Burn For Burn By Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian

Burn For Burn By Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Genre: Contemporary, realistic fiction

Release Date: September 18, 2012

Pages: 368 (hard cover)

Lillia has never had any problems dealing with boys who like her. Not until this summer, when one went too far. No way will she let the same thing happen to her little sister.

Kat is tired of the rumours, the insults, the cruel jokes. It all goes back to one person– her ex-best friend– and she’s ready to make her pay.Four years ago, Mary left Jar Island because of a boy. But she’s not the same girl anymore. And she’s ready to prove it to him.

Three very different girls who want the same thing: sweet, sweet revenge. And they won’t stop until they each had a taste.

(My Opinion)

Burn For Burn is not a great start to this series, but I don’t dislike this book either. Told from the perspectives of Lillia, Kat, and Mary. Even though the idea for this isn’t very unique, it’s really interesting and fun to read about the pranks the girls pull on people. Most of the characters are stiff and sort of hard to relate to while others are okay, better in some ways than others. My favourite character is Alex because he gets pretty embarrassed throughout the book by a lot of the other characters but still tries to see the good in people.

I find all of the main characters annoying either from one point to another or all of the time. Mary is the worst because she’s constantly whining and complaining about how her life hasn’t changed, Reeve doesn’t notice her, and that she isn’t pulling her weight with the pranks. The way Marie is at the end of the book is…Odd. I can’t put a finger on why, but the ending is kind of rushed and choppy to me. Another thing that I don’t like is the quick fix relationship between Kat and Lillia because it doesn’t seem like something two realistic teens would do. They go from complete (for the most part) strangers to best friends again, who tell each other everything. Maybe for second graders this is realistic, but not for teenage girls.

Burn For Burn has some good qualities about it as well, like the writing style. It’s smooth with great detail about the island and just enough flashbacks to keep it interesting. The chapters are really short, it’s easy to read 100 pages without realizing it because the transitioning from each character is so smooth. There are different perspectives in the story which always keeps a book interesting and fun to read about. For covers, this one is so beautiful. It’s very sophisticated and secretive and I cannot stop looking at it.

Overall, not a bad read. It’s light enough to finish in a day or two but heavy enough to linger in your mind for a few days.

3.5 Dreamy Clouds