Burn: Patrick Ness

We meet again!

The first time I heard about this book, I can’t remember exactly which Instagram I was watching, but someone had read the first couple of paragraphs or so with a beautiful background. It was like an audiobook but even better. I remember thinking that it didn’t seem like something I would be totally crazy about, but even so, seeing a preview in that context totally pulled me in. And apparently it worked, because I’m reviewing it now, so kudos to whoever in advertising came up with that. Here we go :)

Brief Synopsis:

In January of 1957, Sarah and her dad are in trouble. Living in Washington with a farm that isn’t doing so well, and having had experienced a lot of hate in their lives with a bi-racial family, Sarah knows hardships. Still, she’s surprised when she finds out that her father, Gareth, has hired a dragon to help them out with their fields.

Yes, in this world dragons exist and a way to co-exist between humans and dragons has been very reluctantly figured out, even though many humans still don’t trust the dragons. Honestly, if I knew dragons were real and had minds of their own enough that they could speak to us, I would be pretty hesitant too. I’ve had people that don’t like me, but none of them had giant teeth, or talons, or could breathe fire.

Kazimir (the dragon) and Sarah create a reluctant… well, not friendship, but acquaintance-ship? Although Gareth, her father, tells Sarah to steer clear. Human-wise, Sarah has a really good friend in Jason, who is of the oriental decent. With Sarah being half-black and Jason being Asian-American, they have a lot in common, and it shouldn’t have come as a surprise to anyone that they have grown much closer than friends over the years. But it does come as a surprise, or an inconvenience, to the deputy sheriff Emmett Kelby, who isn’t very wise but has been after Sarah and Jason for a long time.

When the deputy sheriff goes missing, Kazimir is the first suspect that is on everyone’s minds. However, nobody realizes that there is something much bigger going on. The Believers, who is a religious group that has worshipped dragons for a long time, has been reading some cues and decided that a war is upon them, and one Believer in particular has been chosen to begin the war by slaying none other than what is believed to have been prophesized as Sarah herself.

Malcolm, Sarah’s would-be assassin, slowly begins to make his way toward Sarah and Kazimir. However, he runs into trouble that he hadn’t predicted and has to accept the help of a young man that catches a lot more than his eye. As each of these journeys begin to come together, the book takes a turn that I really had not foreseen.

The beginning of the war also brings a new beginning all together, one started in a lot of blood. Sarah has to watch Jason and her father both shot and Kazimir disappear through a fold between the worlds. Sarah ends up following Kazimir into this fold, followed by the Mitera Thea (ruler of the of Believers) and Malcolm, who has come to realize a little too late that everything that he had been told before was a big fat lie.

Kazimir was turned into a human entering the fold, and the Mitera Thea began the first dragon, the goddess herself. Things are a lot different in this parallel world, and Sarah, Kazimir and Malcom work to try and save this world, not thinking they have much to return to in their other world, and stop the goddess before the obliterates humans altogether. She begins her reign of terror, not realizing that she is probably the one that is targeting the source of her destruction by attempting her brutal form of justice.

When this book ends, there’s a lot that is open-ended, just enough that I really don’t think that this is where Sarah, Kazimir, Jason or Malcom’s story ends.

My Rating:

This book went from a hesitant 6.5/10 in the beginning to a solid 8/10 entering the second half. When the book goes into part two and they’ve entered the alternate universe, it really starts to make it all better, in my opinion.

Favorite Quote(s):

“You had to give people lots of room to be who they are if that’s what you expect in return.”

“An animal without a soul is still an animal, no matter how many words it’s learned to lie with.”

“You just got days, it seemed to her, where stuff happened or it didn’t, where planning just showed you what a fool you were to think you had any say over what your life would be.”

Check out my Goodreads (Traci Bishop) to see what I’m currently reading and to see a good chunk of the books I have already read. My Instagram can be found on the home page and I will share whenever a new post is up as well!

Until next time <3