Thursday 31 August 2017

The Burning Girl by Claire Messud

Synopsis (from Goodreads

Pages: 304
Publisher: Little Brown Book Group (Fleet)
Released: 7th of September 2017 

Julia Robinson and Cassie Burnes have been friends since nursery school. They have shared everything, including their desire to escape the stifling limitations of their birthplace, the quiet town of Royston, Massachusetts. But as the two girls enter adolescence, their paths diverge: while Julia comes from a stable, happy, middle-class family, Cassie never knew her father, who died when she was an infant, and has an increasingly tempestuous relationship with her single mother, Bev. When Bev becomes involved with the mysterious Anders Shute, Cassie feels cruelly abandoned. Disturbed, angry and desperate for answers, she sets out on a journey that will put her own life in danger, and shatter her oldest friendship. 


What I Have to Say

I hate to be so harsh, but this book bored me a lot. I don't know if I'd have gotten through it if it hadn't been for review. Just so much of the book was just exposition and setting up the relationship between the two girls. It felt like nothing was really happening at all. 

And even when things were happening, the plot was kind of obvious. I guessed easily where Cassie had gone. It was just predictable and there wasn't much at all to keep me reading. 

I did like Cassie as a character though. Julia was a little bland, but Cassie was quite well written, at least at first. She became a bit of a cliché when she was trying to be cool and out at parties all the time, though it was made less so by Julia's insights into Cassie's life, such as the fact that Cassie wouldn't drink. 

I dunno. I just like books with a strong plot and this was more based around Cassie as a character. It wasn't for me. 


My thanks go to Little Brown Books and Netgalley for providing me with this copy for review. 

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