Sunday, January 31, 2016

Review: Burn by Elissa Sussman

Title: Burn (Four Sisters #2)
Author: Elissa Sussman
Genre: Young Adult, High Fantasy
Source: Greenwillow via Edelweiss
Goodreads


After helping to rescue Princess Aislynn, Elanor has finally rejoined the rebel camp she calls home. Stolen from her parents at a young age and forced into service by the Wicked Queen, Elanor now wants nothing more than to see the queen removed from power. But Elanor has secrets, mistakes she’s spent years trying to forget, and the closer the rebels get to the throne, the harder it is for Elanor to keep her past hidden away.

With fellow rebels on her side—including Princess Aislynn, Thackery, and the handsome and mysterious Matthias—it is time for Elanor to make a decision. Will she protect her secrets? Or risk everything to save the people she loves?

The thrilling companion to Elissa Sussman’s masterful and original fairy tale, Stray, that will appeal to readers of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and fans of Wicked, Into the Woods, and the Disney princess movies.
Review by Nara

Burn was, unfortunately, quite the mediocre read. There are a lot of things I didn't like about it and very few things I enjoyed.

One of the biggest problems was that I honestly felt like I didn't get to know the characters at all throughout the novel. I'm not sure exactly what it was, but the character development seemed extremely poor, and I just felt nothing about any of the characters. (Except the pet fox. So adorable.) Even when there were big twists that seemed to shock the characters, I just didn't really care. Part of the reason for this was that we switch to a different character to the first book as the main character- a character that wasn't developed enough despite being the narrator. Similarly to the first book, the romance was also rather feeble. It was underdeveloped, and while Elanor and Matthias had more of a connection than the main characters in Stray, I still didn't really strongly ship them.

The plot was, again, very generic, and there weren't that many shocking twists. The one big twist was unexpected, but it also didn't have much of an impact, probably because of the previously mentioned lack of care factor for the characters. I had hoped that this sequel would consolidate things, but it ended up being the same loose plot that we got in Stray.

Unfortunately, I found Burn was quite underwhelming compared to Stray. I have no desire to continue with this series.

It was okay
Ratings
Overall: 5/10
Plot: 2/5
Romance: 2/5
Writing: 3/5
World Building: 2/5
Characters: 2/5
Cover: 2/5