Burn for Burn (Burn for Burn #1)by Jenny Han, Siobhan Vivian
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Synopsis:
Postcard-perfect Jar Island is the kind of place where nobody locks their doors at night, where parents can sleep easy, knowing their daughters are tucked away safe and sound in their beds.
But bad things can happen, even to good girls . . . and sometimes, the only way to make things right is to do something wrong.
Lillia used to trust boys, but not anymore. Not after what happened this summer. And she’ll do whatever it takes to protect her little sister from the same fate.
Kat is over the rumors, the insults, the cruel jokes made at her expense. It all goes back to one person--her ex-best friend. Someone needs to teach her a lesson, and, with Lillia and Mary behind her, Kat feels up to the task.
Four years ago, Mary left Jar Island because of a boy. But she’s not the same girl anymore. Now that she’s got friends who have her back, he's going to be in big trouble.
Three very different girls who come together to make things right. Will they go too far?
Welp. That wasn’t what I expected. In many ways I think I’ve been putting this one off because I knew it wasn’t going to be what I wanted. It’s not that it didn’t have it’s exceptional moments where I found some immense enjoyment out of the three girls’ bonding experiences or the revenge they were seeking on the individuals who treated them badly. But, at the risk of sounding hoity toity, it all just came across so….juvenile.
So many people liked this book and I have to think that maybe I just wasn’t in the mood for it-but then I start to backtrack and wonder: would I have enjoyed the cliquey cliches even months ago, even when I was in the mood? Would I have enjoyed the somewhat childish conversations everyone seemed to have? And, most of all, would the fact that those people didn’t deserve to have even a little of their lives ruined bother me? And I have to believe that, even when I was excited about this book, it all still would have bothered me.
And that’s not even mentioning probably my biggest problem with the whole book: Every single scene or idea seemed like a contrived, watered down, wannabe version of other books and movies that, frankly, did it way better. I feel so bad saying that, but it doesn’t change the fact that every other page I kept seeing Janice from Mean Girls or Brittany Snow from John Tucker Must Die. Literally every single scene had me unintentionally thinking of other movies I have watched over and over again and loved in the past ten years of my life: Mean Girls, John Tucker Must Die, and I know there was one other that I just can’t remember at the moment. And then it also reminded me of a book that I LOATHED-*The Keatyn Chronicles*-though I must say Burn for Burn was written way better and had a little more class. That much I can say for it.
Which leads me here. People loved it. Hell, I even loved the idea of getting revenge on the bitches that I felt wronged me back in the day. Don’t we all have that secret little (if only a minuscule, tiny piece) place where we wish people that were cruel would get what’s coming to them? So yes, on that level I enjoyed it-that’s why I couldn’t one star this story. The writing was great. The IDEA of all of it was great. I just…something was missing. I rolled my eyes more often than not, the only character I really and truly connected with was Lillia (And Mary, sometimes-she could be a bit pathetic…I don’t know) and that’s only because I could see some humanity in her even as she hung out with the devil. Her love for her little sister was great and I could totally relate, remembering how protective (I still am) of my little sister I was when she started to stray from the path. But nothing could really ground me and connect me to this story. At the end of the day, all I could think of was how annoying Kat was (And I felt a tad trashy, for that matter), how I wished Mary could move on, and how Lillia was going to be heartbroken after all the acts they planned against her ‘friends.’
So, all in all, I don’t know if I’ll ever continue to the next book. It all seemed so petty, which of course it was supposed to be, and I felt bad for the people they targeted. Some of the things they had planned were vile, but then I felt some fell short. I don’t know HOW the plan at the end would truly scar Rennie-it seemed very small, really, compared to everyone else’s revenge. I just, AGH. I don’t know. I suppose I never will. It’s one of those books that is a super easy read, fast-paced, and fun if you are in the mood. In the end, I guess I just really, really, really was not in the mood. Maybe next time.
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