Fire Rush

Starred review from February 27, 2023
In Crooks’s immersive debut, a young Jamaican woman grapples with grief and finds her way in the 1980s English dub scene. Yamaye, 24, lives with her father on the outskirts of London and frequents underground dance parties with her friends, an Irish woman named Rumer and a self-assured Jamaican named Asase. One night at a club, Yamaye meets quiet artist Marlon “Moose” Bohiti. The two fall in love, but then Moose is killed by London police outside his woodworking shop, having been accused of attacking an officer. Meanwhile, Rumer returns to Ireland, and Asase, in a rage due to abuse by a local hustler, stabs a man and is sent to prison. Though a social justice organization rallies behind Moose’s case, Yamaye despairs: “Now I’ve been thrown overboard into a dark sea... nothing to hold on to but coldness and darkness for centuries to come.” From these depths, Crooks chronicles an incredible story of Yamaye’s struggles and triumphs. First, she’s exploited by a Bristol art thief and is forced into helping with his heists. Eventually, she channels her anger into gigs as an MC under the moniker Sonix Dominatrix. The rich descriptions of Yamaye and her friends skanking to the music are immersive and gesture at the spirits of Yamaye’s Jamaican forebears: “We’re dancing in darkness, skinning up with the dead. I feel them twisting around me, round and round, rattles on their wrists and ankles, broken-beat bodies of sound.” This is a triumph. Agent: Nicola Chang, David Higham Assoc.

March 1, 2023
The dancehall is life. Yamaye lives for the moments when she can lose herself in the heavy bass rhythms. That is, until she meets Moose, a Jamaican-born carpenter with big dreams and even bigger plans for their future together. When their love is devastatingly cut short, Yamaye goes on a journey that takes her through the underworld of Bristol to the white beaches of Jamaica to discover who she is beyond the trauma and tragedy that have shaped her life. Fire Rush is a much-anticipated debut novel by an author who has carved out space for her short fiction. Here Crooks artfully examines the conflicts of clashing cultures and what it means to be in constant fear for your life. It's a tale of very raw emotions and heavy grief, but Crooks leaves space for hope. The lyricism of her prose rings out through her use of patois, creating a multilayered literary experience that speaks to the soul like a great reggae album. Perfect for fans of Bernardine Evaristo and Edwidge Danticat.

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March 15, 2023
Music and tragedy move a young Jamaican woman in 1980s London to transform her life. Music is a powerful force in Crooks' incendiary debut novel, echoing the rhythms in the life of a young woman just beginning to find her voice. Set in the late 1970s and early '80s, this is the story of Yamaye, who lives in a run-down housing complex with her Jamaican father outside London. Yamaye sleepwalks through her dull factory job, coming alive when she and her friends head to the Crypt, an underground club that thrives on darkness, sweat, and the driving beats of dub reggae. There are other spaces in which she feels safe--the local record shop, the Pentecostal church--but Yamaye is well aware that all such refuges are controlled by unyielding men. Though she dreams of making music herself, she's mostly content to dream and enjoy the escape dancing provides. Then one night she meets Moose, a thoughtful carpenter whose stories about his grandmother in Jamaica make her ache for the past and her own missing mother, who fled London when Yamaye was a child. Their romance blossoms, and Moose reveals possibilities she hadn't considered. But love is not a shield, and when tragedy strikes, Yamaye is forced to confront the realities shaping her existence: racism, sexism, poverty, fear. Crooks creates unforgettable characters here, fleshed out with empathy and wisdom, and she writes in a lyrical style, expertly shaping Yamaye's evolution from "Tombstone Estate gyal" to fierce, proud woman determined to liberate herself from perceived limitations and male aggression. "It always takes me time to realise someone's hurting me," she thinks. "A few minutes, a day, a year. Twenty-four years. Four hundred years." Once awakened, however, Yamaye will be vigilant, dancing joyfully to her own beat. A compelling coming-of-age story about personal loss and political awakening.

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