Book #66 of 2024: Burn

[thistlechaser]

Burn by Patrick Ness.

Quick synopsis: Dragons exist on Earth, at an uneasy peace with mankind. It's the 1950s in the US, and a biracial girl and a Japanese-American boy love each other. There are also FBI agents, a dragon-worshiping cult, and a teenage gay assassin. All in a 371 page book.

Brief opinion: I wish I had read this book slower so it would have lasted longer, but I couldn't put it down. Also I feel embarrassed that I let it sink to the very last page of my TBR pile. It was such a fast, fun, great read.

Plot: Set in the 1950s on Earth, dragons exist. They have always existed, same as horses and crows and ducks. Sarah (a biracial girl) works on her father's farm. Jason (Japanese-American boy) works on his father's farm as well, next to Sarah's. The two are the only non-white people in town, which leads them to friendship and then more.

Sarah's father hires a dragon to clear some fields (a common practice in this world, other than the 1950s hatred towards anything non-white/non-Christian/non-human). The dragon ends up saving Sarah twice because there's a prophecy about her.

While that is going on, Malcolm (orphaned teenager) is being raised by the leader of a dragon-worshiping cult to assassinate Sarah (because the cult too knows about the prophecy.

While those two things are going on, a pair of FBI agents is trying to track down the cult's assassin.

While those three things are going on... Russia is launching the world's first spy satellites, and it's not only the US that's unhappy about that.

At the 50% point of the book those four things come to a head, after which the story makes a radical change that I cannot go into without spoiling it all.

Writing/editing: Both were great. The writing did a thing that seemed more like a TV show than a book: It switched frequently between main character groups (sometimes as quickly as every couple lines) and at times it did the really interesting thing where two different POV groups seemed to be interacting across a section break:

"Then why don't you go save him?"
"Because I have my own Nelson to save."

"Your what?" Agent Dernovich said.

And a second example:

"Not anymore," Darlene said. "We've got a great big dragon flying around now. I'd say that was magic."

"Not a word of this can be real," Malcom said. "This is some ugly, horrible joke."

The very fast, frequent switching between groups made the story feel like it was moving at warp speed.

What I Liked/What I Didn’t Like: I loved Ness's dragons. They were so foreign and so interesting! I loved how fast the story moved; it hooked me from the first words and never let me go.

Uncharacteristically for me, I'm not sure how I feel about the gay relationship. I think because the story moved so fast, it didn't have time to become "he's the one and only love of my life, I'll literally give up the world for him". Maybe it's just a teenager thing though, being willing to die for someone you've only known a few days.

I liked the first half of the book A LOT more than the second half, but I still liked the second half.

I really liked how realistic the 1950s felt, even with the dragons there.

Rating: 1-Hated / 2-Disliked / 3-Okay / 4-Liked / 5-Loved: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️- 5 stars / Loved. I'd give it more stars if I could.