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labunnywtf's review
2.0
Power flickered off for a second in my office.
Just long enough to kick my computer off halfway through the review. ::thumb's up::
This is a good book for being written during a 72 hour marathon. I'll give it that. But otherwise...
There is entirely too much plot for such a short book. It's a lot to pack in, and it needs minimally 200 more pages. I like this premise, it was obviously enough to grab my attention and get me requesting the title from Netgalley.
Francis is a great character. Emotionally stunted and brutally damaged. His best friend, who loves him fiercely. This new girl in town who's taken an interest and wants to drag him out of his shell. The class bully, who wants to...kill him.
So, you take this cast, and put it into 147 pages.
I'm Francis I'm burned life sucks let's drink.
I'm Trig. Hulk smash penis penis.
I'm Brandon. I will kill you.
I'm Rachel. I just met you and I love you let's quote Shakespeare.
There is no motivation for these people. Even Francis, who is the actual main character. You don't see any of his motivation for his actions. None of them are fully developed characters, and it is intensely frustrating.
Francis' mother never stopped his father from the abuse. Can we see that? What's the relationship like with him and his mother, what happened after he got burned? Trig hates his father, and steals all of his alcohol. What's going on there? Trig and Georgia are hot and heavy every time they see each other. Don't they see each other in school? Who was the girl that was talked about in the beginning who liked to bang Trig? Wasn't that an entirely different name?
All of a sudden, Rachel appears. Smacks Brandon, Francis I love you let's spend loads of time together here have a coffee hey let's quote Shakespeare tell me all of your history oh my god, I love you.
What?
And Brandon isn't even a 2 dimensional bully. He's a one dimensional bully. Sure, pick on the weakling, bully MO, but what the fuck led up to that climax? I saw nothing that made that make sense.
I'm frustrated. Intensely frustrated, because this is a good plot, and a bad book. It needs a lot more before it could be.
Just long enough to kick my computer off halfway through the review. ::thumb's up::
This is a good book for being written during a 72 hour marathon. I'll give it that. But otherwise...
There is entirely too much plot for such a short book. It's a lot to pack in, and it needs minimally 200 more pages. I like this premise, it was obviously enough to grab my attention and get me requesting the title from Netgalley.
Francis is a great character. Emotionally stunted and brutally damaged. His best friend, who loves him fiercely. This new girl in town who's taken an interest and wants to drag him out of his shell. The class bully, who wants to...kill him.
So, you take this cast, and put it into 147 pages.
I'm Francis I'm burned life sucks let's drink.
I'm Trig. Hulk smash penis penis.
I'm Brandon. I will kill you.
I'm Rachel. I just met you and I love you let's quote Shakespeare.
There is no motivation for these people. Even Francis, who is the actual main character. You don't see any of his motivation for his actions. None of them are fully developed characters, and it is intensely frustrating.
Francis' mother never stopped his father from the abuse. Can we see that? What's the relationship like with him and his mother, what happened after he got burned? Trig hates his father, and steals all of his alcohol. What's going on there? Trig and Georgia are hot and heavy every time they see each other. Don't they see each other in school? Who was the girl that was talked about in the beginning who liked to bang Trig? Wasn't that an entirely different name?
All of a sudden, Rachel appears. Smacks Brandon, Francis I love you let's spend loads of time together here have a coffee hey let's quote Shakespeare tell me all of your history oh my god, I love you.
What?
And Brandon isn't even a 2 dimensional bully. He's a one dimensional bully. Sure, pick on the weakling, bully MO, but what the fuck led up to that climax? I saw nothing that made that make sense.
I'm frustrated. Intensely frustrated, because this is a good plot, and a bad book. It needs a lot more before it could be.
afretts's review
5.0
Kevin Craig knows how to write teenage boys.
When I was first approved for this book via NetGalley and went to send it to my kindle I was pretty aggravated. It was an Adobe Editions file. I was going to have to sit at my laptop and read this entire book if I was to review this. Then I saw it was only 147 pages and figured I could make it through. I would have sat on a bed of nails with my laptop if Craig was willing to write me 1,000 pages. This book is good.
Each character is well developed and has a unique voice. Trig is the best friend everyone wishes they had in their life. Georgia seems to have a heart of gold. Francis is coping with tragedy and bullying and still somehow manages to be compassionate and funny. I wanted to stay in his head forever.
This story is pretty heavy. It tells Francis's horrific backstory through a series of flashbacks. You can't help but want to hug him as you learn how his abusive father tried to kill him and scarred him for life.
