Available:*
Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... Park Grove Library (Cottage Grove) | TEEN FICTION BAT | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... R.H. Stafford Library (Woodbury) | TEEN FICTION BAT | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Stillwater Public Library | TEEN FICTION BAT | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
"A smart, explosive examination of gender discrimination and its ramifications." -- Publishers Weekly
From Laura Bates, internationally renowned feminist and founder of the Everyday Sexism Project, comes a realistic novel for the #metoo era. The Burning will prompt all readers to consider the implications of sexism and the role we can each play in ending it
What happens when you can't run or hide from a mistake that goes viral?
New school. Check.
New town. Check.
New last name. Check.
Social media profiles? Deleted.
Anna and her mother have moved hundreds of miles to put the past behind them. Anna hopes to make a fresh start and escape the harassment she's been subjected to. But then rumors and whispers start, and Anna tries to ignore what is happening by immersing herself in learning about Maggie, a local woman accused of witchcraft in the seventeenth century. A woman who was shamed. Silenced. And whose story has unsettling parallels to Anna's own.
The Burning is a powerful call to action, perfect for readers looking for:
feminist novels for teens young adult realistic fiction books contemporary novels with historical fiction elements books that deal with current events and issuesPraise for The Burning:
"A haunting rallying cry against sexism and bullying." --Kirkus Reviews
"Emotionally charged...powerful." --Booklist
"A painfully realistic, spellbinding novel." --Shelf Awareness
"Bates's twist on a cautionary tale will take readers on an emotional roller coaster". --School Library Journal
Author Notes
LAURA BATES is a UK-based author and the founder of the Everyday Sexism Project--a crowd-sourced collection of stories from women around the world about their experiences with gender inequality. Laura has received the 2015 British Empire Medal in the Queen's Birthday Honours; has been named in the BBC Woman's Hour Power List 2014 Game Changers, and in 2013 she won Cosmopolitan's Ultimate Woman of the Year Award. She was also named CNN's 10 Visionary Women List. Follow her efforts on Twitter @everydaysexism
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 9 Up--Bates's debut novel is a contemporary social statement on the impact of bullying, peer pressure, and vicious crowd mentalities both online and in person. Anna flees England to start fresh in Scotland after being maliciously cyberbullied and blackmailed at her old school. In the digital age, physical miles mean nothing and her past quickly catches up to her. Adding a magical realism element, Bates connects Anna to the story of a local woman, Maggie, who was accused of witchcraft in the 17th century. Visions of Maggie's life serve more as a narrative vehicle for Anna to understand that there are parallels in the social justice system in the digital age to the madness of witch hunts in the past. Addressing important topics such as peer pressure, slut-shaming, and bullying, Bates tries to navigate between storytelling and attempts to empower the reader with feminist values. It's hard to do the subject matter justice and Bates's attempt is clearly laudable in her research and execution. VERDICT Bates's twist on a cautionary tale will take readers on an emotional roller coaster, hopefully feeling stronger and less alone upon conclusion. For fans of Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak and Jay Asher's Thirteen Reasons Why.--Melanie Leivers, Burnhaven Library, Burnsville, MN
Publisher's Weekly Review
Bates's powerful debut roars with feminist themes and #MeToo awareness. Grieving the death of her father, 16-year-old Anna Clark and her mother move from England to a Scottish fishing village to distance themselves from online slut-shaming that occurred in Anna's past. At St. Margaret's Academy, Anna makes friends with Cat and Alisha, but is surprised when she's groped in the pool and a group of popular boys harass and circulate vicious rumors about other female students. Adjusting to life in her new town, Anna is immersed in the local history of Maggie Morgan, an unwed mother accused of witchcraft and publicly shamed around 1650. As Anna's former life is revealed through invasive social media posts, she experiences Maggie's persecution through vivid dreams. Anna's voice radiates with a blend of fear and building anger as she seeks justice for herself and the other girls at St. Margaret's. Bates incorporates poetic descriptions ("tongues like blades") while clearly connecting the inhumane treatment of 17th-century women through witch hunts with harmful attitudes held toward today's young women. A smart, explosive examination of gender discrimination and its ramifications. Ages 14--up. Agent: Stephanie Purcell, Simon & Schuster UK. (Apr.)
