Burn by Julianna Baggott
My rating: 5/5 cats
so bittersweet, the third book in any trilogy.
this one ended strong, staying true to the overall story like mike mullin’s kick-ass Sunrise, but it also had a couple of things that people who got all mad at Mockingjay and Allegiant are probably going to frown at. decisions are made, cause makes effect, and there’s no “next book” to pick up the pieces and make the characters change their minds and soothe the heavy readerly heart.
it’s post-apocalyptic fiction—did you think it was going to end with a thrown bouquet after comedic rom-com misunderstandings?
spoiler alert: it doesn’t. and while some of the decisions made have me clenching my little fists and crying “noooooo!” into the void, it is a completely fair ending in terms of its characters and their values. mostly. no, it is—i’m just a little cranky about one part of it, but i get it. mostly.
while this isn’t technically a YA trilogy, it has definite crossover appeal for the YA audience. the pacing is swift, the characters are mostly young, and there is plenty of action, relationship dramatics, and tough decisions—all hallmarks of YA dysto-fic. parents and librarians can feel totally secure giving this series to their young, as long as they can handle a little violence in a nightmarish landscape.
which is my bread and butter.
for those of you who have read the first two books, let’s just take a moment to appreciate el capitan/helmud. because—oh my god. the second book really made me love them, but this one took that love and just blew it into the stratosphere. there was a moment…there were almost tears. SUCH a beautiful scene. helmud manages to be one of the most expressive characters ever, despite his limitations. and her handling of his utterances is so perfect, and must have been so difficult to pull off. it could easily have gone wrong, but she nailed it. FILLED WITH LOVE FOR EL CAPITAN/HELMUD.
in this book, the stakes are raised even higher than the previous two (no, seriously. there are some conflicts here, man) lines are drawn, sides are taken, and unlike so many books that reduce the complication to “good vs evil,” here everyone seems to have a valid argument. everything is so so gray. like ash.
a fantastic ending to a fantastic trilogy.
and our good mother. oh, sister—i hope you got what you wanted. i am rooting for you, in the place where reader’s hopes and dreams live on after the story.
and thank god for this site (which you should not look at unless you have already read Fuse):
http://janesspoileralert.blogspot.com…
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