Book Review

Hunter Vineyard
Book Review
March 5, 2009
Burned by Ellen Hopkins

Burned is the story of Pattyn, a teenage girl who lives in a primarily Mormon community in Nevada. Her family adheres to a strict version of Mormonism in which the men are dominant and the women are obedient. Pattyn is one of six female siblings, each named after a male military figure. Her dad is constantly battling demons. With his first wife, he had two sons. One was killed in the military and the other was gay, so he was disowned. These circumstances hurt his first wife so bad that she killed herself, and now, remarried with so many new children, Pattyn’s dad blames himself and drowns his guilt in liquor. This leads to the continued abuse of Pattyn’s mom. Pattyn begins to struggle with her own identity her junior year of high school. She knows what is going on at home is wrong, but when she tries to reach out for help, she finds out that the religious community defends her father. She’s named a liar by her bishop when she speaks about the abuse, and Pattyn begins to search for outlets to get away from her home life. She meets a boy from her school one afternoon when she’s out in the woods to get away from the house, and they begin a relationship that consists mainly of drinking and sexual acts. When her family finds out, she’s considered a problem child and is sent away to live with her aunt for the summer, supposedly as punishment. Pattyn’s aunt Jeanette is her father’s sister. She, too, was raised in a strict, overbearing Mormon household and knows all too well the deadly lengths her brother will go to keep undesirable males away from good Mormon women. Aunt Jeanette has long since abandoned the church and lives on a ranch in Nevada, a wild and liberating environment that Pattyn comes to love and thrive in. While at the ranch, Pattyn meets Ethan, a college student who is home for the summer to help is dad. He lives up the road and immediately captures Pattyn’s attention. All summer long, they kindle their relationship which gives Pattyn strength and happiness she has never experienced. Aware that going back home is the equivalent to being sent back to prison, Aunt Jeanette and Ethan arm Pattyn with some tools to gain some freedom from her father: a cell phone that Aunt Jeanette is paying for, pre-arranged calls with Ethan and a handgun from Ethan. I would recommend this book to teenage girls. I enjoyed this book because it all seems so real, that something like this can actually happen. Adults wouldn’t enjoy this book as much because its basically a teenage love story, and also making some girls that they do not have such a hard life.