Status
Call number
Collection
Publication
Description
Romance. Young Adult Fiction. Young Adult Literature. HTML:From National Book Award finalist, Elana K. Arnold, comes a sizzling love story set during the Burning Man festival that's told in alternating first-person points of view. Having just graduated from high school, Ben is set to leave Gypsum, Nevada. The timing is perfect since the gypsum mine that is the lifeblood of the area is closing and along with it:the entire town. Ben'slucky as he's headed to San Diego to the University of California on a track scholarship. But his best friends, Pete and Hog Boy, don't have college to look forward to, so to make them happy, Ben goes with them to check out the hot chick parked on the side of Highway 447. Lala and her Gypsy family earn money by telling fortunes. Some customers choose Tarot cards; others have their palms read. The thousands of people attending the nearby Burning Man festival spend lots of cash�??especially as Lala gives uncanny readings. But lately Lala's been questioning whether there might be more to life than her upcoming arranged marriage. And the day she reads Ben's cards is the day that everything changes for her ... and for him. A spellbinding summer page-turner about self-determination. "Lyrical and inspirational."�??Kirkus Reviews "Readers looking for a romantic coming-of-age novel won't be disappointed."�??SLJ "The stirrings of an unconventional first love and the new freedoms that lie in wait for Lala and Ben provide readers ample reason to keep turning pages"�??Publishers… (more)
User reviews
Lala’s family is trying to capitalize on the nearby Burning Man festival, where close to 50,000 gather each year [in real life] for a weeklong event that draws, according to Ben, “artists, musicians, druggies, hippies, ravens, nudists - from all over the world” - a perfect potential customer base for fortune tellers. Lala, 18 like Ben, is due to marry Romeo, also at the camp, in a month; following Romani custom his family “purchased” Lala for a rather steep bride price. Lala should be happy, but she feels increasingly trapped.
When Ben’s two best friends, Pete and Hog Boy, bring Ben to her tent for a fortune telling, Ben and Lala are attracted to each other immediately. For Ben it is InstaForeverandEverLove but for Lala it is more like InstaLust. Nevertheless, the two improbably find a way to get together, and as the Burning Man effigy crashes and burns in the desert, so do their former lives.
Evaluation: This book has some good aspects; the information on both the Romani culture and on the Burning Man Festival seems fairly accurate. The tie-in with The Catcher in the Rye is an apt, if uninventive, trope for a coming of age book. However, the prose is sophomoric and, when the narrative perspective switches to Lala, absurd. Romani people, even those who adhere to old customs, do not talk like robots. Those two aspects of the author’s prose are shown in combination when Lala first sees Ben:
"Deep inside me, it was as if something was waking and stretching its limbs. Some secret dragon hibernating in my core had been stirred by the presence of this boy.. ... I knew from the expressions on their faces that the way I looked was pleasing to them - why should it not be? I was young, healthy, full of life.”
And “Hog Boy” who acts like his name, a best friend of nice guy Ben? Doesn’t seem likely, although I give them the benefit of the doubt since the town is so small the kids don’t have many choices for friends.
As for the fortune telling scenes, they are so insipid that it is too absurd to think people would keep saying “wow, how does she know that?” Lala herself says “I have always known that there is no magic in the cards. ... I show them what I see - what I need no cards to see. The truth is in their faces.” [There's a scene, for example, in which Lala reads a man’s hands, and tells him he has had health problems and everyone so impressed.... (he’s wearing a bracelet that says “I am stronger than cancer.”)] But in the end, even Lala "reads" her own cards to help her make a decision.
Evaluation: The denouement is unexpected, but refreshing. Still, I would have wished for way better writing and some character development, of which there is very little.
For me, Burning was a must-read book from the very moment that I heard about it. I couldn't wait to read about a gypsy girl and a regular guy falling in love, which I was sure would happen. But Burning is so much more than a love story-- it's actually
Lala had a very authentic voice. I loved hearing about her people's customs, and reading the words that she speaks in her own language-- it's a lot of fun to see a different voice once in a while. I liked hearing the old Romani stories that she told, and I enjoyed seeing things through her eyes, but I find that I don't really connect with her.
I connected much more with Ben, who's lived in a small town his entire life. The things that he says and thinks about small town life are absolutely true-- people generally tolerate you because they've known you forever. It's a fact of life. Anywho, I enjoyed Ben's character. He was so sweet and caring, but I also detected fierce protectiveness from him.
I'm proud to say that Lala and Ben's voices were easily distinguished from each other-- I never found myself rushing back to a chapter marker to see who was speaking. So that was well done. I also enjoyed the ending-- it was completely different than what I expected, but it was perfect.
All in all, Burning was more about self-discovery than love, but it's worth a read for a break from all the relationship drama. (: