Micky O'Brady Books
Playing with #Fire, E-Book
Playing with #Fire, E-Book
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A Feathered Quills Silver Award Winner!
Seventeen-year-old Everly Aldaire was pretty lit on social media—until a bullying campaign led to her attempted suicide. A few months later, she’s back at the very same school where everything began, only now she is #offline and not sure how to handle her life without posting or checking her feed.
Instead of giving her a break, though, fate throws her a curve ball when Everly has to participate in a health class challenge, picking up a new sport. Wouldn’t be too bad, if she wasn’t assigned the one sport nobody wanted: pro wrestling. #SRSLY?
Still traumatized by the bullying, Everly is expecting the worst of wrestling, but to her complete and utter surprise, it’s not as bad as she thought. Granted, that could be because of the well-built and highly athletic seventeen-year-old superstud named Fire training her. Dressed and masked in a Lucha Libre outfit, Fire is as mysterious as he is confident, and he’s the only one who really gets Everly. Fire and wrestling turn into her #safehaven, but when old bullies resurface and continue to play their sick games with Everly, it becomes clear something about Fire is not quite right. As Everly is struggling to keep her life under control, she is in for the #heelturn of the century, and the question becomes: who will need to #tapout first—the bullies or Everly?
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Micky O’Brady never disappoints with another incredible teen read! She portrays the unfortunate reality of cyber bullying and its consequences on the young adult mind. MatrixGirl# had over 200K followers on social media until online hate sent her into a downward spiral of attempted suicide. As a mother of 3 pre-teens, this my worst nightmare! Complementary to Micky’s other books, the female character (girls rock!) powers through conflict and ends up kicking butt! The struggle is real. I LOVE the wrestling component (I may have to learn how to pull off an arm bar) and the relationship she builds with Fire#. Of course, if you are a Micky O’Brady follower like I am; you know there is always an unexpected twist. She gets me every time! Brilliant! I bought 3 copies of this book to give to some of my friends with teens and I can’t wait to share it with my own children. There is such an important message built in this adventure. It is a MUST read for both adults and teens!
I've been a big fan of Micky O'Brady's YA books since I read The President's Daughter, followed by Trial by Ice and Between Worlds. However, her latest book, #Playing with Fire is a cut above. O'Brady has gone beyond the fun and excitement of her earlier books and has written something deeply meaningful. She hasn't lost the fun, but this work has many layers to it. Her work as a pediatrician has given her great insight into teenagers, and after reading it, I had a much better understanding of the reasons why teens are so affected by social media, and are sometimes driven to cutting themselves and even to suicide. Parents should definitely read this as well. Buy a copy for your teen and one for yourself. The romance in the book is great, and I learned so much about pro wrestling. I've never been interested in it, but this book may actually get me to watch a match. One of the best things about the book is the plot twists. One I guessed -- I'm an adult, not a young adult. But boy did O'Brady manage to surprise me with another one! READ THIS BOOK. It's fun and important.
The subject matter of Playing with #Fire by Micky O'Brady is not only extremely well-researched and written but very realistic. The dialogue is so authentic and matches the personalities of the characters perfectly. I identified with the parents in the story, as they battled with the horrifying truth that their children were either being bullied or, worse still, were the perpetrators. Everly's torment was incessant and what made it worse was that she couldn't identify who the bullies were. This highlighted the problem of fake social media accounts which allow the trolls to victimize anyone with impunity. The principal's actions were infuriating and so unprofessional. There are great moments of tensions and the twists in the plot were spectacular. Everly's best friend Hazel had so much personal strength and did not bow down to peer pressure like most of the other characters. I simply adored her speech at the end. This book is a must-read for anyone in high school. This is a novel that could be used as a teaching aid or springboard to a much-needed debate in school or at home on the dangers of teasing others or using thoughtless but hurtful comments.
Cyberbullying or electronic aggression is an emerging phenomenon, and Playing with #Fire handles this concept with a thorough understanding of the victim and the victimizer. Through its protagonist’s first-person narration, the reader’s look into Everly’s thoughts makes for gripping anticipation of the actions of the supporting characters as we make judgments based on Everly’s assumptions. The presence of topics in hashtags here and there effectively simulates a world obsessed with Twitter feeds. What separates this book from other YA novels is Micky O’Brady’s skillful weaving of romance, suspense, and social issue into one story that can teach young people that they do not have to remain passive when experiencing bullying. Whether you’re a teen or an adult, you will keep reading and turning the pages once you pick this book up.
When a friend first recommended this book to me I was like ahh... fine, I'll read it. I'm more of the hard sci-fi sort and nothing in the YA genre really stuck with me.Playing With #Fire was different. The two main characters are complex, non-perfect individuals that are each struggling to grapple with past events. But they are also strong-willed, courageous, and compassionate: traits that become even more apparent as their relationship develops. It's invigorating to watch, and you find yourself rooting for them through every trial by #fire.I'm not a wrestler, haha, a theme that the book kind of centers around. However, the book makes all the technical mumbo-jumbo easy and entertaining to follow, and weaves it into the main conflict really well. And- spoiler alert- sometimes it's nice to see school bullies when they have it coming.So if you're a young adult (whatever that means nowadays) and looking for something to read- highly recommend! It's not super long and took me maybe about three hours to finish. Maybe just don't try some of the moves at home lolz.