I don’t like to waste a lot of time on books that I truly hate. It seems like a lot of my Bookstagram friends have this book on their list though so I’m going to run it down quickly.
I also said I would review everything I read for book bingo this month. Unfortunately.
Why? Because this book was just absolutely f*cking terrible. Thankfully Libby had the audio available and the narrator had a very pleasant voice, because I could not read one more page with my eyes
My actual thoughts:
The synopsis sounded amazing and it was off to a good start, like the first 50 pages was interesting. Then Ness took all these cool main ideas that he started and just dropped them for CONVENIENCE.
The main theme of the book was convenience. There was an alternate history ish cold war aspect that just ended … for convenience.
Ness killed everyone off then switched to alternate universe… for convenience. What, can be not finish one idea that he starts?
Two teenage boys met conveniently at a camp ground and had insta love, and then there was way more intimacy than I want to see in a YA book. That was the only topic that stuck because apparently Ness writes queer fiction, except there was nothing to this relationship except that the boys happened to be at the same campground and took off together.
The prophecy girl wasn’t special at all, she was just the convenient person there to interfere with the sequence of events. Literally convenience was the main topic and theme.
After like 6 days, I don’t even remember how the book ended. I’m sure it was all very convenient. Additionally I don’t even know what the f*ck genre this was supposed to be, alternate history? Dystopia? The world build was so weak I didn’t expend the brain power to try to figure it out.
I give him two stars only because I did like one single theme of duplicity and prophecy that ran throughout the text. Ness kind of had an interesting idea about how magic is created in a world but it was more weird than anything and not fleshed out.
I’m not even going to bother with the characters because they were all cardboard cutouts of whatever they were supposed to represent
To quote another reviewer named John Mechalas
“I have no idea who the audience is supposed to be. The dialog is so clunky and cringe-worthy that it’s too young for mature readers, but the surprisingly descriptive (and jarring) romance scenes are too adult for younger ones. The rest is just handled badly….. This thing is junk. Time-wasting junk. Life is too short. Read something else
Just … Really, really hard no thanks on this one
Bookish Quick Facts:
- Title: Burn
- Series: N/A
- Author: Patrick Ness
- Publisher & Release: Quill Tree Books, June 2020
- Length: 384
- Rate & Recommend: 😵😵 no
Here’s the synopsis from Am*zon:
On a cold Sunday evening in early 1957, Sarah Dewhurst waited with her father in the parking lot of the Chevron gas station for the dragon he’d hired to help on the farm…
Sarah Dewhurst and her father, outcasts in their little town of Frome, Washington, are forced to hire a dragon to work their farm, something only the poorest of the poor ever have to resort to.
The dragon, Kazimir, has more to him than meets the eye, though. Sarah can’t help but be curious about him, an animal who supposedly doesn’t have a soul but who is seemingly intent on keeping her safe.
Because the dragon knows something she doesn’t. He has arrived at the farm with a prophecy on his mind. A prophecy that involves a deadly assassin, a cult of dragon worshippers, two FBI agents in hot pursuit—and somehow, Sarah Dewhurst herself
OneReadingNurse.com 