Additionally, Francis deals with severe bullying at school because of his disfigurements. Watching him deal (and not deal) with it is hard because Craig makes you simultaneously feel terrible for him and like he needs to freaking do something about it!
In fact, Craig's story made me feel a lot of conflicting emotions as I read it. The story is that good.
My one critique would be that Rachel's part in the plot is somewhat underdeveloped. She comes into the story rather suddenly and I couldn't quite reconcile why she liked Francis at all. As sad as it is, being bullied is not necessarily an attractive quality in a guy and Rachel cites this as the reason she notices him. I would have liked to have seen their friendship develop a little bit more before any kind of romance blossomed. As it's written, Rachel almost seems drawn to Francis because he's someone she can teach , protect, and fix. They don't seem to be equals.
Regardless, I highly recommend this book- especially to fans of [b:Winger|11861815|Winger (Winger, #1)|Andrew Smith|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1367927656s/11861815.jpg|16818567]. The story is short, but poignant. You won't regret taking a couple of hours to read it.
When I was first approved for this book via NetGalley and went to send it to my kindle I was pretty aggravated. It was an Adobe Editions file. I was going to have to sit at my laptop and read this entire book if I was to review this. Then I saw it was only 147 pages and figured I could make it through. I would have sat on a bed of nails with my laptop if Craig was willing to write me 1,000 pages. This book is good.
Each character is well developed and has a unique voice. Trig is the best friend everyone wishes they had in their life. Georgia seems to have a heart of gold. Francis is coping with tragedy and bullying and still somehow manages to be compassionate and funny. I wanted to stay in his head forever.
This story is pretty heavy. It tells Francis's horrific backstory through a series of flashbacks. You can't help but want to hug him as you learn how his abusive father tried to kill him and scarred him for life.
Additionally, Francis deals with severe bullying at school because of his disfigurements. Watching him deal (and not deal) with it is hard because Craig makes you simultaneously feel terrible for him and like he needs to freaking do something about it!
In fact, Craig's story made me feel a lot of conflicting emotions as I read it. The story is that good.
My one critique would be that Rachel's part in the plot is somewhat underdeveloped. She comes into the story rather suddenly and I couldn't quite reconcile why she liked Francis at all. As sad as it is, being bullied is not necessarily an attractive quality in a guy and Rachel cites this as the reason she notices him. I would have liked to have seen their friendship develop a little bit more before any kind of romance blossomed. As it's written, Rachel almost seems drawn to Francis because he's someone she can teach , protect, and fix. They don't seem to be equals.
Regardless, I highly recommend this book- especially to fans of [b:Winger|11861815|Winger (Winger, #1)|Andrew Smith|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1367927656s/11861815.jpg|16818567]. The story is short, but poignant. You won't regret taking a couple of hours to read it.
eraynayreads's review
3.0
very quick read! Trig seemed a little bit over the top with his anger but was a good character. The ending came as a surprise and a little rushed but overall a good read!!
mrose21's review
3.0
This was OK but really not my favourite this year.
Its a bit too YA for my mood today
Its a bit too YA for my mood today
sjj169's review
2.0
This is probably going to be a super popular book and of course... I didn't like it.
Frances is a seventeen year old boy who lives with disfiguring scars. His dad abused him often and actually ended up in prison for it. He is bullied mercilessly by the school jock. Thus the nick name of Burn Baby.
I hate bullies (yes, I do know I've been called one a few times) so I thought I would love this book. Because sometimes you just want the Lucy's of the world to get their due.
The thing is with the book is I never felt that Frances's character rang true. He is seventeen and it seems like he is so much younger in spots (yes, I do know abuse can do that) but then he is drinking every chance he gets. His best friend Trig could have been a great character too, but it sure as heck got weird for me with the way that Frances always wanted Trig to save him.
Then Rachel, the love interest gets thrown into the mix. No rhyme or reason to why suddenly she is so attracted to Frances. She is the new girl in school and automatically knows what a great guy he is.
There are a few fun moments about his twin brothers Paul and Simon...get it? Paul Simon. That's it.
The rest of the time I honestly felt that the book was over trying with the angst and over the top with trying to pull on the readers feelings.
It's a very short book of just over a hundred pages so that may not have worked in it's favor. More time to give you build up to why the characters were the way they were could possibly have helped.
