Burn

Product Information

The plot itself – the bare bones of the story – made sense. It was also kinda interesting and fast paced. I’ve always had a soft spot for dragons, and I love the intricacies of this world. The inclusion of these wonderful creatures in a historical setting (America in 1957) was unique and captivating. Told in two parts and the third person, Burn is told from various viewpoints. The plot plays out as three separate stories yet interweaves them when the time comes. And once more Book Box Club got me a book that I wouldn't have bought myself. Of course, I had seen this book on the internet already. I know quite a few people who were really looking forward to this one and I came across it while making my wishlist for June. However, for some reason this book didn't really speak to me and I don't know why. Sometimes it happens. I read a blurb and somehow I kinda know that it's not gonna be my new favorite book.

Patrick Ness » Burn

I have to admit that part of why I had such mixed feelings towards Burn was that it was one of my most anticipated reads of 2020. Ness has such a unique take on storytelling and injects a lot of creativity into his books. He did show some of his brilliance with his insightfulness into the human condition but I didn’t think that was enough to carry the rest of the book into four, let alone five stars from me. Sometimes you just have to feel bad about a thing. Sometimes that's the only thing that makes you human. Apparently I was wrong because quite literally everything went wrong. And I am really sad about it. Whether or not you appreciate multiple points of views in storytelling is down to personal preference. For me, I’m not the biggest fan, so that might’ve contributed to my ambivalence. Although, even beyond my preferences, I thought Burn suffered from this approach as it became a little too fragmented. The character developments felt incomplete and the plot pace didn’t quite hit the synergy it needed to gel the individual points of view together. It is also just an incredible story with twists that I didn't see coming at all. Yeah, there's nothing more to say except I never wanted to put this book down and now I love it, the end.Ness has such a skill for seamlessly blending reality with more fantastical elements and yet maintaining the focus on real-world ambivalence with his running social commentary. Despite the plot being distinctly other-worldly this also opened up historical international conflicts as well as the sexism, racism, and homophobia rampant in this 1950's American setting. How Ness showcased and overcame this xenophobia was extraordinary and my favourite part of the book. And another thing I strongly did not like was the ending. I thought it was cheap and just too easy. The fact that Sarah stayed in the parallel universe and all the deaths that happened on Earth #1 got reversed made me mad. Literally every single dead person got resurrected and she got to re-start a new perfect life – nah, fam, I’m not about that life. The use of the resurrection trope bothered me to no end and I simply could not get on board with all that. Disclosure: I received a review copy of Burn from HarperCollins Publishers, the publisher, in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. I think this book could have worked with a higher word count. More time to establish the world-building, more space for the characters to develop, more room for the story to breathe and settle. Because this was one wild ride and I believe it might have given me a concussion.

Burn - Read for Good Burn - Read for Good

The twists and turns that it contains with, the teenage assassin Malcom of who discovers being gay does not matter and makes his alternate dimension self (Hugo) know that too. The story is set on a farm in Frome, Washington, in 1957. It begins when the father of a teenager, Sarah, hires a dragon to clear a field for them with his fiery breath, but the arrival of the dragon heralds a series of horrific events. A number of acutely drawn characters make this world authentic and fascinating. There is a bad cop whose hatred seeps throughout their small town and whose every move and word is toxic. There is Sarah herself, a teenager who lives alone with her farmer father after the death of her mother, and there’s the boy next door, Jason Inagawa, for whom Sarah has romantic feelings. There is also a cult of dragon worshippers who believe in a prophecy that predicts the end of the world.It's very much the 50s we know, including the racism, but it has dragons it. Somehow this never feels shoehorned in, it just works seamlessly. We have a full cast of diverse characters, the farm girl, her Japanese boyfriend, the gay assassin coming to kill her, the detectives following the assassin, the giant blue dragon I kinda want to marry? Is that weird? The fact that the cast of characters was, indeed, a whole freaking cast did not help the overall clarity and smoothness of the book. There were too many people and too many points of views and so everything was bewildering and confusing. And with the introduction of the characters from the parallel universe, things just got worse. Je woont met je vader op een boerderij, en de toekomst ziet er niet rooskleurig uit. Je vader is genoodzaakt om een blauwe draak in dienst te nemen die jullie land kan bewerken. Misschien redden jullie het dan tot volgend jaar. In de buurt maken jullie zich niet heel geliefd met zo’n wezen. Dat is een understatement, maar dat zal jullie een zorg zijn.