Rating: 5/5
Review:
Complex, subtle and gripping
I thoroughly enjoyed Burn. It is complex, subtle and brilliantly
told.
The book is set in
1957 in a world very like ours, but where dragons have existed for
centuries and have managed to form an uneasy but lasting truce with
humans. Sarah and her father hire a dragon to do some heavy
clearance work on their farm in Washington State. He turns out to be
far more than a soulless “claw” (the insulting term for dragons
used by some humans) and at the same time a fanatical assassin starts
his journey toward Sarah who, it turns out, will be a girl in exactly
the right time and place to fulfil a prophecy that such a girl will
prevent the destruction of the world.
A gripping and
excellently told story ensues. It sounds like the rather common use
in young people’s literature of a traditional mythical structure:
the Light and the Dark with a young mediator on whom the fate of the
world depends. Patrick Ness brings more subtlety and complexity to
it than this, though. There are shades of good and bad everywhere
and he makes excellent and timely points about racism, homophobia and
other prejudices. He also gives a fine portrait of the grooming of a
fanatic and the dishonesty which lies behind it.
Ness has never shied
away from darkness and tragedy and there is certainly some of that
here, but there are also fine, human and redemptive themes, some of
which are genuinely moving.
When he’s at the
top of his game, few can match Patrick Ness in this genre. He is
close to the top of his game here and I can recommend Burn very
warmly.
(My thanks to Walker
Books for an ARC via NetGalley.)
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