Review: Burn

Author: Patrick Ness

Started reading: June 7th 2020

Finished the book: June 29th 2020

Pages: 371

Genres: Fantasy, YA

Published: June 2nd 2020

Source: Received from a friend

Goodreads score: 4.00

My score:

Synopsis

Sarah Dewhurst and her father, outcasts in their little town of Frome, Washington, are forced to hire a dragon to work their farm, something only the poorest of the poor ever have to resort to.
The dragon, Kazimir, has more to him than meets the eye, though. Sarah can’t help but be curious about him, an animal who supposedly doesn’t have a soul, but who is seemingly intent on keeping her safe.
Because the dragon knows something she doesn’t. He has arrived at the farm with a prophecy on his mind. A prophecy that involves a deadly assassin, a cult of dragon worshippers, two FBI agents in hot pursuit—and somehow, Sarah Dewhurst herself.

My thoughts

Thanks to Arjen for introducing me to this book and for reading it together with me. We've read a Patrick Ness book before, I think it actually was our first buddyread together! I'm usually swept away by Patrick Ness' books, but this one just didn't convince me as much as, for example A Monster Calls.

Pros

• Fantasy/Realistic: It's definitely one of the things I applaud Patrick Ness for; The way he can balance fantasy and realism in a book, in a way that it's so believable and convincing. I kinda feel like that's one of his trademarks and he's always able to sell it to me! This, and the writing style were my favorite things in this book. It didn't feel like a 370 page book and that was mainly because of the writing style.
• Meaningful: It's so much more meaningful to read a book if it fits things that are going on in the world nowadays. There is a lot of diversity in this book, and I'm always interested to learn more and to educate myself.

Cons

• Ending: The ending wasn't a strong one in my opinion. I don't want to post ANY spoilers, but the way it ended didn't make sense to me at all. It's explained afterwards, a little bit, but I'm not sold on it.
• Confused: The story overall was quite confusing. It started out so strong, especially when all the different POV's came together, but after that it just spiraled out of control. It felt out of balance, wasn't that exciting anymore and I didn't get the point. Maybe I'm too biased, because I loved everything Patrick Ness before, but this wasn't that enjoyable for me.

Overall

The Patrick Ness trademark was definitely there in this book; fantasy and realism as a great mix for a story. Dragons are always awesome and the fact that there was a lot of diversity in this book gave it an extra layer for me. I just wasn't sold by the ending and felt that the final 50% of the book were quite confusing...

Other opinions on this book

"Ness brilliantly juggles these multi-layered themes and twisting plot lines while creating a world where dragons are as richly imagined as humans and engage our emotions just as forcefully."

- Daily Mail

"Ness has never been afraid to push boundaries when it comes to genre exploration, but this is a truly magnificent piece of fiction."

- Booklist

Memorable quotes from this book

"He was the thing the world had suffered from most in her four billion years of existence: a stupid man with power."

"Faith is belief without proof."

Thanks for reading!

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