Burntown by Jennifer McMahon

Burntown by Jennifer McMahon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I'm not going to be able to write a very good review of this book because, honestly, I've forgotten the first half. I've read the author before and was looking forward to this but it wasn't what I expected (murder, mystery, creepy any of those things). I hadn't counted on all the magical realism. I first wanted to say paranormal but no one ever questioned the otherworldly events making it definitely fit into magical realism. There is a quirky set of characters and I honestly liked them. It was the characterization which kept me reading. The plot, on the other hand, was a thriller/mystery type of story (which I wanted) but entirely unbelievable. It was often hard to imagine the characters, as portrayed in the book, would act to certain situations the way they did. In fact, I often questioned how plot points were even conceivable for real people to react the way they did here. I didn't hate the book, in fact, I was quite caught up in it for the middle part but the beginning and ending were slow. The entire general tone was that of a YA book, which I was not looking for here. Certainly not the author's best book.