Saturday, April 3, 2010

Burn by Suzanne Phillips

Originality- 17/20
Characters- 18/20
Remembrance- 7/10
Quote-ability- 8/10
Entertainment- 18/20
Ending- 8/10
Recommend to read- 8/10
TOTAL- 84/100
Grade- B

"Are our schools safe?"

It's hard to turn on the news without hearing this question, and the answer is typically "no." This novel explores what happens when bullying escalates to violence, and it challenges our definition of victimization.

With thought-provoking prose, Suzanne Phillips explores the psyche of Cameron, a bullied freshman who ultimately does the unthinkable: he kills another student. As she did with Chloe Doe, Suzanne has found a way to make this seemingly dark story ultimately redemptive. But she also dares readers to look at the behavior that provokes violence as having the potential to be as dangerous as the violence itself.
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This is one of my favorite kinds of books. It's nice to read about romance and vampires but I find it more fulfilling and character developing to read something like this.

It breaks my heart to read about characters that are being tormented and bullied at school. I always want to be their best friend, but since it is just a book I can't. Instead I feel the emotional journey of kids like Cameron struggle.

As a character Cameron was pretty amazing until he decides to get revenge on someone who was just as weak as him. You could tell that he was tortured so much that he had no other choice, which just makes the whole story even more sad.

I think it takes a brave author to write about real issues that can make you question your everyday actions that may affect others. It's a big deal to me when I like a book that doesn't rely on being witty or cute. When I can real feel something for a character and take something out of the book and into real life it's just awesome.

Overall I think Burn was a touching read that I would recommend to every single teen so they can see that their actions can have life altering consequences.

-Amanda
Book received free from Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This cover caught my eye when it was under your currently reading section. It sounds really interesting & I know exactly what you mean about wanting to read novels with great character development etc. I'm going to add this one to my list. Thanks for the wonderful review! :)

Krista/Tower of Books said...

The subject of this book intrigued me when I first heard about it a long time ago. I still haven't read it though. :X