Review: Burn by Elissa Sussman

I have been waiting for this book for a long time now. Ever since I read Stray just before it was published. I'm so glad to have finally gotten to read this book. And so happy to say that I liked it a whole lot. But three stars for this one. And I have so many thoughts and reasons for that. Shall try to share all of it.

I found the writing in this book to be stunning. Lots of love for it. And the story is pretty exciting too. And I liked this book at all times. But I also had a few issues with this book. Mainly with how short it was. Only about two hundred and fifty pages. And they aren't long pages. So it was fast to read yet way too short.

I'm not sure where I should begin. I loved reading about the mail girl, Elanor. She was amazing to get to know. I loved how strong she was. Yet she was a bit broken too. I adored her. But I also felt like I didn't know her nearly enough, as this book didn't share all that much. But even so, I liked her a lot. And her friends were pretty amazing too. Rhys was adorable. And a great friend. Her older brother was awesome too. And I really liked her almost mom too. Elanor also have this adorable fox as a pet, and I loved Dagger so much. She's the cutest. So much love for that sweet thing. There are also other characters in this book. I didn't like this one girl, Wren. She was annoying me badly. Yet interesting to read about too. Her past was so sad.

There are so much I wish to share about this book. But it was also so short, so I don't really have all that much to talk about. Not much happened. But I liked the plot even so. Writing was beautiful. I liked the story, how Elanor was a fighter. How they were a rebellion in a mountain planning how to get rid of a wicked queen. It was interesting, yet never all that much. And then I learned more about that evil queen, and I didn't think she was all that evil at all. Hah. But I guess she did a lot of bad things, before.

My problem with this book was that I didn't feel all that much about it. I liked reading it, and I didn't want to stop at all, and I read it so fast. But I felt like something was missing. The book is so short. Yet it seems to jump forward weeks and months at times. It bothered me a lot. And I never felt like I got to know the characters. The romance just happened, and we never get to read about them spending time together, except for in bed, and that was only for a few short words. Bothered me a whole bunch. Sigh.

I felt like this book didn't show things that were happening. It could have been done better. I needed to know the boy more. And the girl too. And I wanted to swoon for the romance. But it was impossible, as I never got to read about them falling in love. Just a few looks between them. And jumping ahead for weeks. It was a bit annoying. Yet I shipped them a whole bunch. And I did like the boy, Matthias, a whole lot. But I didn't know him. And that bothered me. This book was short and told so little. I wanted more.

Yet even so I liked it a whole lot. It was interesting and exciting. I liked Elanor so much. I loved getting to read a bit more about Aislynn and Thackery as well. Though not from her point of view, which made me sad. Seemed like their romance was awesome. Sigh. Yet I didn't know enough about them either, which also annoyed me. This book shows so little. And yeah. I wanted to know so much more. Sigh. I had forgotten so much about book one. So I will have to re-read both of these before the third one releases.

These books are exciting. Feels like fairytale and fantasy. And I did like Burn a whole bunch. But sadly I did not love it. And I just don't know what else to say about it. I loved the girl and the fox. Romance was good, but not nearly enough. It should have been written a whole lot more about it. I wanted more. I needed more. I feel like I knew I lot about the plot, what will happen in the next books. But it was also so unclear. Because this book was way too short. Ugh. But I also liked it a lot, despite that. Well, mostly.

I have never taken part in a reading challenge before. But this year I signed up for this lovely one hosted by Mel. Where I will try to read at least one fairytale retelling a month. Sadly I'm very behind this month. Ack. And so I decided to read Burn today, on the last day. And I'm so glad I read this book. I just wish I had loved it more. I'm not fully sure if this counts as a fairytale book, but I think so. There is a evil queen. A different character is a princess. You should all sign up for this challenge :) Last chance today.

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