Reviews - Burn Down, Rise Up

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646 reviews for:

Burn Down, Rise Up

Vincent Tirado

3.77 AVERAGE

kittyandthebooks's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous dark hopeful tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

authorbeccalynne's review against another edition

3.0

dark emotional tense

onemorebookpodcast's review against another edition

3.0

Described as a 'Stranger Things meets Get Out' Sapphic Horror, I still don’t understand what made me pick this one up.
1. I don’t Read nor watch horrors
2. I have no idea what 'Stranger Things' or 'Get Out' is all about.
3. YA is one of my least favorite genres.
This book unfortunately had no chance with me, I found the characters to be self-centered (in hindsight, what do I expect from teenagers), the slum landlord was meant to be this powerful & terrible being but his defeat came a bit too easy for me. This books wasn’t just for me, unfortunately.

katiemhuang's review against another edition

4.0

if you liked “rules for vanishing” this is for you! it was delightfully entertaining and actually had a feel good ending.

theunderfold's review against another edition

3.5

dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

blackcatreads's review against another edition

4.75

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

I loved this book. It was so good.

In this, we’re following a 16-year-old girl named Raquel who lives in the Bronx with her mom. Her mom falls ill to this mysterious black mold covering her body, so she has to go live with her dad for a bit.

During that time, we find out that the girl she likes, Charlize, has a cousin who has since disappeared. He is one of hundreds of kids over the past year that have gone missing, but they’re brown kids in the Bronx, so the cops really aren’t trying that hard to find them.

Raquel starts having these weird dreams about the Bronx burning and being covered in mold and is waking up with bruises, and Charlize remembers that her cousin went missing playing this thing called the “train game.” The two of them decide to investigate and find this place similar to the upside down in Stranger Things, but it’s fueled by the atrocities that occurred in the 70s.

For the writing, I gave that a 9 out of 10. Even though this book is YA, I still really enjoyed the writing. I have never been to the Bronx in my life but the writing made me feel like I’ve been there and feel the connection that Raquel had to her home. I also loved the humor in this book. When the train game is first mentioned, one of the characters said that it sounded like some demonic white people shit, and as an unseasoned chicken white person, agreed. That is exactly what a bunch of white people in a horror movie would do.

For the plot, I gave that a 10 out of 10. I listened to the audiobook and it was 9 hours long, but I didn’t want to put it down. It was so good. There was so much of the past tied into what was happening in the present that I was left thinking, “What’s going to happen next?!” Not only do we have friends going missing, but even if you make it back from this parallel Bronx, you end up sick with this mold and you are changed. The ending was a bit YA in the sense that the day is saved with the power of friendship but it was still cute.

For the characters, I gave them a 9 out 10. I loved Raquel. She was so sweet and kind, but she was determined to not give up on the girl she loved, her mom, and her city. The Bronx she has always known and loved is being plagued by its past and can’t move on, so rather than wait around she strives to use her abilities to fix it. She’s very logical about how she goes about it though, which I can appreciate. Charlize, on the other hand, was kind of dumb. Why you gotta run off like that girl?

Lastly, the world-building. I gave that a 10 out of 10. I thought it was so cool. When I read that it was like Stranger Things, I was skeptical I was going to like it, but it’s everything Stranger Things should have been. I love that the author took events from history that I certainly didn’t know about beforehand and used that as the backbone of this alternate world being fueled by the grief and hate that has festered over decades. I love that it now feeds upon the current residents of the city and they used their positive experiences in the city to combat it.

Overall, I gave this 4.75 stars. It was a really good book and really well thought out.