Review – BURN FOR BURN

TITLE: Burn for Burn
AUTHOR: Jenny Han, Siobhan Vivian
SERIES: Burn for Burn #1
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RATING:

Postcard-perfect Jar Island is home to charming tourist shops, pristine beaches, amazing oceanfront homes—and three girls secretly plotting revenge.

KAT is sick and tired of being bullied by her former best friend.

LILLIA has always looked out for her little sister, so when she discovers that one of her guy friends has been secretly hooking up with her, she’s going to put a stop to it.

MARY is perpetually haunted by a traumatic event from years past, and the boy who’s responsible has yet to get what’s coming to him.

None of the girls can act on their revenge fantasies alone without being suspected. But together…anything is possible.

With an alliance in place, there will be no more “I wish I’d said…” or “If I could go back and do things differently...” These girls will show Jar Island that revenge is a dish best enjoyed together.

Review:

Burn for Burn is about three girls who want to get even with the people that hurt them. They soon figure out that if they want to successfully get revenge on the person who betrayed them, they would have to work together. The is told in the three different voices of Lillia, Kat, and Mary.

Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian did a wonderful job crafting the characters. Each one has a different back story and for the most part, it was easy to sympathize with them. That being said, there were times when they felt a bit off and did things that made me want to yell at them (or face palm).

I liked how all three characters had their own individual voices. After the first few chapters, I probably could tell you who was talking without seeing their name in the chapter title. Another thing I liked about the characters was that they all had different, complex back stories. They all had different motives for revenge and different factors driving their psychological processes

The plot was intriguing and kept me flipping the pages, but I wasn’t a fan of the degree of revenge the girls inflicted on their targets. They weren’t as severe as I think they should have been, or they did too much damage. They got a lot of revenge on a guy who didn’t really deserve it, while I thought another person should have gotten a worse punishment.

I also didn’t like the ending of Burn for Burn. It felt weird and a bit disjointed – like I was all of the sudden reading a different book. Until the last few chapters, I thought it was one genre and then it there was this odd, possible, genre switch. I’m still unsure if that switch was intended, which is a bit of problem, in my opinion. What makes it even worse is the fact that it ends on a cliffhanger. It left me wondering if I missed anything. I was like “that’s it?” I guess I’ll have to read the sequel.

Recommended for…

I would recommend this book for fans of ABC’s hit drama Revenge. This book is like the show in a way except less sinister, and the revenge is on a teenage level – no one dies.

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