On the latest Teen Title Talk, Courtney and Erin dive into two fascinating reads: Birdie and Me by J.M.M Nuanez and The Burning by Laura Bates. Join in to hear what they thought of these two very different but equally compelling reads: http://teentitletalk.podbean.com/

The Burning had so much promise. It had such a strong message about slut-shaming, bullying, and social media and how it affects the victims of sexual crimes. The delivery of these messages; however, left me feeling disappointed with it's poor execution.

This book was a slow read that was made even slower with the jumps back in time to story of a woman who was burned at the stake for being a witch. I felt like the two stories were disconnected. I saw what the author was trying to do, I just didn't think it was done particularly well.

(This will be posted on my blog on May 15)

This was a really intense, anxiety-inducing read for me, but at the same time I couldn’t put it down.

I did think there would be more of the story about Maggie (the woman accused of witchcraft in the 17th century) in this story, but as a subplot it added an interesting parallel to Anna’s story. I guess I just thought, based on the synopsis, that it would be a bigger part of the story.

I liked this book, and I know it might not seem realistic to some readers in the sense of its resolution, but I wanted to read something that offered some hope, which this book did in the end, despite the bleak subject matter and the torment that Anna suffers.

A past and present story all in one.... count me in. This isn’t my typical read but I was sucked into it from the very beginning. This story is so riveting that I just couldn’t put it down. This book shows just how much women truly go through with the shaming that comes from sexuality.

This book brings up important challenges that students face, and gives a look at sexism through the lens of being a teenager. The plot got a little messy and complicated about midway through. Overall an interesting book.

Thank you Netgalley for the chance to read and review this title. I will review this title at a different date.

I had this book sitting in my kindle for months before I was able to read it. As soon as I opened it I couldn't put it down. This Burning is a wonderful book that I feel everyone should read. Laura Bates ties cyberbullying and witch-burning together, showing the readers that they are exactly the same only difference is one is happening today.

As a woman who feels very strongly about advocating for yourself and reading how Anna was being treated killed me but as the story goes you can see the character development, the strength she needed to push all the bullying aside, and take back her life.

The reason why I would recommend this book to everyone is because we all know a person that has been burned due to some rumors or is dealing with one right now. This book can help so many people.

The few things I didn't like about the book is it started very slow and had some stuff that didn't need to be put in. The ending felt rushed and I would have wished that the author addressed what happened to the students that were bullying Anna.

I meant to write about this book earlier, but as we all know, life is weird at the moment and I missed the pub date. Better late than never though! The Burning by Laura Bates was a great read! I love how the author compares slut shaming to witch hunts. The beginning of the book annoyed me a little, because the main character talks about something big that happened to her, but she doesn’t mention what it is. I prefer knowing what the main character knows, and having to find stuff out about the other characters. However, this got resolved not too far into the book, which left me just enjoying it a lot.

I struggled with this book— and yet I still liked it a lot??

It was a little slower than I wanted it to be, which was frustrating all around until it picked up in the second half, but as for the rest of the story and characters— yeah, consider me a fan. I love how the author chose this topic and how she chose to use it also, making many profound and clear statements on the reality of rape culture and victim blaming. I love seeing more of this in fiction. Will be definitely be following the author.

Thank you to Netgalley and Sourcebooks Fire for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

From the get-go we know Anna has secrets. She keeps referencing something that happened at her old school. Something bad enough for her to move away, change her name, and start over. Even give up having a phone and a social media presence. I love/hate books like that. I honestly love it, but my curiosity gets the best of me. Its SO HARD not knowing! I think this is a big part of why I flew through it. Once we found out what the secret was, the book started really gaining steam and going much more quickly.

On top of Anna’s story, we also see her researching a woman who lived in her village in the 1600s that was tried and convicted of witchcraft. At some points, I thought this was more interesting than Anna’s story. I loved the glimpses into the past and all the research she did. Honestly, I want a book just about Maggie!

Laura Bates did great touching on slut shaming. It’s the whole focus of the novel. She did a great job of showing what happens to victims and those around them like friends and family, victim blaming from men and women, and the awful aftermath.

This was a great feminist read. I recommend it to anyone who loves ya feminist contemporaries.

A little slow and not as engaging as I was hoping for! Just not the book for me sadly. I think it needed more character development; just couldn’t get into it.

The Burning is a fun, fast read!

Thank you to NetGalley for my copy of this book in exchange for my review.

This is a story that needs to be told. Anna Clark was so bullied that she had to move to a new country, a new school, even change her name. And it followed her. It haunted her. It all came back and almost ruined her life. While going through this torture, she discovers a young woman who was burned at the stake for witchcraft for the sin of being raped and bearing a child. The Burning explores the punishment meted out upon women for being women, and it’s a story that needs to be told.

I would like to thank NetGalley, Sourcebooks Fire, and author Laura Bates for providing me with an ARC of this novel.

