Our Hearts Will Burn Us Down Summary
Anne Valente

Our Hearts Will Burn Us Down Overview

Placed in the context of the early years of America’s involvement searching for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, Valente explores the impact of relentless hardships on an intimate level with her main characters’ reactions to the violence at their school and the tragic fires that follow. Themes of trauma, grief, friendship, mystery, and recovery are examined as the four main characters of the novel learn to move past a horrific school shooting and deadly, explainable house fires in their community. Valente’s novel captures the powerful grief and the struggle to regain a sense of normalcy these high school students face in the wake of the relentless tragedies they face.