Burn: Review

So rarely do I have to sit for a few hours (or days in this case) and think about the book I just read before I finally hit I FINISHED and started a review. Patrick Ness, as an auto-buy, auto-read author, always seems to hit me with I’ve kept all my long-buried emotions and brings them out into the world in the form of big fat sighs and manically sobbing because dragons are just so cool.

This book was just so bizarre. I know that’s a strange way to start a review, but I can’t think of any other word to describe it. BURN is set in the 1950s in the great state ( and my current home) of Washington. It follows quite a few POV’s but didn’t really feel overwhelming. A biracial teen named Sarah lives on a failing farm in a world where humans and dragons coexist in semi-harmony. Sarah’s dad hires a dragon to help with the farm, burning down all forest, etc and soon befriends him. But there’s a homophobe, racist cop who screws everything up. Then there’s also a queer boy named Malcolm who is part of a cult that worships dragons and an FBI agent who is after him because he’s murdered a bunch of people on his way to find out what the hubbub is all about with a prophecy involving the dragon goddess.

Also, there are also other things I can’t mention because I want you to be as officially f*&ked as I was whilst finishing this masterpiece.

I knew going in that I was in for a wild ride, but this was like getting on the Spiderman ride at Universal and finding out that not only does it go really fast and loop and all that but it also goes to the moon and ricochets off a few craters and eventually comes back down.

This book hits all the high notes including DRAGONS. Having actually dragons in a book about dragons is few and far between so this was a breath of fresh air. Fresh fire? I’m going off the rails here. Let’s regroup.

The ending is probably the only thing that irked me. It was a bit too abrupt. You could tell there was going to be a sequel. It would work just fine it Ness didn’t write one, but I wouldn’t complain if he did.

Thank you Edelweiss and the publisher for the e-arc to review.

I’m here for it.

BURN was crazy and weird and violent. If you want a myriad of emotions, this is the book for you.