A review by mikabirb
Burn Down, Rise Up by Vincent Tirado

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

I really liked the premise of this book, the idea of the game and the Echo and how it took them to an era of the Bronx history. Overall, this aspect of the book felt pretty solid. It made sense within the framework that was being set, it operated on simple rules and posed good enough challenges to keep the story interesting and tense. The resguardos as a real-life element that was added to the paranormal ones also made a lot of sense. I liked all of this.

What I didn't like was that I never really felt like I got to know the characters. I didn't even get a feeling for who Raquel was beyond that she liked to get good grades. Aaron seemed mostly reduced to his crush on Charlize and Charlize remained very one-dimensional as well. For a book that focused so much on community-building in its final message this was a bit sad because I never fully felt the connection between these characters because they seemed exchangeable.

The queer romance was sweet, although there were some confusing elements like whether Raquel knew she had a crush on Charlize in the beginning or not and her "contest" with Aaron was extremely awkward. But it was still sweet and the book was decently interesting.