Book Review: Lola on Fire by Rio Youers

 

 Lola On Fire by Rio Youers
Hardcover, 400 pages
Published February 16th 2021 by William Morrow

This is my fourth Rio Youers novel, and he has now achieved with me a very important status. As an author, he has become his own genre and one I am willing to follow anywhere. My first experience was his beautifully weird debut novel Westlake Soul. That novel is about a champion surfer who transcends his body after an accident. It is a sorta modern sarcastic Johnny Got His Gun. It is a slow burn but a perfect showcase of his talent and I was sold.

Youers took a few years to work his way into the mainstream and his first novel with a major publishing house was one of my top read of 2017. The Forgotten Girl is a weird crime thriller that pleasantly paid stylish homage to psi-thrillers like John Farris’ The Fury or King’s Firestarter. That is just the plot, but it is the characters and the easy flow of the pages that made this weird crime thriller a must-read.

Youers third novel Halcyon didn’t work quite as well for me but it cemented for me what we are getting are novels like great popcorn flicks by an arthouse director.  That third novel seemed like a thriller about a cult on the surface but it was a pretty neat exploration of trauma.  Don’t get me wrong I liked this novel but compared to the strength of The Forgotten Girl and now Lola on Fire it just didn’t floor me.

OK, enough history lesson we are here to talk about Lola on Fire. The blurb on the front cover invoked John Wick a movie I loved, but besides that, the title and the strength of the author I went into this reading experience knowing nothing. I avoided reading blurbs, dustjacket anything, and opened this book knowing as little as I could.

So if you trust me enough let me just say this thriller is worth a read by any measure. I read this 400 pages in three days, while still managing to get stuff done in my life. The characters are so rich that you will be sucked in and you will find pages flying past. The action is great, the story engrossing and it is one that on paper doesn’t sound that appealing to me but that didn’t matter.

By that I mean, I read science fiction and horror because I like mind-expanding concepts and ideas. I like with authors can write real and extraordinary characters in weird settings. There is absolutely nothing special about the plot of this book. Normally I would think it was a great idea for a movie probably starring Charlize Theron who seems to do the insane action movies well. That may sound like an insult but Youers proves here that does matter if you focus on the right things.

A story doesn’t have to have something you never have seen before if it is well told. That is 500 words before I get into the nuts and bolts of this novel. This is a revenge story, and it would be fair to say it is a gender-flipped John Wick. Comparisons to Kill Bill and Killing Eve seem less fair to me but you will see them.  Lola Bear is a character who through a set of circumstances, namely her war hero grandpa and the gangster who recruited her at a young age has become a legendary killer.  The story opens in 1993 when Lola burns down that gangster’s empire.  This prologue is great and feels part Elmore Leonard / Part Kill Bill.

“I mean I’m Jimmy Fucking Latzo. I don’t lose. You fucking know that. And geuss what, baby doll…you tried to bring me down-fucking end me- I brought you down. The unstoppable Lola Bear. I’m going to go from legendary to godlike.”

And if he killed her, he probably would. It didn’t matter that his army was torn apart and his house in ashes; killing Lola Bear would add considerably to his resume.”

For this reader who didn’t know the plot came 100 pages of reading with new characters and I was not sure how they connected. The style of the prologue doesn't push through with the change in characters, and story wise that made sense. That said the opening is probably the most fun part of the book. Because I didn't read about the plot I was wondering how these characters connected but I trusted Youers and I am glad I did. Eventually, it is clear these new characters Brody and Molly are Lola’s children. After their father’s murder, and their mother leaving them they are struggling to survive. Brody is coming to the conclusion that crime might be the only way out.

Holding up a liquor store was his first step into crime and it backfires. The next steps in the plot are a bit of a stretch until you figure who is pulling the strings.  Brody and Molly are forced to run and the only person who can save them their mom. If only they can find her and deal with the War that would bring.

Minor spoilers from here on…

One crazy thing is my hometown of Bloomington Indiana is one of the locations the characters travel to and one of the most important scenes of the book takes place in the park where I played basketball growing up. It is a scene when Renee a family member Brody and Molly tracked down tells them the truth and finally convinces them of the depth of the trouble they are in, and the level of killer their mother was.

“It was a set-up, Brody. Jimmy is using you to find Mom.”

While everything in this scene is elaborate it is unrolled in a way that works. This is a hard narrative trick not every scene of exposition can be smooth. Brody could come off in this scene like a moron, but instead, Youers did a wonderful job of making me feel sorry for Brody and Molly.

I want to give a compliment to this novel that may sound like an insult. Lola on Fire is an action movie more than it is a novel. Rio plays power cords like any good writer but the notes he effectively hits are the stuff of movies more than novels.  In this case that is perfect because the bottom line is always, always the story.

Blair who sets up Brody is the new Lola, in her job and training. She is the hot young replacement with that one thing that makes her more dangerous. Her ability to plan and stay one step ahead. She and Lola are like two cars driving full speed toward each other in the same lane. We know they will collide and in the end, the only advantage Lola has is what she became free of Jimmy.

She is a mother.

This leads to my favorite part of the whole book when Brody gets Molly to safety and tells her he has to go back. On page 339 of this narrative, I was conflicted reading. Wanting to yell at the book, get out of their Brody, but knowing he had to go. Why? Because Jimmy Latzo is a perfect action movie bad guy. Ruthless beyond reason who wanted to hurt their mother more than he wanted all the money and power in the world.

“His eye drifted back to the drop of blood on the hood. It had lost its shape, but not its color – its redness. And it was no longer just his mom’s blood. It was his dad’s, Renee’s, and Karl Janko’s. It was every drop of blood that Jimmy had ever spilled. It was every vile he’d done.”

He could return to the farm with Molly, leave his mother to die in pain, but he would spend his life consumed by the same hated. The action films are built on the same foundation that every great story is. Anyone can stage a car chase or have Chow Yun-Fat run around with two guns killing a million people. The best action stories are built on parallels and reversals. Character arcs are even more important in stories that appear action-driven.

I suspect Rio Youers wanted this to be the action movie that played in his head. He is a novelist so that is how he told the story. All the reviews and blurbs will tell you about the action and thrills but I am happy to recommend this character-driven coming of age that has lots of bullet casings.