I received an arc copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
gabs_myfullbookshelf's review
2.0
I'm not really sure where to start with Burn Baby, Burn Baby. It definitely wasn't my type of book; I'll cut it some slack because trust me, this is not the kind of book I usually like to read. It may have been labeled at YA, but this is definitely more like New Adult. Still, even if it had been a completely YA type of story, I really doubt I would have loved it. There were just too many flaws.
The first thing that really caught my attention while reading is Trig. He was painted to be the ultimate friend, but he's a total scumbag to his girlfriend, and so no matter how brotherly he was to Francis, I hated him. Francis says at one point that Trig is borderline abusive to his girlfriend, Georgia, and I agree. It's not a healthy relationship whatsoever, and it disgusted me.
The second thing was the instalove. It doesn't feel as bad as some insta-love, because there are no lusty fireworks, but it still happens way quicker than any normal relationship. I want to know what originally attracted Rachel to Francis. I want a longer period of time between first words and first kisses. I don't want whatever the heck this is.
Francis is a total hormonal teenage boy, as was Trig, and it got kind of bleh after like two pages. I'm glad that the author actually painted him as a realistic teenage boy, because a lot of guys in YA do not remind me at all of any of the boys I go to school with, but almost every single sentence during the beginning of this story had to do with how hot a girl was or something.
Besides that, I didn't feel like I got to know him as much as I should of. Like, give me more about his Shakespeare obsession. Or his thing with making movies. Or his relationship with his mother. We got some interesting facts about him, but they never got elaborated on.
The ending...I don't know, I just felt like it escalated really quickly from the previous tone of the book. Like REAAAAAAAAALLLY quickly. I honestly had no idea how to handle it.
I didn't like this one very much at all. It seems I am the one of the only people that feels this way, but I really disliked Burn Baby. It's not something I would ever consider reading again.
The first thing that really caught my attention while reading is Trig. He was painted to be the ultimate friend, but he's a total scumbag to his girlfriend, and so no matter how brotherly he was to Francis, I hated him. Francis says at one point that Trig is borderline abusive to his girlfriend, Georgia, and I agree. It's not a healthy relationship whatsoever, and it disgusted me.
The second thing was the instalove. It doesn't feel as bad as some insta-love, because there are no lusty fireworks, but it still happens way quicker than any normal relationship. I want to know what originally attracted Rachel to Francis. I want a longer period of time between first words and first kisses. I don't want whatever the heck this is.
Francis is a total hormonal teenage boy, as was Trig, and it got kind of bleh after like two pages. I'm glad that the author actually painted him as a realistic teenage boy, because a lot of guys in YA do not remind me at all of any of the boys I go to school with, but almost every single sentence during the beginning of this story had to do with how hot a girl was or something.
Besides that, I didn't feel like I got to know him as much as I should of. Like, give me more about his Shakespeare obsession. Or his thing with making movies. Or his relationship with his mother. We got some interesting facts about him, but they never got elaborated on.
The ending...I don't know, I just felt like it escalated really quickly from the previous tone of the book. Like REAAAAAAAAALLLY quickly. I honestly had no idea how to handle it.
I didn't like this one very much at all. It seems I am the one of the only people that feels this way, but I really disliked Burn Baby. It's not something I would ever consider reading again.
thepaperreels's review
4.0
More reviews on my blog: HERE
This book blew me away. Blew. Me. Away. The fact that this book is a bit shorter than the usual books I read make this book more phenomenal. I have no idea that Burn Baby, Burn Baby will have a huge impact on me. I admit I am fond of books that deals with Bullying but I have read so many that it kind of hard to read something that truly stands out and that really awed me.
Until this one.
Kevin Craig is such an excellent author. His words are just so simple but very skin seeping. With every page that I turn I just did nothing but absorb it and feel it and just… experience it. The main protagonist, Francis is very likeable and his monologue is really enjoyable. His funny and his point of view felt very real.
See, Francis has a disability. The side of his face is burnt. A burnt that his father did to him. Now, I think I’m not the only one who is aware that once we encounter a person with a figure like that, we can’t keep ourselves from doing a double take. Some even stares.
But Francis can take the stares, he’s used to it. But there’s this one kid in his school that keeps bullying him and he FINALLY learned how to say STOP and ENOUGH when Rachel walked into his life. And of course, with the help of his best friend, Trig.
One aspect that I really adores here is the best friend relationship of Trig and France. Oh my goodness, I ACTUALLY ENVY IT. I want a best friend like Trig too.
