I found this to be a genuinely eye-opening account of the Grenfell Tower fire. At first, I wondered if the author had been responsible for any other works of non-fiction when in the beginning he stated, “it was difficult to decide where to begin this sorry tale; perhaps with the development of aluminum composite panels” (1). To be honest this didn’t bode well for me as a reader because, honestly, who wants to read about that? And I often times felt the author could’ve started by bringing us headfirst into the fire to lure the reader in and then go back to the beginning as some non-fiction narratives do.

As I continued reading, I felt the story begin read in the same vein as the triangle factory fire, however this story did feel like a first draft of that story. This story did start to gain traction in certain areas, for example when the author discussed the blatant disregard of fire regulations within the Grenfell building: the use of fire-spreading materials and insufficient cladding to prevent the fire from spreading, and as we discover later, the fire doors and firefighting lifts not working as intended and failing to sustain the fire to the degree that regulations mandated.

Overall, I did feel this read and was outlined a bit more like a research report than an engrossing piece of non-fiction. The author clearly did their research, but the best non fiction I’ve read has come off more personal and engrossing. In terms of the fire, the author did a great job of explaining fire terms in layman’s terms, describing the aftermath, and the aftermath of the aftermath, and there were moments when I found this story genuinely interesting and the injustice eye-opening and infuriating.

The author is all over the place and it makes it very difficult to follow.

Tragic absolutely, but I feel as though this needed a lot of continuity