JOIN / SIGN IN

Welcome to Foyalty

Earn a Foyalty Stamp for every £10 you spend in our shops or online*

Every 10 Foyalty Stamps you earn adds £10 to your Foyalty Balance

Spend your Foyalty Balance in our shops or online, with no minimum redemption*

*Exclusions apply, see full T&Cs for details.

Learn More

Non-Fiction, CD Audiobooks

Fire Rush

Jacqueline Crooks (author), Leonie Elliott (read by)

Product available on: 01/01/2024

£70.79

26 reviews

Free UK delivery on orders over £25

Please note, this item can only be delivered to a UK address. Find out more

Make and edit your lists in your account

No stock available in any shop.

View other formats and editions

Bookseller Reviews

View all

Profoundly moving.

This is a truly outstanding novel. I'll admit that when I first started the book, I honestly didn't think I would get very far. Much of the language was be... READ MORE

Sean Farrell

Girl on fire

Such a powerful and beautifully written book, rooted in the rhythms of Black speech and music. We follow Yamaye, a young woman as she goes on a voyage thro... READ MORE

Beth at Chesterfield

A beautiful account of a young woman's journey

Jacqueline Crooks' debut novel is a beautifully written account of a young woman's journey from the Jamaican diaspora in London in the late 1970s, where sh... READ MORE

Rebecca at Tunbridge Wells

Full of Sound and Fury, Signifying Everything

Yamaye and her sistren, Asase and Rumer live for the weekends when they can get away from the tower blocks of Nineteen Seventies Norwood and their dead end... READ MORE

Katy Wheatley

Outstanding, a must-read Debut!

I wasn't sure what to think of this title at first given my picky history with General Fiction, but by the third page I was encapsulated by the writing sty... READ MORE

Bailey - Warrington

Nothing Else Like It

Fire Rush is one of the most distinctive and powerful debuts I've read in years, one that flows with its own innate musicality and rhythm that you tap into... READ MORE

Saba Sodhi

A multi-layered, vibrant and powerful debut

So many other reviewers have worded the magic of this novel perfectly and it deserves every inch of praise. We follow the character of Yamaye as she naviga... READ MORE

Sarah

Synopsis

London, 1978. Yamaye, a woman in her 20s unsure of who she is, but with dreams of being a DJ and MC. Yamaye lives for the weekend, when she can go raving with her friends at The Crypt, an underground club in the industrial town on the outskirts of London where she was born and raised.

Everything changes when she falls deeply in love with Moose: he offers the chance of freedom and change. When their relationship is cut brutally short, Yamaye goes on a dramatic journey of transformation that takes her first to Bristol, where she gets caught up in a criminal gang, and then to Jamaica, where past and present collide with devastating consequences.

Publisher information

Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
ISBN: 9781786149121
Dimensions: 2 x 9 mm
Languages: English

Customer Reviews

View all

My first five star read of 2023

This is a confident, lyrical, powerful work. The author handles tonal change very well and is able, through an involving narrative, to sustain the pull of... READ MORE

ReadbyPhil

not for me sadly

I struggled to get into this book as I found the speech really difficult to follow, which is a shame as it felt like the author had a lot to say. Maybe if ... READ MORE

jean

A vibrant and distinctive debut

This book was featured in the 2023 version of the influential annual Observer Best Debut Novelist feature (past years have included Natasha Brown, Caleb Az... READ MORE

Graham Fulcher

Oliver Twist for the Children of Windrush

Around the middle of the book, the main character states that people are hard to work out, but music doesn't lie. However, this is not entirely true. The p... READ MORE

Andy Stooke

This book blew me away

This novel opens so powerfully. The reader is immediately plunged into the "blues party" dub reggae culture of the late 70s/early 80s in an urgent and visc... READ MORE

Hilly

Authentically Novel and Mind-Broadening

I love this book and I loved every minute reading it. Albeit in parts not an easy novel to understand as I am unfamiliar with the culturally specific patoi... READ MORE

Claudia Magnusson

A debut novel that will stay in my mind

Yamaye and her gyals: Rumer and Asase are all dressed up for a night’s dancing in the Crypt at a local church in SE London. It’s an all nighter with 200 p... READ MORE

Carole Tyrrell

Powerful debut

Yamaye lives for the weekend, when she can go raving with her friends Asase and Rumer at The Crypt, an underground club in the industrial town on the outsk... READ MORE

helen_t_reads

A new classic

Jacqueline Crooks' Fire Rush is a brilliant debut, an important novel about identity and power which has the makings of a modern classic. Our protagonist... READ MORE

Lydia Omodara

Wild times in the 1970's

This novel opens in 1978 at a time when, with good reason, black people have no faith in the police and the South London community is suffering the pressur... READ MORE

Jim Sweetman

A novel brimming with lyrical, atmospheric, musical writing

It’s 1978, and Yamaye and her friends live in a small, industrial town on the edge of London, once a site of pagan rituals, where they dance with the dead.... READ MORE

Roisin Russell

A rollercoaster of a novel!

I was sent an advance proof copy of Fire Rush by Jacqueline Crooks to read and review by NetGalley. When I first started reading this novel I wasn’t sure ... READ MORE

lesleys

A phenomenal debut novel

The story follows the life of Yamaye, a woman of Jamaican heritage, who was raised in a housing project in London and is still dealing with her mothers dis... READ MORE

Sarah -Bookworm Extraordinaire

Powerful gritty story

Fire Rush by Jacqueline Crooks is a powerful, emotional gritty story that resonates now that we know about the many things have been brushed under the carp... READ MORE

Ciaran McLarnon

An exquisitely written novel about a young woman’s quest for love and freedom

“I turn on some old, favourite dub tracks. I grew up listening to Irving play his Trojan records. Ska into rocksteady into reggae. The offbeats and rhythmi... READ MORE

Vivienne O'Regan

This book blew me away.

This novel opens so powerfully. The reader is immediately plunged into the "blues party" dub reggae culture of the late 70s/early 80s in an urgent and visc... READ MORE

Hilly

Music in words

This debut novel, set in the Caribbean community in London, Bristol and ultimately Jamaica as the seventies turn into the eighties, is the story of Yamaye,... READ MORE

The Dynamite Kid

A brilliant debut

4 - 5 stars Timeline:-1979- early 1980’s This is Yamaye’s story, she lives on Tombstone Estate in Norwood, West London. She and her best friends Asase... READ MORE

Celia Short

One to debate I think...

Thank you to the publishers for this review copy, I will confess I had not heard about this book until it made the Women's longlist. I was particularly int... READ MORE

Fiona Sharp

Fire Rush

Bookseller Reviews

Synopsis

Publisher information

Customer Reviews

You may also like...