Burned
Pattyn Von Stratten is searching for the love she isn’t getting from God or her family in this novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Ellen Hopkins.
It all started with a dream. Just a typical fantasy, but for a girl raised in a religious—and abusive—family, a simple dream could be the first step toward eternal damnation. Now Pattyn Von Stratten has questions. Questions about God, and sex, and mostly love. Will she ever find it? Pattyn experiences the first stirrings of passion, but when her father catches her in a compromising position, events spiral out of control.
Pattyn is sent to live with an aunt in the wilds of rural Nevada to find salvation and redemption. What she finds instead is love and acceptance, and for the first time she feels worthy of both—until she realizes that her old demons will not let her go. Those demons lead Pattyn down a path to hell—not to the place she learned about in sacrament meetings, but to an existence every bit as horrifying.
In this gripping and masterful novel told in verse, Ellen Hopkins embarks on an emotional journey that ebbs and flows. From the highs of true love to the lows of loss and despair, Pattyn’s story is utterly compelling. You won’t want this story to end—but when it does, you can find out what’s next for Pattyn in the sequel, Smoke.
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Community Reviews
I give this book only four stars, even though I read it through quite quickly, because of the ending. I knew it was going to be bad (with a start like that, how could it not be?). But it was so thoroughly bad. There wasn't a shred of goodness left, and that frustrated me. I have to read the next book now, because I feel so bad for this girl. I know this is reality for far too many people, but it's so horrible and hopeless it's depressing me. I've got to read the next one to see if there is any hope that can be gleaned from this situation.
Wish me luck. Wouldn't necessarily recommend to teens because it doesn't have any solutions about how to help with a situation like living in an abusive home and the whole message about sex was a little confused. Yeah, it was explicitly in favor of consensual, loving sex, but there were punishments, whether they were explicit or not. And they were raw and harsh. I don't know. Tough one. But sometimes teens need a tough one to help them along.
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