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marthaives 's review for:
Burn For Burn
by Jenny Han, Siobhan Vivian
2.5 stars
Lillia, Kat and Mary want revenge on Lillia's popular friendship group. Kat is sick of being bullied by her former best friend, Rennie. Lillia finds out that Alex is meeting her little sister after hours, while they both lie to her about it. Mary is haunted by her traumatic middle-school experience with Reeve. Together, they form an alliance to take each of their bullies down.
I think I'm officially too old for this trope. Reading about a bunch of teenagers getting revenge on people who had wronged them just depressed me. The whole time I was just like, Please, just live your life, the best revenge is your own happiness, forget about them...
Lillia, Kat and Mary live on Jar Island, an island that's very much the opposite of city life, where everyone knows everyone. This gave the setting an almost claustrophobic atmosphere; it lent to the idea that the characters were locked in with the people who had hurt them. It made everything more intense and suffocating.
This was still a typical revenge story, involving things like switching sun-tan lotion for spot-treatment that made the skin extra likely to burn, printing private poems and throwing them around the school etc. It's been done before but I still found myself gripped by its mystery. Throughout the story, flashbacks about what happened to our main characters are steadily revealed. The story dealt with some VERY dark subjects (which could be triggering for some) as well as toxic friendships.
The characters were well written. I didn't necessarily like them, but I could understand their point of view. I would never have guessed this was written by two authors, as the tone was consistent and the pace never jarring. Except for the ending cliffhanger, which was too abrupt for my liking. As this is a series, nothing is answered at the end, which makes the book feel incomplete. I suppose the moral of the story is don't do stupid, harmful things in the name of revenge but - despite the dramatic ending - I got the feeling the characters didn't really learn from their mistakes. Perhaps this will be explored more in book two, but I was too depressed during this one to read on.
Also...What the heck was with the random supernatural element thrown in? It didn't fit the tone of the book at all and just seriously confused me.
If you like revenge stories with an added mystery, you'll like this. But it wasn't for me.
Lillia, Kat and Mary want revenge on Lillia's popular friendship group. Kat is sick of being bullied by her former best friend, Rennie. Lillia finds out that Alex is meeting her little sister after hours, while they both lie to her about it. Mary is haunted by her traumatic middle-school experience with Reeve. Together, they form an alliance to take each of their bullies down.
I think I'm officially too old for this trope. Reading about a bunch of teenagers getting revenge on people who had wronged them just depressed me. The whole time I was just like, Please, just live your life, the best revenge is your own happiness, forget about them...
Lillia, Kat and Mary live on Jar Island, an island that's very much the opposite of city life, where everyone knows everyone. This gave the setting an almost claustrophobic atmosphere; it lent to the idea that the characters were locked in with the people who had hurt them. It made everything more intense and suffocating.
This was still a typical revenge story, involving things like switching sun-tan lotion for spot-treatment that made the skin extra likely to burn, printing private poems and throwing them around the school etc. It's been done before but I still found myself gripped by its mystery. Throughout the story, flashbacks about what happened to our main characters are steadily revealed. The story dealt with some VERY dark subjects (which could be triggering for some) as well as toxic friendships.
The characters were well written. I didn't necessarily like them, but I could understand their point of view. I would never have guessed this was written by two authors, as the tone was consistent and the pace never jarring. Except for the ending cliffhanger, which was too abrupt for my liking. As this is a series, nothing is answered at the end, which makes the book feel incomplete. I suppose the moral of the story is don't do stupid, harmful things in the name of revenge but - despite the dramatic ending - I got the feeling the characters didn't really learn from their mistakes. Perhaps this will be explored more in book two, but I was too depressed during this one to read on.
Also...
If you like revenge stories with an added mystery, you'll like this. But it wasn't for me.