There is nothing more to say than READ IT. READ IT NOW PLEASE YOU’LL LOVE IT. I admit that I am ALWAYS having a hard time writing a review when I LOVED a book so much. IS IT JUST ME? Anyway, Burn Baby, Burn Baby is a stellar book! A book that should be out more and to be read by many. I cannot wait to read more of Kevin Carig’s work.
"A life cannot be compromised of just one of these things. You need elements of everything for a life to truly work, to be truly worthwhile."
This book blew me away. Blew. Me. Away. The fact that this book is a bit shorter than the usual books I read make this book more phenomenal. I have no idea that Burn Baby, Burn Baby will have a huge impact on me. I admit I am fond of books that deals with Bullying but I have read so many that it kind of hard to read something that truly stands out and that really awed me.
Until this one.
Kevin Craig is such an excellent author. His words are just so simple but very skin seeping. With every page that I turn I just did nothing but absorb it and feel it and just… experience it. The main protagonist, Francis is very likeable and his monologue is really enjoyable. His funny and his point of view felt very real.
See, Francis has a disability. The side of his face is burnt. A burnt that his father did to him. Now, I think I’m not the only one who is aware that once we encounter a person with a figure like that, we can’t keep ourselves from doing a double take. Some even stares.
“You know the car wreck you don’t want to look at, but can’t help yourself from staring at? Well, I’m kind of like that car wreck in human form.”
But Francis can take the stares, he’s used to it. But there’s this one kid in his school that keeps bullying him and he FINALLY learned how to say STOP and ENOUGH when Rachel walked into his life. And of course, with the help of his best friend, Trig.
One aspect that I really adores here is the best friend relationship of Trig and France. Oh my goodness, I ACTUALLY ENVY IT. I want a best friend like Trig too.
There is nothing more to say than READ IT. READ IT NOW PLEASE YOU’LL LOVE IT. I admit that I am ALWAYS having a hard time writing a review when I LOVED a book so much. IS IT JUST ME? Anyway, Burn Baby, Burn Baby is a stellar book! A book that should be out more and to be read by many. I cannot wait to read more of Kevin Carig’s work.
goddesstoast's review
4.0
Victims of abuse carry many emotional scars. Many tend to have anger and resentment issues, and limit their social behavior to those whom they know they can trust. In the case of Francis Fripp, he has his best friend Tripp, and his younger brothers, Paul and Simon, who he lovingly lumps them together as an entity, referring to the duo as simply Paul Simon. Francis is the underdog, a 17 year old with a shoddy home life, who can barely stand high school, and has no confidence. Aside from emotional scars, he has burn scars on the entire right side of his body. The scar tissue a constant reminder of his past, along with a relentless bully who taunts and beats him on a regular basis.
He struggles to deal with the abuse in his past, and the pain that he holds inside.On many levels he blames himself, disabling him from believing that he deserves better. Through his friends, and his new love interest, he gradually learns how to permit himself to experience the happiness he deserves.
What I enjoyed about this novel was that it had all the elements of a sweet, coming of age story of a young man who learned to love himself, and find someone who cared for him and truly saw him - not his scars. But the novel concludes on an interesting twist. An unexpected event happens that forces Francis to act quickly, and reexamine the life he feels he deserves and decide on the one wants to live. Finally understanding that "You can be anything. All you have to do is shed everything you don't want to be"( p. 141) and knowing what is truly important in the end.
He struggles to deal with the abuse in his past, and the pain that he holds inside.On many levels he blames himself, disabling him from believing that he deserves better. Through his friends, and his new love interest, he gradually learns how to permit himself to experience the happiness he deserves.
What I enjoyed about this novel was that it had all the elements of a sweet, coming of age story of a young man who learned to love himself, and find someone who cared for him and truly saw him - not his scars. But the novel concludes on an interesting twist. An unexpected event happens that forces Francis to act quickly, and reexamine the life he feels he deserves and decide on the one wants to live. Finally understanding that "You can be anything. All you have to do is shed everything you don't want to be"( p. 141) and knowing what is truly important in the end.
pavi_fictionalworm's review
5.0
Actual Rating 4.5 Stars
The review is up For The Love of Fictional Worlds :)
This is my second novel from Kevin Craig and I knew that if it was anything like Half Dead and Fully Broken, it would one heart wrenching ride for me and that’s one of the reasons why I took a while to read this one. And therefore I apologise for the delay! (I am a coward when it comes to books breaking my heart!).
Burn Baby Burn Baby, tells the story of Francis, a high school kid with burns on the right side of the body that made the high school jock Brandon Hayley, nickname him “Burn Baby” (Originality at its best!). Francis has his best friend, Trig by his side but no one else.
