A review by garbage
Brooklyn, Burning by Steve Brezenoff

3.0

“We hardly spoke, because all night “good-bye” tried to find my lips from where it was stuck in my throat, like a pill that wouldn’t go all the way down, so I pushed it back with sip after sip of my drink.”

There are so many mixed feelings inside of me. With a strange writing style, enigmatic characters, and a unique look at summertime in Brooklyn and what it means to be human, [b:Brooklyn, Burning|10628114|Brooklyn, Burning |Steve Brezenoff|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348322144s/10628114.jpg|15536616], was absolutely nothing I expected. The protagonist, Kid, has no defined sexuality or gender. The novel is written in second person, directed at Scout, another teen, and I absolutely despised that at first. It quickly became apparent that writing style didn’t matter. Even through my annoyance, I managed to get swept into Kid’s world of drugs and homelessness and the strength of music.
Admittedly, I still didn’t enjoy this book as much as I thought I would. Its uniqueness alone gives it a lot of brownie points, but it still fell a bit short for me, plot-wise. The writing was beautiful (despite my initial struggles with the style), but ultimately, it felt a little like [b:Go Ask Alice|46799|Go Ask Alice|Beatrice Sparks|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327870536s/46799.jpg|2115708]. The difference being that [b:Brooklyn, Burning|10628114|Brooklyn, Burning |Steve Brezenoff|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348322144s/10628114.jpg|15536616], was actually interesting and bearable to read.