Book Review: Burn for Burn by Jenny Han & Siobhan Vivian.

Product details:
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Hardcover, 368 pages.
Release date: September 18th 2012.
Rating: 3½ out of 5.
Ages: 14+
Source: Netgalley.

BIG GIRLS DON'T CRY...
THEY GET EVEN.

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.

 If two wrongs don’t make a right, then three is just looking for trouble…

Co-authored by Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian Burn for Burn, the first in a new trilogy, is a story of three wronged girls and their relentless quest for revenge.

We’ve all had bad things happen to us at the hands of others. Well, most of us, anyway.  And we’ve all thought about getting our own back and seeking revenge.  Maybe some of us have carried through on that threat, or maybe not. But whatever your own personal experiences with revenge, it’s safe to say that revenge stories are always fun, little guilty pleasures to enjoy, but never to be taken all that seriously.  One of my favourite vengeance stories is that of Emily Thorne in the TV show Revenge. Emily goes to extremes, and yet viewers can’t help but root for her. We want her to carry out her revenge, and we don’t care how far she goes, because her revenge is justified. She deserves to get her own back.

Teens Mary, Kat and Lil also want revenge, but their stories don’t have quite the same appeal as Emily Thorne’s.  That’s the main problem with Burn for Burn.  Sure, it was a fun book in parts but I couldn’t root for these girls. I couldn’t get behind them in their quest for revenge. Often, their dramas were petty and I felt like telling them to just get over themselves and get on with life. 

Burn for Burn opens with Mary returning to Jar Island after four years.  She’s back for one thing and one thing only.  She wants to exact her revenge on Reeve the boy who made her life a total misery when she was a kid.  Reeve has it all. He’s good-looking, popular, a total hit with girls and the star QB on his high school team.  As far as Mary is concerned Reeve doesn’t deserve the life he has, so she’s going to take it all away from him.    Bad girl Kat is an outcast, mainly because her ex best-friend Rennie has been trash-talking her and spreading all sorts of rumors about her for years.   That stops now. Kat is going to get what’s coming to her.    Lil has been friends with Alex Lind forever.  Alex is a good guy, and it seems like he’s totally into Lil, but when Lil hears he’s been hanging out with her little sister late at night, she sees red. Lindy needs to be taught a lesson.

Events conspire to bring the girls together, and soon they become a trio not to be messed with seeking out revenge here, there, everywhere.  Rennie is a nasty piece of work, so I could understand why Kat wanted to get back at her, Reeve too when I heard Mary’s story. Although truth be told, Mary creeped me out – there’s something strange about that one and I’m not sure I trust her.  But the story of Lil and Alex? I didn’t really buy that one. Unlike Reeve, Alex seems like a pretty stand up guy.  As his friend, Lil should have talked to him instead of jumping to all kinds of terrible conclusions. In any case, the acts of revenge that are carried out on Alex were pretty lame. That’s not to say the girls don’t take their revenge seriously, though. They do. And they also get carried away. In fact, they go way too far.

Burn for Burn is a revenge story with a supernatural slant.  For the most part the book reads like a contemp, but there is foreshadowing to suggest that something strange and wicked lives in the shadows on Jar Island.  I have a sneaking suspicion about who or what that might be, but I’ll keep it to myself for now.  Burn for Burn is worth checking out, and while it’s not a total favourite of mine, the abrupt ending and the fact that I am pretty intrigued to find out what strangeness is to come, means I will be back for more when the second book in the trilogy Fire with Fire releases next year.