Product Description

I do know things really began to spin out of control after my first sex dream.

It all started with a dream. Nothing exceptional, just a typical fantasy about a boy, the kind of dream that most teen girls experience. But Pattyn Von Stratten is not like most teen girls. Raised in a religious -- yet abusive -- family, a simple dream may not be exactly a sin, but it could be the first step toward hell and eternal damnation.

This dream is a first step for Pattyn. But is it to hell or to a better life? For the first time Pattyn starts asking questions. Questions seemingly without answers -- about God, a woman's role, sex, love -- mostly love. What is it? Where is it? Will she ever experience it? Is she deserving of it?

It's with a real boy that Pattyn gets into real trouble. After Pattyn's father catches her in a compromising position, events spiral out of control until Pattyn ends up suspended from school and sent to live with an aunt she doesn't know.

Pattyn is supposed to find salvation and redemption during her exile to the wilds of rural Nevada. Yet what she finds instead is love and acceptance. And for the first time she feels worthy of both -- until she realizes her old demons will not let her go. Pattyn begins down a path that will lead her to a hell -- a hell that may not be the one she learned about in sacrament meetings, but it is hell all the same.

In this riveting and masterful novel told in verse, Ellen Hopkins takes readers on an emotional roller-coaster ride. From the highs of true love to the lows of abuse, Pattyn's story will have readers engrossed until the very last word.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #205749 in Books
• Published on: 2006-03-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 544 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781416903543
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From School Library Journal
Grade 9 Up–Once again the author of Crank (S & S, 2004) has masterfully used verse to re-create the yearnings and emotions of a teenage girl trapped in tragic circumstances. Poems in varied formats captivate readers as they describe a teen's immobilizing fear of her abusive father, disgust with a church hierarchy that looks the other way, hope that new relationships can counteract despair, joy in the awakening of romance, and sorrow when demons ultimately prevail. Pattyn Von Stratten is the eldest of eight sisters in a stern Mormon household where women are relegated to servitude and silence. She has a glimpse of normal teenage life when Derek takes an interest in her, but her father stalks them in the desert and frightens him away. Unable to stifle her rage, Pattyn acts out as never before and is suspended from school. Sent to live with an aunt on a remote Nevada ranch, she meets Ethan and discovers forever love. Woven into the story of a teen's struggle to find her destiny is the story of her aunt's barrenness following government mismanagement of atomic testing and protests over nuclear waste disposal. Readers will become immersed in Pattyn's innermost thoughts as long-held secrets are revealed, her father's beatings take a toll on her mother and sister, and Pattyn surrenders to Ethan's love with predictable and disturbing consequences. Writing for mature teens, Hopkins creates compelling characters in horrific situations.–Kathy Lehman, Thomas Dale High School Library, Chester, VA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Gr. 9-12. Full of anger at her father, an alcoholic who abuses her mother, Pattyn begins to question her Mormon religion and her preordained, subservient role within it. She is confused by her mother's acceptance of the brutal abuse, and although she is furious at and terrified of her father, she still longs for his love and approval. As the consequences of her anger become more dramatic, her parents send her to spend the summer with her aunt on a Nevada ranch. There she finds the love and acceptance she craves, both from her aunt and from a college-age neighbor, Ethan. Told in elegant free verse, Burned envelopes the reader in Pattyn's highs and lows, her gradual opening to love, and her bouts of rage, confusion, and doubt. It exposes the mind of the abused, but regrettably offers no viable plan to deal with the abuser, a reality perhaps, but a plot element that may raise eyebrows in the adult community. Still, this will easily find rapid-fire circulation among its YA audience. A troubling but beautifully written novel. Frances Bradburn
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
“Compelling characters in horrific situations.”
—School Library Journal (School Library Journal )

“troubling . . . beautifully written.”
—Booklist (Booklist )

Customer Reviews

Ellen writes my world...
I received a copy of BURNED in the mail from my cousin yesterday & couldn't put it down. I finished it all last night & was completely smitten! My cousin & I were both reared Mormon, & thus identified intensely with the story. We both come from dysfunctional families, which often made me feel like Hopkins had been peeking through my curtains to obtain her material for BURNED. I am now almost 30 & think this book is long overdue. Hopkins portrayal of a battered young girl in a devoutly religious (& more specifically, Mormon) family is dead on the mark. If only I had the clarity of Pattyn when I was a teen. (As conflicted & confused as Pattyn often is, she is wise beyond her years. My adolescence was marked with a blur of foggy madness...a fury of anger, loneliness, & confusion.) I have since made peace with my past & have left the Mormon church. Yet all the years and miles later, reading BURNED was like going home.

burned by the ending
I chanced upon this book, and raced through it. Surprisingly, I found the poetry format easy to read, though I would normally avoid this style. The author's talent was undeniable, in the terse, honest, sometimes rhyming verse. The emotions, dramas, and joys of late teen-age years were viscerally accurate and real. I would rate the book a 4 if it ended on a more optimistic note, as it is skillfully written, and the story engaging and worthwhile. In today's world, I simply cannot condone the ending, and found it not only disappointing but deeply disturbing. Pattyn Van Stratten is a high school junior, from a Mormon family. Her father, an alcoholic, abuses his wife and tyrannizes his 7 daughters. Pattyn struggles to find answers to her questions about faith and redemption; she wants to reconcile the violence and tyranny of her home life with her religious faith, but finds only complicity there. After her own small transgressions, she is shipped off to an Aunt in Nevada, where she is surprised to discover acceptance, friendship, freedom, love, and honesty. Unfortunately, this state of grace can't last, and ultimately it was the end of this book that I could not reconcile: it utterly lacked hope, and also seemed to justify the "Columbine" mentality, which repelled me. Although some reviewers were concerned about innacurate portrayal of Mormans in the book, that issue seemed minor to me: religion is often (always?) used as a tool of domination, one need look no further than Jimmy Jones and his kool-aid brew, or David Koresh, or Osama Bin Laden, or the Catholics and Protestants in Ireland, or even the born-again revival fueled by W's presidency to see this as a sadly repetitive pattern in human history. On the greater issue of abuse and its inevitable isolation, the book is both accurate, and despairing. Certainly there are enough newspaper articles to prove this tragic fact, though there are also some bright examples of overcoming the odds. I prefer to think of literature as escape, a way out, maybe even a real lifeline for those in need of rescue. In that light, I cannot accept the proffered solution for Pattyn's difficulty; too tragic for my taste.

Powerful Page Turner
I really enjoyed BURNED. I found it difficult to put it down, and didn't. I read CRANK as well a few months ago, and I have to say I am really looking forward to her next 2 books IMPULSE and GLASS.

Ellen Hopkins has a unique way of capturing teen angst written in beautiful verse that is both for teens and adults. My first instinct was to pass the book on to my teenage nieces.

As far as bashing the author for her portrayal of Mormons, well many religions find "abuse" of any sort an "affront to God", yet guess what....IT HAPPENS! I personally know many supposed devout Christians who abuse their wives verbally and physically. Let's not candy-coat the story just to be PC. Teens can see thru that a mile away.