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kaellamont 's review for:
The Burning
by Laura Bates
I really wanted to like this book. I read a lot about the author before buying it, and she seems like my kinda gal and I thought I was going to like her writing.
But this book just isn't for me. I tried to be fair with my star rating as I only read 150 pages before giving up - I said this year I was going to finish books I didn't enjoy to learn something from them, I guess I have given up on that too.
I can't fully pin-point what I didn't like about this book. But there are a few things that really didn't sell it for me.
First being, that in my opinion the first 100 pages didn't really tell me anything. I managed to grasp a few things about the main characters past, and what the rumour MIGHT be. However, most of it seemed like long-winded, descriptive dialogue that I found myself skipping in order to try and get somewhere. A lot of this discriptive dialogue didn't really add to the story, and the first 100 pages could've been cut down. It wasn't bad, it wasn't hard to read, there was just nothing pulling me forward.
I read in some other reviews that people felt there was too many issues being covered in this book, and I can already feel that from the 150 pages I've read. I definitely have had three of those mentioned by other people dropped into the dialogue, and it didn't always add or take away from the story, it just seemed to be randomly floating. As I only read 150 pages, they may have played a part later in the story, but in then 150 pages I read they felt clunky.
I did however really like the feeling of school life in the book. I'm not sure if it's because I'm Scottish, or that I only live 40 minutes from St. Andrews, but I felt I could relate to the settings much more than in a lot of American YA. For example, in Twilight, (only YA American fiction coming to my head at this point) Bella's school life seemed somewhat alien to me.
All in all this book just wasn't for me. I'll leave it on my shelf for a year, to see if I pick it up again. I think I am maybe too old for this book (21) and it is possibly suites to a younger YA fiction reading, possibly 13-18.
But this book just isn't for me. I tried to be fair with my star rating as I only read 150 pages before giving up - I said this year I was going to finish books I didn't enjoy to learn something from them, I guess I have given up on that too.
I can't fully pin-point what I didn't like about this book. But there are a few things that really didn't sell it for me.
First being, that in my opinion the first 100 pages didn't really tell me anything. I managed to grasp a few things about the main characters past, and what the rumour MIGHT be. However, most of it seemed like long-winded, descriptive dialogue that I found myself skipping in order to try and get somewhere. A lot of this discriptive dialogue didn't really add to the story, and the first 100 pages could've been cut down. It wasn't bad, it wasn't hard to read, there was just nothing pulling me forward.
I read in some other reviews that people felt there was too many issues being covered in this book, and I can already feel that from the 150 pages I've read. I definitely have had three of those mentioned by other people dropped into the dialogue, and it didn't always add or take away from the story, it just seemed to be randomly floating. As I only read 150 pages, they may have played a part later in the story, but in then 150 pages I read they felt clunky.
I did however really like the feeling of school life in the book. I'm not sure if it's because I'm Scottish, or that I only live 40 minutes from St. Andrews, but I felt I could relate to the settings much more than in a lot of American YA. For example, in Twilight, (only YA American fiction coming to my head at this point) Bella's school life seemed somewhat alien to me.
All in all this book just wasn't for me. I'll leave it on my shelf for a year, to see if I pick it up again. I think I am maybe too old for this book (21) and it is possibly suites to a younger YA fiction reading, possibly 13-18.