I have enjoyed this series, even though it came along in a time when I was slightly burned out on dystopian novels. I think this series was set apart, because it was written for the adult audience, so even though there was some romance, and even a couple love triangles, the mature adult perspective does come through– that said, my high school daughter has been reading them and enjoying them as well.
This review, as well as the others of this series, are pretty-much spoiler free, even if you haven’t read the other books in the series. If you want to find out more, you should definitely read my reviews of the first two books Pure and Fuse, but don’t be afraid to skim this one as well.
The world Baggott created of a protected society of Pures living in the Dome and the Wretches who survived the attempted destruction of the world outside the Dome is original and allowed me to enjoy the genre again.
As I read this 3rd book in the series, it didn’t seem like a new book. At first that was a little off-putting, and made it hard to get into. But after thinking about it, I realized that these books read like a complete larger work, not a trilogy, if that makes sense. In a trilogy, each book seems to have a complete story arc, and as I read this one, I realized we were still dealing with the same characters and the same issues. I’m okay with that since many trilogies have artificial drama and cliffhangers built in to create these stories.
In Burn, the tensions between the Pures and the Wretches has peaked and action and struggle continues both inside and outside the Dome. The characters and the readers are led to question true loyalties throughout.
There could have been some more resolution in the end, making me wonder that even though this is the 3rd book in a trilogy, if perhaps the author has another series of books planned with what happens next? This was a dark story, so honestly an ending with everything wrapped up in a pretty bow probably wouldn’t have felt true to it, so for me it ultimately worked fine.