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A review by thepetitepunk
Brooklyn, Burning by Steve Brezenoff
3.0
this book claims it is “not a book any teen reader will soon forget” and i’d like to say that’s true.
i first read this almost exactly 9 (!!!!) years ago in 8th grade. i gave it 3 stars back then too so clearly it never was my favorite book, but certainly one that stuck with me. it’s such a clear example of what queer teen literature was like back then—covert, angsty, often ambiguous, and always vulnerable to a higher level of criticism. of course many of the negative reviews from a decade ago complain about the ambiguity when it comes to kid and scout’s genders, as if that wasn’t the whole point of this, but that + the second person point of you was what stuck with me throughout all these years. like yes, ambiguous narrator, when you address “you”, you mean ME, an equally ambiguous being!! i think this book was meant to cater to a small, specific demographic in a very small, specific span of years, and i’m happy this book found its way to me.
now that i somewhat work in publishing, it’s almost bittersweet to see how far books have come. there’s a long way to go but there are so many more lgbtq+ teen and middle grade (!!) books lately, including multiple nonbinary middle grade books which absolutely did not exist a decade ago, and i think that’s amazing. but i was a little sad to see that brooklyn, burning has left my library’s shelves. i still remember picking it up just because it was tiny and the cover was shiny. there’s probably not really a huge need/demand for books like this one anymore, but they’ll always have a place in my heart.
i first read this almost exactly 9 (!!!!) years ago in 8th grade. i gave it 3 stars back then too so clearly it never was my favorite book, but certainly one that stuck with me. it’s such a clear example of what queer teen literature was like back then—covert, angsty, often ambiguous, and always vulnerable to a higher level of criticism. of course many of the negative reviews from a decade ago complain about the ambiguity when it comes to kid and scout’s genders, as if that wasn’t the whole point of this, but that + the second person point of you was what stuck with me throughout all these years. like yes, ambiguous narrator, when you address “you”, you mean ME, an equally ambiguous being!! i think this book was meant to cater to a small, specific demographic in a very small, specific span of years, and i’m happy this book found its way to me.
now that i somewhat work in publishing, it’s almost bittersweet to see how far books have come. there’s a long way to go but there are so many more lgbtq+ teen and middle grade (!!) books lately, including multiple nonbinary middle grade books which absolutely did not exist a decade ago, and i think that’s amazing. but i was a little sad to see that brooklyn, burning has left my library’s shelves. i still remember picking it up just because it was tiny and the cover was shiny. there’s probably not really a huge need/demand for books like this one anymore, but they’ll always have a place in my heart.