I found this book to be so, so important. This is sadly a very relevant problem going on in our school systems. Anna’s life has fallen apart. A rumor has spread like wildfire about her and has ruined her life. Her father is dead, and nude pictures of her have shown up online. To escape this hell, Anna and her mother move hundreds of miles away to put the past behind them. But sadly, the past comes right along with them. The internet is forever and always, and although she’s moved far, far away, her past starts to creep up on her again.

Anna tries to separate herself from reality by diving into a history project about Maggie, a local woman accused of witchcraft in the seventeenth century. She finds a reprieve in Maggie and her story, which helps her cope with her current situation.

This novel truly brought to light the concerns that need to be brought up about social media and just how dangerous it can be, no matter your age. The internet is forever, and our youth can’t quite wrap their heads around it. Even though they may forget what they post, it can always come back around to hurt them again. This is an incredibly strong and powerful YA debut for author Laura Bates. This truly makes you think back to your life and make connections, which is hard to find in books anymore.

Thank you again to those listed for the chance to read this ARC!

This is one of those books that tend to elicit an extra star for the urgency and gravity of the issues it brings on the table rather than the way it brings those issues to the reader's attention and dissect them one by one.

In the beginning, we meet Anna, a teenage girl who had to leave her life in England behind to escape the sexist vitriol following a leaked nude. The first few chapters capture beautifully Anna's fears, her shame, her disappearance into herself to regain a semblance of "normal" life as she moves with her mother to a new beginning, a new life in Scotland. We are totally sold on the idea that her past will resurface at some point and she'll come up to face it instead of running away again.

But things start to jumble up like an old phone cord (remember those) and not in a good way. While we were dealing mainly with slut-shaming, social media trolling and gender-based double standards, other things were thrown into the mix. You feel the author's need to vent about those things too, but did it work for the story at hand? I don't think so. For example: to make the point that today's slut-shaming isn't that far off from witch-hunting of the old days we are faced with a supernatural/historical element one third into the book and this element starts a parallel plot alongside the contemporary plot that we were dealing with, not to mention a few other contemporary issues like challenging perceptions on abortion and consent. It was too much that the writing started to falter and loop around.

I loved the beginning of this book, I was less sold on the ending. Bates writes beautifully, but I think that the book was let down by the lack of an industrious round of structural editing. Nip and tuck the plot so it's focused and doesn't lose that urgency the first chapters created. A more contemporary empathetic handling of the issues would have been far more effective than the supernatural pastiche.

Many thanks to Sourcebooks and NetGalley for the ARC.

Super quick to get through despite being a hard topic. I really enjoyed the story line, particularly the flashbacks to Maggies timeline and the similarities between the two situations. I would’ve liked a little bit more of Maggie. I think that was the one thing missing for me. I loved the relationship between Anna and her mom, and Anna and the friends she’s made at the new school. The relationships feel very real and genuine.

This book had some execution issues, but overall the meaning and place for this type of story is so important. Victim blaming is rampant in our society and something that I think most of us have experienced in one way or another. Poignant and current.

(3.75 stars rounded up to 4 stars...)

Anna's life is in shambles. Her father is dead and some nude pictures of hers wound up online. To escape the torment of these two events, Anna and her mother move to Scotland and change their last name. Unfortunately, the internet is both worldwide and forever, so Anna is unable to fully escape her online shame. Hounded by grief and uncertainty in her new environs, Anna is assigned a local history research project that leads her to the sordid story of Maggie, a young woman who became pregnant out of wed-lock and later was "found" to be a witch. Fascinated with the similarities between Maggie's plight and her own, Anna digs deeper into Maggie's story as she tries to deal with, and escape, her own troubles.

For me, this was a troubling book to read, and it cemented my concerns over social media and how dangerous it can be for youth. Once something goes on the internet, it's there forever, and I think that teenagers need to not just know that, but feel it in their bones. If they can't remember, the world won't let them forget. I think The Burning is a strong YA debut for Laura Bates, and I appreciate that her story is actually trying to give insight to the reader about a topic that matters today. Any book can tell a story, but not all stories help you take something back to your real life. Maybe after reading it, a few bright kids will avoid getting burned, and will consider whether they want that special picture or that caustic joke to follow them the rest of their days.

Thanks to Netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

I decided to stop reading this around 50% in. I see that it is supposed to be a story on how badly women can get treated and bullying and all that. It seems unrealistic. If this had really gone down (and I’m still not clear what it is 50% in), the kids doing the bullying would have gotten in some kind of trouble. It doesn’t seem realistic at all that the kids and teachers would all be a part of it and make this girl’s life a living hell.

The story was also kind of boring too.

This was a great book. It does have the occasional strong language. It took me a little while to get into it and then once I got into it, I did not want to put it down. It really did a great job of dealing with issues of social media that young people feel today. It almost seemed to be an updated version of Speak in dealing with problems for young women. I would recommend it to students and have recommended it to other teachers.