ARC Review: Adrienne Maria Vrettos - Burnout

Adrienne Maria Vrettos - Burnout

• Pub. Date: September 2011
• Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
• Format: Hardcover 208pp
• Age Range: Young Adult


On the day after Halloween, Nan wakes up in a subway car. She is not dreaming. She doesn’t know where she’s been or what she’s done. She’s missing a whole day from her life. And she’s wearing skeleton makeup and a too-small Halloween costume that she doesn't remember putting on.

Nan is not supposed to wake up in places like this anymore. She’s different now, so far from that dangerously drunk girl who hit bottom in the Nanapocalypse. She needs to find out what happened to her, and fast. As she tries to put together the pieces of the last twenty-four hours, she flashes back to memories of her previous life. But she would never go back to her old friends and her old ways. Would she?

The deeper Nan digs, the more disturbing things get. This time, she may have gone one step too far. This time, she may be a walking ghost.

I received this ARC through Around The World ARC Tours. Here is my honest review:

I wasn't sure at the beginning of this novel if I would really get into it at all. It took me a couple days, but I read the last 75% in one sitting. It's a quick, short read, so it doesn't take too long. And you would think with its lack of pages that it wouldn't get too involved, but man! There's the whole mystery of what the heck happened to her the night before. And it goes into her past: her friendships with Seemy and Toad, her quick fall into drinking, and her rehab stint.

It gets a little complicated because you're not sure if she started drinking again or if drugs came into the picture until she starts running into people who saw her the night before. Every clue she gets is totally accidental, so it's a little unbelievable and a bit over the top, but it makes it interesting I suppose. I did get sucked in and I really wanted her to remember, figure out what happened to her, because I didn't want her to go back to rehab or get in trouble (be it with her mom or just with life in general).

Also, Nan is supposed to be this tall, big-boned girl. I pictured her probably in exaggeration, but I could totally feel for her. It's hard to be a teenager and not fit in. She never seemed to have any friends, and then she found the wrong ones. It's amazing how fast things can change, and how quickly things can go wrong.

*spoilery stuff here*

I didn't like those guys, Turner and Hooch. They weren't a big part of the novel for them to turn out to be the awful assholes they were. And I had no idea what Liquid Gold was, so I didn't know what they were doing to the girls. I basically just wished Nan was stronger and that Seemy would have been a better person to leave her out of her trouble and let her get on with her healthy life. Ugh.

Rating:



3.5 / 5 book sharks