Told in Francis’s POV, I got to understand him and I adored him! He was one of the most real characters I have read about in a long while. His emotions, his sarcastic attitude and his bitterness, all made up a character that I felt for with everything in me. His belief that he wasn’t good for was not only purported by himself but all the humans (and I use that word very loosely!) around him.
His best friend, Trig was someone I honestly did not like, not at first, and I am ashamed to admit that at first I actually thought he would have been the one who would betray him, but trust me, when you actually read the book, you’ll realise why I was hesitant to trust him. I got to know only Francis’s side of the story, and his bitterness has a way of making it into your heart. And yet, he was a better person than me.
This book made me realise what a pathetic species humans are. How absolutely cruel and vile we can be to things that are different, to people who are different. How has it ever mattered that people are different? Especially for something that wasn’t even their own fault? How is that we never take time to understand the story behind why a person is the way s/he is? Why is that being different from others mean that you are open to ridicule and a soft target to bullying and god forbid, abuse?
Why is normal considered normal? Why can’t different be normal for us? Why that being bullied is never the bully’s fault but the victim’s fault? Why can’t we ever speak out against bullying? Why is that when someone does speak out against their abuser, it’s the victims who get to feel like they are the one who did something wrong?
I apologise that this review became a rant but bullying and abuse is something that is close to my heart and I wish, I had well, understood the kind of pain the victims go through.
Coming back to the book, Burn Baby Burn Baby honestly one of the better books
I have read in a while. Mr Craig has done a wonderful job of verbalising what a victim of bullying goes through. Though yes, there were a few things that I still need a closure to, but when I read that this novel was written in 72 hour writing whirlwind in Muskoka Novel Marathon in the acknowledgement, that’s when I realise that the kind of emotional whirlpool he must have submitted himself for. And for that, he has my utmost respect.
The review is up For The Love of Fictional Worlds :)
This is my second novel from Kevin Craig and I knew that if it was anything like Half Dead and Fully Broken, it would one heart wrenching ride for me and that’s one of the reasons why I took a while to read this one. And therefore I apologise for the delay! (I am a coward when it comes to books breaking my heart!).
Burn Baby Burn Baby, tells the story of Francis, a high school kid with burns on the right side of the body that made the high school jock Brandon Hayley, nickname him “Burn Baby” (Originality at its best!). Francis has his best friend, Trig by his side but no one else.
Told in Francis’s POV, I got to understand him and I adored him! He was one of the most real characters I have read about in a long while. His emotions, his sarcastic attitude and his bitterness, all made up a character that I felt for with everything in me. His belief that he wasn’t good for was not only purported by himself but all the humans (and I use that word very loosely!) around him.
His best friend, Trig was someone I honestly did not like, not at first, and I am ashamed to admit that at first I actually thought he would have been the one who would betray him, but trust me, when you actually read the book, you’ll realise why I was hesitant to trust him. I got to know only Francis’s side of the story, and his bitterness has a way of making it into your heart. And yet, he was a better person than me.
This book made me realise what a pathetic species humans are. How absolutely cruel and vile we can be to things that are different, to people who are different. How has it ever mattered that people are different? Especially for something that wasn’t even their own fault? How is that we never take time to understand the story behind why a person is the way s/he is? Why is that being different from others mean that you are open to ridicule and a soft target to bullying and god forbid, abuse?
Why is normal considered normal? Why can’t different be normal for us? Why that being bullied is never the bully’s fault but the victim’s fault? Why can’t we ever speak out against bullying? Why is that when someone does speak out against their abuser, it’s the victims who get to feel like they are the one who did something wrong?
I apologise that this review became a rant but bullying and abuse is something that is close to my heart and I wish, I had well, understood the kind of pain the victims go through.
Coming back to the book, Burn Baby Burn Baby honestly one of the better books
I have read in a while. Mr Craig has done a wonderful job of verbalising what a victim of bullying goes through. Though yes, there were a few things that I still need a closure to, but when I read that this novel was written in 72 hour writing whirlwind in Muskoka Novel Marathon in the acknowledgement, that’s when I realise that the kind of emotional whirlpool he must have submitted himself for. And for that, he has my utmost respect.
marie_thereadingotter's review
4.0
Review:
http://pagestoexplore.blogspot.com/2014/12/burn-baby-burn-baby-by-kevin-craig-blog.html
http://pagestoexplore.blogspot.com/2014/12/burn-baby-burn-baby-by-kevin-craig-blog.html