Paradise

I have friends that lost everything in the Paradise fire. I hoped this book would give me some understanding of what they went through. It was sad, concerning, and brought to light some issues that need to be addressed by California and items that should have been looked into before this catastrophe occured.

Good perspective. It was emotional for me though.

This something that was hard for me to read only because it hits so close to home for my family. My grandfather grew up in this area of California and had lots of stories to tell about all the shenanigans when he was a kid. The book was a great point of view about the reality of what happened. I also think it helped my grandfather get some closure on some things as well. We read it together and was a great bonding moment to live and talk about this tragedy with each other based on what the book had to tell.

I just got this book and am already half way done. This is a heartbreaking book about the town of Paradise CA.

I've encountered a lot of folks in my community (southern Oregon) who have been impacted by this event and having some of those experiences integrated into a text for others to learn can be crucial for those in the helping fields. I've shared this with a new colleague who relocated to Oregon for work and had no knowledge of this event. Both of us agree that this provides valuable insight to the importance of community in tragedy and how we can find ourselves in a position of allyship for those in hardship such as this. I also found that I was reflecting on my knowledge of response to grief and loss as a result of this book.

I read this book in one day, I couldn’t put it down! It was very well written, factual, and informative. It was very well researched and written with compassion. I was personally affected by the Paradise fire and it was interesting to learn many more details than I had experienced from it. It is devastating the amount of lives lost and property unsalvageable.

This book left me on the edge of my seat and hard to put down. The devastation is horrible and my heart hurts for all of the inhabitants of Paradise. I am hoping that this town can rebuild and become a better community structure. At the beginning the book was hard to follow but the more I read the more I understood.

Paradise was a harrowing, heartbreaking read that maintained humanity at its core. Lizzie Johnson's narrative is fast-paced, and thorough in telling the stories of the people impacted by the Camp Fire. Elected officials, emergency responders, hosptial workers, caretakers, teachers, parents and other community members responded in the ways they knew how and while that was sometimes enough to save a life, Paradise also highlights how much is missing from many communities' emergency response plans and systems. This aspect of the book is chilling. There is no fluff to the story. Johnson's writing is sometimes speculative, but her background as a reporter helps ensure a factual retelling of events and human experience that is unadorned. And these stories matter greatly. Readers have ready access to books and articles about fire science, fire behavior, and fire fighting and suppression, amongh other technical aspects. But the stories are each unique, and serve to remind us that we are vulnerable, yet capable of great strength and selflessness.

Very intense. Starts slowly and then as the fire starts roaring, so does the pace of this book. There were a lot of people featured—I wished for a list to refer to. Shows how hard it is to balance protection against fire versus other needs in our communities.

Great Book..Learned a lot that the news did not show

I felt like I was reading a novel rather than a non-fiction. Although I like to read about people who have exciting experiences., it was a scary book for me to read because I live in a forested community. So many of my friends have had to evacuate during the recent fires, but, luckily, none of them have lost their homes.

It was so informative. It gave me an insight to the tragedy of wild fires

As someone who has followed this entire tragedy and worked with so many survivors of these circumstances, this book is enthralling and absolutely worth the read both to hear the story itself but to really humanize and bring the reality to light.