Lies Like Wildfire - Jennifer Lynn Alvarez
Season 11 Episode 17 | 2m 30sVideo has Closed Captions
Jennifer Lynn Alvarez talks about her book Lies Like Wildfire.
In fire-prone Gap Mountain, 18-year-old Hannah Warner and her friends accidentally ignite a deadly wildfire. They lie to investigators when the flames threaten their town and Yosemite National Park. But people crack under pressure, and Hannah must go to dangerous lengths to protect them and their secrets — proving even good people can do terrible things.
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A Word on Words is a local public television program presented by WNPT
Lies Like Wildfire - Jennifer Lynn Alvarez
Season 11 Episode 17 | 2m 30sVideo has Closed Captions
In fire-prone Gap Mountain, 18-year-old Hannah Warner and her friends accidentally ignite a deadly wildfire. They lie to investigators when the flames threaten their town and Yosemite National Park. But people crack under pressure, and Hannah must go to dangerous lengths to protect them and their secrets — proving even good people can do terrible things.
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship(keyboard clacking) (bell chiming) (gentle music) (match striking) (fire roaring) (dramatic music) - Hi, I'm Jennifer Lynn Alvarez, and this is my book, "Lies Like Wildfire."
So this is a story of five teenagers, best friends.
They have just graduated high school, some are going to college, some are staying back and going to work, and they're having their last celebration and they're facing their friendship changing as they grow apart and grow up.
At this little celebration, they accidentally start a major wildfire.
(fire crackling) Knowing that starting a wildfire even on accident is a crime, they have every reason to lie about it and no reason to tell the truth, because telling the truth isn't gonna put the fire out.
They know that they're gonna be looking at prison time instead of college, so they decide to hide this, the fact that they started this wildfire.
One of them starts to wanna tell the truth, and as the tension grows and builds, the one friend who is cracking, she decides to tell the truth, and that night, she goes missing.
(dramatic music continues) I love the parallel between the fire and the lies.
The lies are infecting this group of friends, affecting every part of their lives, affecting their romances, their other friendships, their relationships with their families.
When I first decided to write the story, I really just wanted to write about five friends who make a mistake.
I knew it had to be starting a wildfire because of my own personal experience with the Tubbs fire in 2017.
It was cathartic for me to write about this because this is a fire that I got to start, I got to tell it where to burn, and I got to put it out.
Again, I'm Jennifer Lynn Alvarez.
Thanks for watching "A Word on Words" and keep reading.
(dramatic music continues)
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A Word on Words is a local public television program presented by WNPT