Burn for Burn

Publisher's Summary

Payback is paradise in this start to a trilogy from New York Times best-selling author Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian.

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 unlikely 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.

©2012 Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian (P)2012 Simon & Schuster, Inc

Amazing!

Would you consider the audio edition of Burn for Burn to be better than the print version?

Idk, do not own the paper version

Who was your favorite character and why?

Kat

Any additional comments?

What a great story. It was so easy to read. I couldn't put the book down. I loved that each girl had their own personality and social circle. I loved how they all came together and became "friends". I can't wait to read the next book!

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

This is fantasy?

I enjoyed this book and its characters. My only concern about this book is with the "fantasy/supernatural" portions, which seem like they could be cut out entirely from this first book in the series and no one would bat an eye or even notice. I didn't even realize from reading the description or from anything I've heard about the book from other people that there was anything to do with "powers" or magic in the book. Maybe it'll become more apparent in the next few books in the series why the authors felt the need to add fantasy to their book about revenge.
Other than questioning that small part, these books are entertaining and all three of the main girls are interesting to learn about.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Entertaining but Glitchy

Burn For Burn is a tale of three wronged girls and their plot for revenge, and is kind of a cross between Pretty Little Liars, Fury, and maybe Carrie? With two authors, and three POV’s, you may expect the story to get confusing, but Han and Vivian are a great writing team and I found the story easy to follow for the most part. There were some technical problems with the audiobook, but I did like that there are three narrators to line up with the three book leads.

The setting is the resort town of Jar Island. Lillia, Kat, and Mary are three girls bonded by their desire to take down their frenemies. Lillia is the pretty and rich one, who wants to protect her little sister from the guy who hurt her. Kat is tired of all the gossip and the Regina George of her school tormenting her. And Mary is back on Jar Island after a long absence. The guy she trusted bullied her, and now she’s back with a new sleek figure and a need for revenge.

This book is the first book of a trilogy, and sets up the backstory well and gives you a feel for the characters. Once the trio comes together to hatch their plan the story kicks into high gear. At first, everything goes off without a hitch, but soon the girls get in over their heads. I liked the girl power alliance of the trio, though I didn’t really find any of the characters particularly likeable so I felt a little distant from the story.

I’m a fan of all three audiobook narrators (Joy Osmanski, Madeleine Maby, Rebekkah Ross) who read this book, so it was a no-brainer to pick up the audio. However, technical problems made listening difficult and the quality wasn’t consistent between narrators. At least one of the narrators sounded like they were in a tunnel, and breathing sounds were audible. Personality-wise, the narrators got into their characters and made them their own. And with three POV’s, it was a good call to have three narrators. I have the audiobook for the sequel, and I’m happy to say the sound quality is clear so no worries there.

There are definitely loose ends at the end of Burn For Burn, so I’m eager to see how the story develops in Fire With Fire, and if there’s more of a paranormal element. This book is light and entertaining, with lots of high school drama, and friendship and romantic moral dilemmas. This is something to pick up when you’re in a bit of a vengeful mood.

3 of 4 people found this review helpful

Great book!

Loved the book and loved the performance. Only issue is that one VAs portion sounded like it was recorded in a bathroom

DNF

Did Not Finish I might have enjoyed this when I was younger, but it is just not for me now. I am sad about this, as I own all three books in the series. I gave book one a good try though, and I am almost 60% in. However; I found myself drifting and not caring about what was going on. There was no point to continue you on.

This was the first book I read with Audible...

This book was the first book I read with Audible, and its the one that made me fall in love with audiobooks. I listened to the whole thing in a matter of days, and the voice actors that read this book really embody the characters and make it so interesting. The characters in this book are super relatable and the story is a fun page-turner (i don't know what the audiobook equivalent of that phrase would be.) However, the book is YA fiction and sometimes seems to air on the "teen trash" side of YA that many authors fall victim too. Yet it's not trashy enough that you shouldn't give it a read. If you like YA, this is a series for you!

Loved It

This was a really fun read. The characters were well written and the plot was compelling - went straight from this book into the sequel and am currently itching for the third installment. The narrators are incredibly good and really help make the world feel real.

Frustrated

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

I didn't hate the book, but I really didn't like it either. This book is more of a bathroom read, not vary deep even though the authors are trying to make it that way.

How could the performance have been better?

Two of the performers sound like robots. The only one that sounded pretty good was the narrator for Cat.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

No, hated the ending.

yuck

As I listen, it is clear the author, sorry, it took two here, were the type of girls they write about. And now that high school is over, with mediocre careers, they wrote about what they knew best.

1 of 3 people found this review helpful

Uneven and lacking

I picked up Burn For Burn right after reading This is WAR because they both had similar concepts – girls teaming up for vengeance.

In This is WAR the girls wanted revenge for the murder of their best friend.

In Burn for Burn, the girls wanted revenge for people saying mean things to them!

Okay, there is a little more to it but we are not talking life or death stakes here so I had a major case of the whocaresies for the majority of the book. With such low stakes and no major investment from the three leads the plot just stagnated with pointlessness.

If the book had embraced its light-weight fare and made it fun I suppose there could have been an audience for it (not me but people seem to like the Sara Shepard dominated genre of bad thing happening to popular girls). Throw in a friendship being forged between the three ‘heroines’ with some nice character development and then we could have really had something here.

Instead we got something really, really weird and borderline stupid

I normally do spoiler-free reviews so all I can say is that in the closing pages we get a major genre shift out of basically nowhere.

Imagine watching “Bring it On” and at the final cheerleading battle we find out the Clovers team was composed of half-robot.

Imagine reading “Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants” and after the girls are all reunited with the pants, they decide they should time-travel next summer.

Would that be weird? A little jarring maybe? Would you have any idea you were signing up for anything other than stories about average teenage girls from the plot summaries and 99% of the story?

No, you wouldn’t. And neither did I when I picked up Burn for Burn. And if a supernatural twist sounds like just the ticket to breathe life into a generic and average story…you’d be mistaken. Like I said this is an 11th hour conversion with almost no bearing or impact on the (limited) story.

I guess (hope) this would be the focus of book 2 which is now available but to me that makes Burn for Burn seem like and excessive prologue I had to pay hard cash for.

I’m really not sure who to recommend this to because it isn’t satisfying as a coming of age, revenge or supernatural story. The characters had potential but like everything else in the book they seemed to get short changed by the lack of focus.

As it stands I probably won’t continue with the series but I could imagine being curious enough to want more given the lack of resolution to Burn for Burn.

0 of 2 people found this review helpful