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A review by labunnywtf
Burn Baby, Burn Baby by Kevin Craig
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.