Burning Blue by Paul Griffin Review

The gruesome premise of this book is fairly straight forward: Jay is infatuated with perfect girl Nicole but one day Nicole gets acid thrown on her, leaving her not so perfect. Crime solving ensues with a dash of romance. Yes, essentially,Burning Blue is your typical high school romance where the 'unattainable' queen bee falls unexpectedly for a low-life looser. But this book has more than a simple romance going for it - as you'd expect when acid is involved! There are real characters, plot twists and always the constant mystery of who and why threw acid on poor Nicole. 



I'll give props to Griffin, this certainly was an interesting idea which he manages to execute perfectly. The ever present question of 'who' and 'why' intrigues the reader. Luckily, this isn't one of those books where the real plot is put on the back burner while the romance is kindled. Rather, as the 'who dun it' question is the center of the stage and romance is worked into that.

Part of the reason for this books obvious success is the way in which it was told. A big part of the appeal was the writing style, which was simple and easy to follow. It gave the reader enough detail to be satisfied but not so much that they're thinking 'yawn'. A lot of this had to be attributed to it being told from a Jay's point of view, where the mystery theme of the book could reach it's potential. Had it been told from Nicole's (acid girl) point of view it would have been more about the emotional trauma. As it was, you did feel the affect the incident had on her in her diary entries which were dotted through out the book. Personally, I thought this book had just enough coverage of Nicole's feelings and of Jay's constant drive to find the culprit. 

Moving onto the plot. It is intriguing and goes without saying, captivating. The story driven by Jay's ever present curiosity to find out the mystery of 'who dun it'. 

Thankfully, this isn't quickly resolved; it takes most of the novel. It isn't straight forward either; there are just enough twists. It's never apparent who's responsible, just as you cross a cross off your 'guilty' list, they do something which makes you second guess them. A lot of this can attributed to the 'more than meets the eye' characters. Everyone was guilty of not being totally honest (as they are in real life) and that was part of the reason why the case wasn't so easy to solve. In addition Griffin, unlike a lot of other authors, did not forget that other characters, not just their leads, have their own struggles. 

Burning Blue is one of those books that sticks with you long after the last page is turned. You're given closure but it leaves you questioning everything. Burning Blue is definitely food for thought.