Fire Rush by Jacqueline Crooks is a coming-of-age novel set in the Caribbean community in London in the 1980s. The novel's central character is Yamaye, while the antagonists are the police officers who mistreat Black people. The main discord in the novel is between Yamaye and the London police officers, who arrest and kill Black people for crimes they never committed. Jacqueline Crooks' main themes in the novel include a longing for a sense of identity, love, and the immigrants' challenges in a foreign country.
The longing for identity is a major point of interest in the novel Fire Rush. The novel shows how Yamaye struggles to discover her identity as a young Black woman. Yamaye's mother died when Yamaye was a child, and she never got an opportunity to connect with her. Yamaye now lives with her irresponsible father, who rarely stays at home. Yamaye makes friends with young people who often take her to reggae concerts, where she tries to connect with people of Jamaican roots. Yamaye continues to search for a person she can connect with until she meets a loving and caring man called Moose. Yamaye and Moose start a long-term love relationship, and they look forward to marriage. Unfortunately, police officers accuse Moose of a crime he never committed, and they shoot him dead. Once again, Yamaye gets disconnected from people because no one seems to understand her as Moose did.
The novel’s ending shows the challenges of being an immigrant in a foreign country. Jacqueline Crooks shows the difficulties Jamaican immigrants go through in England. Yamaye and her father face racism and offensive words from the locals. The other challenge of an immigrant in a foreign country is difficulty assimilating to the new culture. After migrating from Jamaica, Yamaye and her family struggle to assimilate into the new culture in England. The author also shows how White police officers mistreat Black people. For instance, Moose is shot dead by the police after being accused of a crime he never committed.
