The Burning

By Laura Bates

'The Burning lights a fire in you - one that makes you want to fight for change and ignite sparks in others so the fire spreads and spreads.' - HOLLY BOURNE 

A rumour is like a fire. You might think you’ve extinguished it but one creeping, red tendril, one single wisp of smoke is enough to let it leap back into life again. Especially if someone is watching, waiting to fan the flames ...
 
New school.
Tick.
New town.
Tick.
New surname.
Tick.
Social media profiles?
Erased.
 
There’s nothing to trace Anna back to her old life. Nothing to link her to the ‘incident’.
 
At least that’s what she thinks … until the whispers start up again. As time begins to run out on her secrets, Anna finds herself irresistibly drawn to the tale of Maggie, a local girl accused of witchcraft centuries earlier. A girl whose story has terrifying parallels to Anna’s own…

The compelling YA debut from Laura Bates, founder of the Everyday Sexism Project and bestselling author of Girl Up.

PRAISE FOR THE BURNING:
'This is a book teen girls NEED to read' - Holly Bourne
'Bold, brutal & hugely important' - Abi Elphinstone 
'Defiant and inspiring' – Katherine Webber 
'Brilliant' – Stylist
'Essential reading for fans of Holly Bourne and Louise O'Neill' - The Observer

PRAISE FOR GIRL UP:
 ‘A bracing love letter to today's teenage girls’ – Sunday Times
'Essential reading for young women and girls’ –  Morning Star Online
'This no-nonsense guide to being a girl in 2016 is one all teen girls should read’ – Red magazine
'If you have a daughter or a niece or a younger sister or a goddaughter, buy it for them now' --The Pool

PRAISE FOR EVERYDAY SEXISM:
‘This is an important book’ –Independent
‘A potent reminder of how far feminism has come and how far it has to go’ - Kirkus Reviews
'A game-changing book, a must-read for every woman' –Cosmopolitan
 'Funny and clever' - Telegraph

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
• Release date: Feb 21, 2019
• ISBN: 9781471170218

Laura Bates

Laura Bates is a Sunday Times bestselling author and the founder of the Everyday Sexism Project, a collection of over 200,000 testimonies of gender inequality. Her non-fiction books include Everyday Sexism, Girl Up, Misogynation, Men Who Hate Women and Fix the System, Not the Women. She writes regularly for The Guardian and the Telegraph, among other publications, and won a British Press Award in 2015. Laura works closely with organisations from the Council of Europe to the United Nations to tackle gender inequality. She was awarded a British Empire Medal for services to gender equality and has been named a woman of the year by Cosmopolitan, Red and The Sunday Times. 

Reviews for The Burning

[t1bnotown · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Possible Spoiler Alert:It's interesting that I just followed this up with Cheerleaders which has inconsistencies with the story... I have to give credit to Stine for Simon thinking that he'd killed Angelica's suitors when it was Angelica who killed them! She was definitely evil enough to match. It was too bad Daniel was dumb enough to bring Nora to his grandparents. Still my favorite trilogy of the series.

[mindea_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This is the final book in the saga and you find out how Fear Street comes to be.

[anietzerck · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Memory lane. This book is part of my favorite trilogy growing up. I was addicted to all R.L. Stine books and I'm not ashamed of it :-P It was with these books that I got addicted to reading!

[thelibraryhag · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This last book in the Fear Street Saga which tells the story of the curse that plagues Fear Street rounds out what happened to the Fier (Fear) family although the fate of the Goode's is left up in the air. It is not as creepy as the first two books but goes about the business of winding up the story. I did enjoy finding out about the families although there is a sense of hopelessness toward the end. No one seems to have learned any lessons about the futility of seeking revenge. No one learns to be forgiving. I kept waiting for a ray of hope. Well, I guess if that had happened we wouldn't have Fear Street.

[julieq_3 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Simon Fear falls in love with the beautiful Angelica from the very moment he first sees her. But to his dismay he has some competition. How will he get her attention? Little does he know that Angelica has her eye on him as well. After the suitors and Angelica's father's sudden and horrible departure both Simon and Angelica get what they want. They are married and before long they have several children.Simon Fear believes that there is no longer a curse on his family until he discovers that one of his maids is a GOODE. He blames the servant for another death in the family and in his fury he mistakenly murders one of his children.Daniel Fear has never had any contact with his grandparents until he receives an invitation to attend his ailing grandfathers birthday party. During his stay in Shadyside he meets the beautiful Norah Goode and little do they know the prophecy from so long ago is about to come true.This trilogy was really good in that it kept the suspense going and was not slow moving

[steve02476 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Beautifully written, melancholy, with a wry sense of humor.

[sblock_16 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Recommend reading this along with "Behind the Beautiful Forevers" by Liza Mundy. Both offer a deep dive (one fictional, the other nonfictional narrative) into what it's like to live in a society in which the civil justice system is unreliable and corrupt.

[needmoreshelves · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Extremely compelling novel about the complexities of modern India. While it is definitely political in nature, I found the author's style to be so engaging - she fully drew me in to the highs and lows of her characters' lives, and I couldn't stop turning pages to find out what would happen. This is a definite recommend from me.

[smits_52 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A beautiful novel with an intricately woven plot tightly woven between three strong characters. There is a large moral dilemma for these characters which is tragic and understandable as they all struggle in poverty in India. This is a debut novel for Megha Majumdar who writes with great skill . looking forward to other novels by this gifted writer.

[beth.clarke · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A short, powerful novel about how one small act can have devastating consequences. Corrupted as well as power hungry politicians have the main characters fate in their hands. Some benefit from her pain while others close to her suffer. The author weaves the narratives together into a great novel.

[quondame · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

While two of the three central characters are fascinating portraits, one the seemingly absurdly ambitious young hjira Lovely, and the other self-justifying PT Sir, the central young woman Jivan, is for all she tells her own story, a bit flavorless. The pace is a a bit slow, even for the short length of the book, and the subject so often distasteful, does not make for a smooth read.

[banjo123 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

pretty forgettable as the characters are two-dimensional.

[shazjhb · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Much better books about India. Rehashing the same issues

[eas7788 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I love the range of perspectives and voices she uses, and that she never talks down to the reader. Her use of detail is impeccable. The character of Lovely will stay with me a long time.

[jennie_103 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A powerful book highly recommended for girls of 12-13 and up.The novel blends two threads of the present day story of Anna and her problems with cyber-bullying along with the 1650s narrative about a woman accused of witchcraft after she gets pregnant. This historical narrative highlights how in some ways, nothing has changed - women have been subjugated by men for centuries and men are still getting away with it whilst the victim is blamed.I also particularly appreciated a very positive portrayal of a wheelchair user whose comments about being seen as a person not as a wheelchair absolutely rang true.

[sennebec · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book does exactly what the author intends. It takes a mistake by a fourteen year old girl, made when she gives in to her boyfriend's demands and sends him a photo of her breasts, and lets it become a raging online fire, one that can't be outrun. That's what Anna and her mom try to do when they move from England to Scotland. At first Anna thinks things will be okay, especially when she starts to make two new friends, but it's not long before someone at her new school learns about the picture...and worse. Laura Bates blends Anna's situation with the painful life of Maggie, a fisherman's daughter who lived 400 years before, who after being sexually assaulted and impregnated by a nobleman's son, was tried for witchcraft. The mixing of the two girls' experiences is superbly done. This is a book that deserves not only to be in most libraries, but should be read and discussed in classes as well because it has a powerful message.

[rebeccaday1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I have re-read this series several times since I first read it in 5th grade !