Story Aesthetics: “A Thousand Fires” by Shannon Price

10 YEARS. 3 GANGS. 1 GIRL’S EPIC QUEST.

Valerie Simons knows the city’s gang wars are dangerous – her own brother was killed by the Boars two years ago. But nothing will sway her from joining the elite and beautiful Herons to avenge his death – a death she feels responsible for.

But when Valeries is recruited by the mysterious Stags, their charismatic and volatile leader Jax promises to help her get revenge. Torn between old love and new loyalty, Valerie fights to stay alive as she races across the streets of San Francisco to finish the mission that got her into the gangs.

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A Thousand Fires was one of my most anticipated titles this year and I couldn’t be happier that I was given a chance to participate in a blog tour promoting it. I finished reading it a couple of weeks ago and a few story threads are still stuck in my head. ATF tackles a number of very heavy topics: grief – the anger it arouses and the acceptance of it, violence, and gentrification – how it affects people, communities and the culture of one place.

And, for my stop on the A Thousand Fires blog tour hosted by the Karlita of Tale Out Loud and Karina of Afire Pages, I made a little something (aka I scoured Unsplash, Pexels, and Pixabay yet again.) I had so much fun making this aesthetic for ATF! San Francisco, being the setting of the book, of course, inspired a lot of these photos. But the colors each gang claimed – grey and red for the Boars, all white for the Herons, and black for the Stags – also gave me a whole lot of brain candy.

A Thousand Fires is already out in the world. If you’re looking for a fast-paced read with a bit The Iliad and The Outsiders vibes thrown in, this is the book for you.

about the author Shannon Price

SHANNON PRICE is a YA author living in the San Francisco Bay Area. After graduating from Santa Clara University with a degree in English, she interned and later worked for Counterpoint Press in Berkely, California. As a publicist at Counterpoint, she garnered coverage for her clients’ books in media outlets like the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Entertainment Weekly, and many more.

In 2014, she was accepted into the Scottish Universities’ International Summer School at the University of Edinburgh where she studied Creative Writing and Contemporary Literature under the tutelage of best-selling Irish writer Ruth Gilligan. In college, she worked as the Art Editor of the Santa Clara Review and represented Review at the AWP 2015 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She was a mentor in the second round of Author Mentor Match and regularly attends writing events around the Bay Area.

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