Laura Bates is a well-known name when it comes to feminism and feminist ideology, so I was very much intrigued to see what this book would be like. It was powerful and so thought-provoking. Definitely recommend.

Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

Laura Bates has a way with words. This is an incredibly powerful book I wish I had when I was at school

The Burning is breathtakingly powerful!

Anna is running away from something, leaving Birmingham with her mum to start a new life in Scotland. I enjoyed the little hints about what had come before from the start, just enough to let the readers know that it was something that turned her life around, made school hell and lost her her best friends. It all sets it up really well for the almost inevitable reveal, when her past mistakes follow her to Scotland.

The groundwork is laid well. The school hierarchy is set out, showing us a rather malicious group of boys who are ready to spread rumours, whisper and torment girls who they see as too easy or too frigid. and then Anna's world comes crashing down as her old identity is revealed along with the nude pictures she sent to a boy she liked at her old school, pictures that he circulated as the rumours and gossip and backlash descended upon her. Just when she thought she'd gotten away from it all, it all happens again, with a malicious viciousness that is truly upsetting.

There are so many elements that are all worked together so skilfully. Most of the abuse happens online, which means that Anna can't escape it. She can leave school, but those pings on her phone follow her wherever she goes, and I thought it really portrayed the opposing feelings of not wanting to see what people are saying but not being able to look away so well. Sometimes we know something is going to be painful to see, but we can't help but look anyway. Sometimes imagining it is worse than actually seeing it, but sometimes not and we just end up scrolling and torturing ourselves again and again. The Burning really nailed that destructive impulse. Then, having seen all of this, she has to face school, and the more subtle, insidious abuse. The whispered comments, the stares, the thrown notes, the huddled groups that she just knows are talking about her, and the knowledge that they've all seen her at her most vulnerable. Linked intrinsically into it all is her grief over the death of her father and the strain this all puts on her relationship with her mother.

Threaded throughout the book is another narrative, the fate of a woman burned as a witch in the 1650s. I appreciated how the research project was used to give Anna a focus for her energies, an output through all of her anxiety and fear, but it did something so much more powerful than that. Maggie's punishments really forced home the point that this isn't a new phenomenon. Women aren't suddenly facing this slut shaming because of social media,. though that has no doubt had an impact. It's something that's been happening for a long time. The shape of it may have changed, but the base behaviours have always been there.

This is such a powerful, such a vital book! The blurb from Holly Bourne says that it is a book every teenage girl needs to read. I'd totally agree, but I think more teenage boys should read it too. They're the ones who need to learn about the impacts of their actions, the consequences of their behaviour, and how easily and cruelly it can harm the girls around them. Yes, we need to teach our daughters about the dangers of sharing nude pictures, and how nothing on the internet truly goes away, but I think this is a conversation that should start with our sons.

An absolutely compelling read about revenge porn and bullying in high school. This follows our teenage protagonist who has moved to Scotland with her mum to put her troubled past behind her. She’s still grieving the death of her dad. She’s the new girl in school. Eventually she makes friends with two-against-the-mainstream type of gals. Until her past catches her up to her and she’s ostracised. Along the way she finds herself drawn to a former occupant of her house - a 16th century girl who was tried as a witch - and researches into her past.
Flashbacks from the past and present are woven superbly and Bates draws parallels in the way women are treated. This is a difficult book to read. There’s many upsetting scenes and my head broke for our protagonist. So bear in mind there is trigger warning for explicit scenes of revenge porn. A provocative and compelling feminist read about witchcraft and young women being punished for their sexuality.

Can I just start by saying, this book was not what I expected it to be, it's a YA book and whilst I'm a big fan of a YA book, I normally tend to steer towards more of a Dystopian genre whilst this one is set in a present day Scotland, the key thing that drew me to this one was the final line of the blurb where our lead character Anna is drawn into a history project where she discovers a young girl, Maggie, years earlier had been accused of Witchcraft. Both Anna and Maggie's stories start to become somewhat intertwined and it really is fascinating. It was intriguing and factual and actually gave a really good insight into the witchtrials in Scotland.

