports a fellow student for raping her at a party—“he’s such a good guy!”—and the Title IX office simply files away the information, just like the police. Nathan is the only person who cares.
When Sarah finds him dead of an overdose from a drug he’s always avoided, she knows something isn’t right. She starts investigating his death as a murder, and as the pieces fall into place, she notices a disturbing pattern in the other student deaths on campus.
As a girl, Sarah grew up in the forests of Maine, following her father on hunts, learning how to stalk prey and kill but only when necessary. Now, she must confront a different type of killing—and decide if it can be justified.
Notes on Surviving the Fire is a story about vengeance, the insidious nature of rape culture and ultimately, a woman's journey to come back to herself.
Tagged as:
- mystery 3
- suspense 3
- dark 3
- contemporary 3
- friendship 2
- literary fiction 2
- climate change/pollution 2
- crime 2
- serial killer 1
- psychological 1
- thriller 1
- Add topics
- content warnings
- mental illness 3
- sexual assault 2
- murder 1
- format - reader age
- audiobook 2
- adult fiction 1
- book 1