Burned

Title: Burned by Ellen Hopkins
Genre: YA
Rating: 3/5

Pattyn Von Stratten comes from a extremely religious family, one ruled by an abusive and controlling father. The oldest of seven girls, she is expected to help raise them but as her home life continues to decline, she begins to question the ideas that she's been taught by her father and her church. And when she's caught in a compromising position with a boy, particularly one who is not a Mormon, she is sent to live with her aunt for the summer so as not to bother her once-again pregnant mother. There she finds love and acceptance, but what will happen when school starts again in the fall?

I really rather enjoyed Burned. The story was very interesting and it was difficult not to feel for Pattyn. The difficulties she faced and every horrible thing that happened to her really tugged at your heartstrings. You wanted her to overcome the obstacles in the way of her happiness, to get away from her abusive father and from a church that would side in his favour. I was surprised by the ending and don't really feel like everything was resolved. But that's not necessarily a bad thing as it kept me thinking for a while after I finished the book.

As for the text itself, it's laid out in the form of bad poetry. Visually, it's rather appealing and Hopkins has done some interesting stuff with it but there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to why she's ended lines where she has except for the visual effect. They do, however, wonderfully mimic how a high school girl would likely write poetry. Overall, Hopkins does an incredible job portraying this angst-ridden young girl and I would recommend Burned to anyone willing to try something a little different.