Here is the review I meant to post yesterday. I've been
very under the weather and realized that this was the one item I failed to
schedule ahead of time. I hope you enjoy it....I also hope you're enjoying today’s
interview.
I give this book a 4, almost a 3 ½, but the story was really
good.
Burning Bridges tells the story of nation divided with a
reluctant princess stuck right in the middle of it. The world of Alwaenia is
comparable to nations such as North and South Korea or Vietnam, where the
differences in the peoples are minimal, but the lives lived and the styles in
which they are lived are as different as night and day. Then there is, of
course, the presences of an intense forbidden love, to keep the reader pulled
in at all times.
Some of the passages were difficult to understand because of
the way they are written, but this could be a writing style preference issue.
Some of the tense use was awkward and the terminology was sometimes
misleading. Even though much of the
conflict in the story is centered around the differences between these two
peoples, the differences weren’t very clear. The differences that were clear
didn’t seem to offer much reason for the segregation that fuels the conflict of
this story. Also, everything in this
dystopian society seems to be very modern except for the fact that no one
drives cars. Maybe this kind of technology just doesn’t exist in this world,
but it seemed odd to me.
Aside from the oddities that pressed against my personal
view and interpretation of this story, I found that I couldn’t put it down. I
had to keep reading it to see what would happen next and to see what
understandings would be revealed. The fact that the whole story takes places
over a five week period lets you know
that it’s a faced paced journey, but that didn’t keep the author from taking
time to develop her characters and pull you into them. Even now, there are
elements of the story I still don’t understand, but I know enough to know that
I must read the next book.
I’m not an avid YA reader and have very little to compare
this too, but I guess I’d say that if you liked Hunger Games you may like this.
It is very interesting, though, that the point view switches between the two
main characters. I feel that this, almost by itself, is what made the extreme
circumstances of their union seem so real and likable. I think this is a story
that the whole family could enjoy, but don’t know if the whole family would
like it. Mom and daughter could probably gobble this up in days and wait
anxiously for sequel, while brother would pick it up if a friend recommended
it.
