A young woman trapped in a deeply dysfunctional family in the seedy wilds of 1990s South Florida has to make a choice—save her family, or save herself—in this “riveting” (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution) novel from the acclaimed author of Lay the Favorite.
“Marvelous . . . a hopelessly funny, rueful account of [a] hair-raising childhood . . . a true heroine for tough times.”—People (Book of the Week)
A Jennette McCurdy Book Club Pick
“Florida, we got it all. Motor sports, ribs, beer. You can drive on the sand right on up to the ocean. Fireworks every night.”
That's how twelve-year-old C.C.’s father, who named her after his beloved Canadian Club whiskey, describes the appeal of their new home. The man is a born grifter, a used-car salesman who burned down his dealership in southern Ohio for enough insurance money to set up a life for himself, his wife, and his two young daughters in a place he picked largely at random, because the living seemed easy.
C.C.’s mother is thirty-five going on seventeen, a housewife who just wants to drive a Mustang and hang out at the mall. C.C.’s sister goes from being a sweet, cheerful pre-teen to having a full-on drug addiction and listening only to heavy metal, after enduring forms of abuse within her family. In the midst of this chaos, C.C. is trying to stay afloat and make it out—to achieve some semblance of a stable life in America while coming up against the structural and cultural challenges of growing up in poverty.
This tumultuous coming-of-age novel features an unforgettable protagonist, a character who narrates her life story with dark comedy and compassion for her family, even as she is failed by them. Those failures—and her self-taught methods for succeeding anyway—are the backbone of this surprisingly poignant story about hard bargains, family loyalties, and the grit of a woman determined to create a better life for herself than the one she was born into.
Genre: General Fiction
“Marvelous . . . a hopelessly funny, rueful account of [a] hair-raising childhood . . . a true heroine for tough times.”—People (Book of the Week)
A Jennette McCurdy Book Club Pick
“Florida, we got it all. Motor sports, ribs, beer. You can drive on the sand right on up to the ocean. Fireworks every night.”
That's how twelve-year-old C.C.’s father, who named her after his beloved Canadian Club whiskey, describes the appeal of their new home. The man is a born grifter, a used-car salesman who burned down his dealership in southern Ohio for enough insurance money to set up a life for himself, his wife, and his two young daughters in a place he picked largely at random, because the living seemed easy.
C.C.’s mother is thirty-five going on seventeen, a housewife who just wants to drive a Mustang and hang out at the mall. C.C.’s sister goes from being a sweet, cheerful pre-teen to having a full-on drug addiction and listening only to heavy metal, after enduring forms of abuse within her family. In the midst of this chaos, C.C. is trying to stay afloat and make it out—to achieve some semblance of a stable life in America while coming up against the structural and cultural challenges of growing up in poverty.
This tumultuous coming-of-age novel features an unforgettable protagonist, a character who narrates her life story with dark comedy and compassion for her family, even as she is failed by them. Those failures—and her self-taught methods for succeeding anyway—are the backbone of this surprisingly poignant story about hard bargains, family loyalties, and the grit of a woman determined to create a better life for herself than the one she was born into.
Genre: General Fiction
Praise for this book
"With raw humor and even more raw pain, Beth Raymer's Fireworks Every Night alchemizes the ubiquitous Florida Man headlines into a powerful, humane family portrait." - Xhenet Aliu
"Beth Raymer is the real deal, and her first novel is a knockout. With wisdom, soul, and dry crackling wit, she reports from the swampy, debt-burdened places most Americans live but rarely see portrayed. Like Carson McCullers, she astonishes with the honesty of her voice and the depth of her heart. I'll be thinking about this gorgeous book for a long time." - Jim Gavin
"Raymer's first novel crackles with life and energy. There is nothing she can't do with a sentence. Each line catapults the story forward--a meteor of hilarity and heartbreak--so much so that I got to page 20 and flipped back to the beginning just for the pleasure of re-reading it. Her young, tough-voiced narrator, CC, made me long to drink gin-infused stolen oranges, sell Corvettes in a broiling used-car lot, and move to the swamplands of Florida, where snakes slither into school classrooms. This is a brilliant debut and a brilliant writer." - Leigh Newman
"I read Raymer's novel in a state of giddy awe, like watching someone launching bottle rockets in the dark at close range and exploding in laughter, a dangerous shower of sparks illuminating a deeply dysfunctional family cruising toward disaster in a brand-new car." - Elissa Schappell
"Beth Raymer's stylish, thrilling Fireworks Every Night delivers what the title promises: a fun spectacle on each page. Nineties Florida deserves a neon talent, and that's what Raymer offers--pyrotechnical brilliance and a book of wit and heat. The voice is harrowingly true and full of sweet compassion. And in CC, Raymer has given us a character to love forever." - Darin Strauss
"Fireworks Every Night is electric--a wild, raw, heartbreaking ride through Florida swamps and midwestern living rooms, mother-daughter relationships, and the discovery of self. Its honest, elegant look at money, identity, and desire in America powers a story that refuses to relent until the very end. Every sentence absolutely glimmers." - Kayla Rae Whitaker
"Beth Raymer is the real deal, and her first novel is a knockout. With wisdom, soul, and dry crackling wit, she reports from the swampy, debt-burdened places most Americans live but rarely see portrayed. Like Carson McCullers, she astonishes with the honesty of her voice and the depth of her heart. I'll be thinking about this gorgeous book for a long time." - Jim Gavin
"Raymer's first novel crackles with life and energy. There is nothing she can't do with a sentence. Each line catapults the story forward--a meteor of hilarity and heartbreak--so much so that I got to page 20 and flipped back to the beginning just for the pleasure of re-reading it. Her young, tough-voiced narrator, CC, made me long to drink gin-infused stolen oranges, sell Corvettes in a broiling used-car lot, and move to the swamplands of Florida, where snakes slither into school classrooms. This is a brilliant debut and a brilliant writer." - Leigh Newman
"I read Raymer's novel in a state of giddy awe, like watching someone launching bottle rockets in the dark at close range and exploding in laughter, a dangerous shower of sparks illuminating a deeply dysfunctional family cruising toward disaster in a brand-new car." - Elissa Schappell
"Beth Raymer's stylish, thrilling Fireworks Every Night delivers what the title promises: a fun spectacle on each page. Nineties Florida deserves a neon talent, and that's what Raymer offers--pyrotechnical brilliance and a book of wit and heat. The voice is harrowingly true and full of sweet compassion. And in CC, Raymer has given us a character to love forever." - Darin Strauss
"Fireworks Every Night is electric--a wild, raw, heartbreaking ride through Florida swamps and midwestern living rooms, mother-daughter relationships, and the discovery of self. Its honest, elegant look at money, identity, and desire in America powers a story that refuses to relent until the very end. Every sentence absolutely glimmers." - Kayla Rae Whitaker
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