Ellen Hopkins

Hopkins, Ellen. 2006. Burned.

BURNED by Ellen Hopkins is a verse novel set in Nevada following the life struggles of a troubled teen. Reading about troubled teenagers is nothing new to those familiar with the field of young adult literature and Ellen Hopkins presents a memorable heroine, Pattyn, who is dealing with the complexity and unfairness of life. Why, for instance, does her father repeatedly abuse her mother? Why can't her father go a day without drinking? Why does her mother not only stay in the abusive situation but continue to have child after child after child after child? Why doesn't the community step in and help? The answer to all these questions turns out to be quite simple. At least in Pattyn's mind. Because her family is Mormon and leaving in a Mormon community, her life is essentially doomed to be miserable. Is this a fair assessment of the faith? I would presume not. But like most teen literature the narrator is not objective!

Pattyn's life takes a downhill turn when she discovers boys. She's not drawn to the Mormon boys, the boys her parents would approve of her seeing and dating. No, she likes the bad boys. The popular boys. The boys who are interested in only one thing. After being discovered in the desert "alone" and with a strange non-Mormon boy, her father sends her away to live with her aunt, aunt J, her father's sister whom he hasn't spoken to in decades. But sending her away turns out to be both the best and worst thing that ever happened in her life.

What happens when you take a girl out of a controlling, manipulative, stifled existence and transplant her to a place where she's free to be herself and explore the world? She blossoms. She grows. She transforms. But what happens when her freedom is taken away and she has to go back home? How can she go back to who she was before? How can she survive after tasting what life is supposed to be like?

Pattyn's brief taste of love, freedom, and acceptance is enjoyable to read. But her dismal existence in an alcoholic, abusive home can be painful. Especially since she can't change who she's now become and the hard realization that all actions (whether you regret them or treasure them) have consequences.

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