Burn for Burn

July 30, 2012
Set on fictional Jar Island, this first collaboration between Han (We’ll Always Have Summer) and Vivian (The List) follows three teenage girls bonded by a chilling quest for revenge. Popular Lillia is angry with her friend Alex, who spent the night with her 14-year-old sister after a party; tough girl Kat wants to sting her former friend Rennie, who has been spreading lies about her for years; and Mary, newly back on the island, is obsessed with the school quarterback, who humiliated her five years ago. Although they aren’t friends, the girls promise to work together in all three acts of revenge. Each girl narrates, flashing back to memories of betrayal and describing their pranks, which escalate from distributing Alex’s private writing to drugging another target. First in a planned trilogy, this fast-moving book offers an atmospheric setting and enough drama to captivate readers as they decide whether revenge is ever justified. The authors leave many unanswered questions, including the nature of a supernatural subplot that distracts somewhat from the book’s focus on retribution, guilt, and status. Ages 14–up. Agent: Emily Van Beek, Folio Literary Management.

July 15, 2012
Revenge fantasies run riot (and disappointingly off the rails) in a new series from usually reliable experts Han and Vivian. It's the end of summer before senior year of high school in Jar Island's resort towns, and change is in the air. After being victimized by people they thought they could trust, popular Lillia, outcast Kat and apparent new girl Mary make a revenge pact. Lillia, consumed with guilt and shame after being date raped, is hellbent on protecting her sheltered younger sister Nadia from the advances of fellow-senior Alex. Kat can't wait to put the screws to Rennie, who shut her out of their friendship with Lillia freshman year and has been spreading nasty rumors about Kat ever since. Newly svelte Mary grew up on Jar Island but has been living off-island for the last four years, recovering from the crushing bullying visited upon her by star quarterback Reeve. Each humiliating act of vengeance goes exactly as planned, but the consequences are far more devastating than the girls imagined, culminating in a near-tragedy that leaves them deeply shaken. Unfortunately, all this delicious bitchiness devolves into nihilistic nonsense by the last chapter, hampered by a late-developing supernatural twist and a final sentence that wouldn't be out of place in the film Chinatown. Readers will feel narratively whiplashed. (Fiction. 15-18)

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September 1, 2012
Grades 9-12 Oh, sweet, sweet revenge. It's what three high-school girlsLillia, Kat, and Maryare after. Lillia wants to take down Alex, who is rumored to be hooking up with her little sister; Kat has her sights set on Rennie, an uberpopular mean girl; and Mary, tormented by Reeve as an overweight 12-year-old, hopes karma is a real bitch. At first the revenge plots seem lackluster (Alex's sunscreen is swapped for Retin-A), but the acts heat up as Rennie and Reeve get their turns in the hot seat. With the exception of Alex, the cast is fairly unlikable, which may make it difficult for readers to care who comes out on top. Told from the girls' alternating viewpoints, Han and Vivian's novel reads like standard contemporary fare, so when hints of the supernatural are subtly introduced, the elements feel out of place, and the title comes to an abrupt end: I just hope we get away with it. Perhaps all will come together in the next entry in the series, and fans of the Pretty Little Liars series will likely overlook any plot missteps and eat this up.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2013
New student Mary, popular Lillia, and town rebel Kat seek revenge on three different classmates; the unlikely trio band together to take each one down. The girls' vengeance could be more developed, and eventually readers will have an uncomfortable feeling that they're taking things too far. The book's frustratingly abrupt ending falls smack in the middle of the (perplexing) climax.

(Copyright 2013 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)