Guardian Review
Past and present are interwoven in this powerful young adult novel by the founder of the Everyday Sexism project Juxtaposing past and present so that historical evil bleeds into contemporary reality is not a new concept in young adult literature. Witch-hunting, too, is a time-honoured trope; Elizabeth George Speare's The Witch of Blackbird Pond , Celia Rees's Witch Child and many other YA novels use it as a lens to focus themes of misogyny, collective cruelty and the policing of women's bodies. In her debut YA novel, Laura Bates, the founder of the Everyday Sexism project, interweaves a thoroughly 21st-century phenomenon - the "slut-shaming" of a teenage girl after her boyfriend broadcasts an intimate photo of her online - with its 17th-century equivalent: a young rape victim, shamed for bearing a child out of wedlock, is condemned and executed as a witch. These may be familiar stories, but in Bates's assured hands they feel newly forged. After her online exposure and public excoriation, 15-year-old Anna has erased her internet presence, her old name and her old life. Traumatised and grieving for her father, who died only months ago, she's anxious to pass unnoticed in the small Scottish village to which she and her mum have moved for a fresh start. When she unwittingly alienates school kingpin Simon Stewart, however, his malign attention jeopardises her anonymity. As the embers of old rumours flare back into furious life, Anna investigates a dark chapter of local history, the story of Maggie, a rebellious girl who caught the eye of the laird's son - and paid dearly for it. The Burning is filled with a sense of girls' age-old shame and suffering, their suppressed, self-devouring anguish and their rage. Like Louise O'Neill's novels Only Ever Yours and Asking For It , it forces the reader to confront what feels unbearable - vulnerable female flesh, exposed to unceasing scrutiny, manipulation and mockery. Moments of excruciating contemporary vindictiveness - as when as a false Facebook profile is constructed for Anna's dead father, giving his location as "in hell" - are interwoven skilfully with analysis of historical horrors such as the ducking stool and the scold's bridle. Unlike O'Neill, though, Bates allows her heroine to have the last word. In a cinematically rousing culmination, Anna turns on her harassers. It is particularly satisfying that Simon, the originator, is given no arc of redemption, though the reader glimpses the nastiness of his father early on; and that the headmaster who dares to suggest that Anna's choices somehow justified her subsequent treatment is verbally eviscerated by her furious mother. This is a hard and challenging read, but its power and necessity are impossible to deny.
Kirkus Review
A victim of misogynistic bullying finds strength in the story of a 17th-century accused witch.When Anna and her mother move to the small Scottish town of St. Monans, they're trying to escape both their grief over Anna's father's death and their horror at the severe slut-shaming she experienced at her old school. Anna hopes for a fresh start, but she's haunted by fear of her pastuntil someone else's past finds her instead. Anna discovers a mysterious necklace in their new home and begins experiencing memories that aren't her own, drawing her to the story of a local woman who was ostracized and accused of witchcraft after having a baby out of wedlock. This gentle touch of the supernatural emphasizes how little misogynistic vitriol has changed over the years, as painful descriptions of the bullying Anna endures are interwoven with flashbacks to her counterpart's public shamings. A halfhearted romance feels forced, but the core of Anna's story will be viscerally recognizable to any young reader who's experienced cyberbullying or revenge porn. As Anna tells her tormentors, as she stands in solidarity with other girls who've been victimized: "You can call me a prude, and you can call me a whore, but really you're just calling me a girl." One of Anna's new school friends is coded as black; other major characters are white.A haunting rallying cry against sexism and bullying. (discussion questions) (Fiction. 14-adult) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
In this emotionally charged UK import by the founder of the Everyday Sexism Project, a teenage victim of revenge porn starts over in a new school and learns how often history repeats itself when it comes to sexual double standards. Anna and her mother have moved to the tiny Scottish village of St. Monans, hoping to escape the past. Anna has deleted her social media presence and is going by her mother's maiden name. Anna soon makes good friends and finds an actual nice guy to flirt with, but a chance remark sets off a wildfire of innuendo and harassment. A local history project also leads Anna to reflect on the uncomfortable parallels between her own situation and that of a seventeenth-century woman accused of witchcraft by a possessive nobleman. This interesting historical mystery is undercut by supernatural elements that aren't smoothly integrated. Though Bates provides a powerful, hopeful ending for Anna, the authenticity of the harassment and cyberbullying is difficult to read; some may find it traumatic, others cathartic. An author's note with resources is included.
