"Seventeen-year-old Francis Fripp’s confidence is practically non-existent since his abusive father drenched him in accelerant and threw a match at him eight years ago. Now badly scarred, Francis relies on his best friend Trig to protect him from the constant bullying doled out at the hands of his nemesis, Brandon Hayley—the unrelenting boy who gave him the dreaded nickname of Burn Baby.
The new girl at school, Rachel Higgins, is the first to see past Francis’s pariah-inducing scars. If Brandon’s bullying doesn’t destroy him, Francis might experience life as a normal teenager for the first time in his life. He just has to avoid Brandon and convince himself he’s worthy of Rachel’s attentions. Sounds easy enough, but Francis himself has a hard time seeing past his scars. And Brandon is getting violently frustrated, as his attempts to bully Francis are constantly thwarted. Francis is in turmoil as he simultaneously rushes toward his first kiss and a possible violent end."
I received this book from Curiosity Quills for review as part of this Blog tour
This was a pretty intense read. Part of me was kind of expecting this book to be a little longer, but I read it so fast I didn't really notice that it was kind of on the short side.
Francis he is the most bullied kid I have ever read/or heard of. I can't imagine what it's like to be bullied that much. I keep forgetting that since I went to a really small school that bullying like this really does exist, I forget that there really are people out there that do things like this. That things like this aren't just stuff made by movies. But even for a bullied and scarred person he still manages to have some kind of sense of humor, even if it's snarky and sarcastic most of the time.
Trigg (Zach) was a really great character, and the kind of friend that not many people can find. He doesn't let his best friend make excuses and he treats him like nothing is different about him. The younger brother characters were just kind of there, and I didn't add too much to the story but were still well written characters.
One thing I was really glad to see was that the jocks that were bullying the MC didn't get off the hook because of being football players, or "popular". They got in trouble, and punished. Too many books that involve bullying seem to treat it as something that schools don't care about so the QB can play in the next game or something like that.
The only thing that I have to say against this book, is that the female characters weren't written very well. The mom was MIA all the time, and the Trigg's gf was really just there for the male characters to oogle, and Rachel the new girl that was supposed to be a big part of the story was hardly in the book. I would have liked to read more about their relationship after the mess at the end of the book happened.
This book was a quick and intense read, that I highly recommend. This is the first book by Mr. Craig that I have read.
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Burn Baby Burn Baby, by Kevin Craig
Genre: contemporary, young-adult
Publisher: Curiosity Quills Press
Date of Release : December 11, 2014
Cover Artist: Eugene Teplitsky
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About The Author:
Kevin Craig is the author of three previous novels; Summer on Fire, Sebastian’s Poet, and The Reasons. He is a 4-time winner of the Muskoka Novel Marathon’s Best Novel Award. Kevin is also a playwright and has had eight 10-minute plays produced. His poetry, short stories, memoir, and articles have been published internationally. Kevin was a founding member of the Ontario Writers’ Conference and a long-time member of the Writers’ Community of Durham Region (WCDR). He is represented by literary agent Stacey Donaghy of Donaghy Literary Group.
Find Kevin Craig Online:
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