A tautly written, fast-moving novel…that captures the unbalanced experience of an all-consuming love.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Tight and energetic, effective and deeply affecting… An uncommon exploration of girlhood and its messier relationships.” — Booklist (starred review)
"The rich language describing the way the two love each other is magnificent... A beautiful, emotionally charged novel." — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"All of Woodfolk’s choices—every line break, indentation, and italicization... Even the blank space on the page helps to carry this piece to its full potential as a feverishly gripping, immersive, and emotional ride that will stick with readers for a long time... A masterfully crafted love letter to tumultuous, young, queer love and its lessons." — School Library Journal (starred review)
“An emotional inferno and Woodfolk’s best book yet.” — BookPage (starred review)
“Prepare yourself, because this stunning novel is packed with an emotional intensity that's sure to touch your heart.” — Popsugar
"Unapologetically shows the more challenging elements of falling—and staying—in love… This book has completely transformed the way I think about what it means to love unconditionally." — Nic Stone, #1 New York Times best-selling author of Odd One Out
"Nothing Burns as Bright as You is a beautiful exploration of first love with the emotional resonance that only an Ashley Woodfolk novel can bring. Exquisite from beginning to end." — Angie Thomas, #1 New York Times best-selling author of The Hate U Give
"Nothing Burns as Bright as You is utterly captivating, brimming with passion and heartbreak and the beautiful complexity of the human heart." — Nicola Yoon, #1 New York Times best-selling author of The Sun Is Also a Star and Instructions for Dancing
"Wildly ambitious, fearlessly honest, and crackling with the top volume feelings of messy first love. Ashley Woodfolk is a virtuoso. Consider my breath fully taken." — Becky Albertalli, #1 New York Times best-selling author of Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda and Leah on the Offbeat
"This highly original story is both heart-wrenching and hopeful. Ashley Woodfolk takes chances with form that make this verse novel captivating. Her skill as a writer has never burned so bright. Pure fire!" — Kwame Alexander, New York Times best-selling author
"There is something sacred in the way Woodfolk bears witness to the scariest, most vulnerable parts of an untamable heart. A fierce, wrenching, deeply honest look at first love—I invite Ashley Woodfolk to break my heart with a book like this anytime." — Leah Johnson, author of the Stonewall Honor book You Should See Me in a Crown
"A loving ode to the queer twin flame relationships of our adolescence that smolder quietly in so many of us. These characters, like Woodfolk’s dazzling and soulful lyrical prose, are both limitless and full of complexity. An exhilarating and quixotic read." — Junauda Petrus, author of the Coretta Scott King Honor book The Stars and the Blackness Between Them
"Nothing Burns as Bright as You consumed me like a flame. The interspersed timelines will keep readers breathless as the love between these girls splatters raw on the page, the poetry absolute perfection. A novel to at once devour and savor." — Kip Wilson, author of White Rose
"Unapologetically shows the more challenging elements of falling—and staying—in love… This book has completely transformed the way I think about what it means to love unconditionally."
An emotional inferno and Woodfolk’s best book yet.”
BookPage (starred review)
"Wildly ambitious, fearlessly honest, and crackling with the top volume feelings of messy first love. Ashley Woodfolk is a virtuoso. Consider my breath fully taken."
Tight and energetic, effective and deeply affecting… An uncommon exploration of girlhood and its messier relationships.”
Booklist (starred review)
"This highly original story is both heart-wrenching and hopeful. Ashley Woodfolk takes chances with form that make this verse novel captivating. Her skill as a writer has never burned so bright. Pure fire!"
"Nothing Burns as Bright as You is a beautiful exploration of first love with the emotional resonance that only an Ashley Woodfolk novel can bring. Exquisite from beginning to end."
"Nothing Burns as Bright as You is utterly captivating, brimming with passion and heartbreak and the beautiful complexity of the human heart."
Amani Minter’s quiet and heartfelt narration grounds the listener in this story of an all-consuming friendship and a fierce first love. Listeners meet two unnamed Black teenage girls. The story is told primarily through one girl’s point of view as she addresses the other girl as “you.” Minter’s pleasantly husky voice recounts a tense and emotional day when the pair set fires, intentionally and not, which change the course of their lives, and their perceptions of themselves. The narrative jumps through time recounting the days before the fire back to when they first met, became best friends, and became something more. It’s a destructive, explosive relationship, and Minter’s intentional narration adds a layer of intimacy to this lyrical novel in verse. E.E.C. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
Amani Minter’s quiet and heartfelt narration grounds the listener in this story of an all-consuming friendship and a fierce first love. Listeners meet two unnamed Black teenage girls. The story is told primarily through one girl’s point of view as she addresses the other girl as “you.” Minter’s pleasantly husky voice recounts a tense and emotional day when the pair set fires, intentionally and not, which change the course of their lives, and their perceptions of themselves. The narrative jumps through time recounting the days before the fire back to when they first met, became best friends, and became something more. It’s a destructive, explosive relationship, and Minter’s intentional narration adds a layer of intimacy to this lyrical novel in verse. E.E.C. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