I thoroughly enjoyed this and would love to see more in this genre from Laura.

I absolutely adored this book and could not put it down when reading it. The characters and the plot both had me captivated!

Unfortunately, I have not been able to read and review this book.

After losing and replacing my broken Kindle and getting a new phone I was unable to download the title again for review as it was no longer available on Netgalley.

I’m really sorry about this and hope that it won’t affect you allowing me to read and review your titles in the future.

Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity.
Natalie.

In her debut YA novel, Laura Bates (founder of the Everyday Sexism project) interweaves a modern 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.

This is an important story and I found the ending to be strong and empowering. Despite being a YA book, I think it would appeal to parents of teens as well, to understand a little more about the life of a teen in the 21st century.

This can be a hard and challenging read, but its power and necessity are impossible to ignore.

I'm a huge fan of Laura Bates and her work with the Everyday Sexism project, so it was only a matter of time before I read her YA fiction debut, The Burning.

In The Burning, we follow Anna, who has moved to Scotland for a fresh start after an incident involving an intimate picture. New to the school and struggling to build friendships, she dives headfirst into her school project. Her interest is piqued by the story of Maggie, a young woman accused of witchcraft. As the novel goes on, Anna and Maggie's stories intertwine and we are asked as readers: has attitudes to women changed in the last 500 years?

I'll admit that I didn't know much about The Burning before I went in, and I was surprised to see it was a lot darker than what I thought. The story covers a LOT of issues such as slut shaming, victim blaming, bullying, revenge porn to name a few. It is a lot of issues for one novel to tackle, but unfortunately all of these topics are relevant for today's climate and for today's youth., making it an essential reads for teens.

I really enjoyed the witchcraft aspect of the novel; it added something unique to the story and added a parallel to Anna's story.

I hope The Burning is the start of Laura's fiction career and I can't wait to read more from her.

I have to say I quite enjoyed this novel. The protagonist, Anna, is a sixteen-year-old trying to fit in in her new school, hoping to make new friends and that nobody finds out the truth about the real reason she moved to Scotland. A school project leads her to research witchcraft in Scotland and the life of Maggie, a local woman living in 1600s and accused of being a witch. Soon, the past mingles with the present as Maggie’s story becomes more personal for Anna and the truth about the reason she left Birmingham comes to light. I liked the character of Anna, a strong and determined young girl who finds herself facing first loss and then sexual harassment and bullying. The story is thought-provoking, hugely relevant and hugely recommended!

This book was so heavy handed and everything was an eleven in terms of sexist behaviour and similar attitudes. This could have been done much more subtlety and in a way that did not feel like every page was lecture. I have said that over books need to have more direct discussion and be less diluted but this needs to have less. The whole book feels a bit horrific and like i'm constantly being hit with the "look at how sexist and unfair to women this place is". Yes it's a discussion that needs to happen but other authors have done this better and in a less preachy way. Laura Bate's strengths lie in non-fiction, not fiction.

Another powerful offering from the contemporary YA canon. What was so unique about this novel was it's maturity of voice, yet it's utterly relatable teenage protagonist. Emotion, empathy and compassion are never in short supply when reading her story.
The seamless blending of past and present, and the equally seamless evocation of the pressures of societal belief systems then and now made for a thoroughly engaging read. It was an unexpected bonus for my personal taste, that readers were offered some historic fiction alongside the all-too familiar social media oriented narrative at the helm of the overall storytelling, proving a point about how damaging our human nature and cultural norms can be. Using further illustration to the importance of the contemporary story, through the use of witch hunts from centuries past only added to this novel's impact.
Both the old and new packed a punch here, meaning that the novel was completely successful in both communicating meaning and message from the author, but in evoking emotional resonance also.

I don't think this can be recommended as a book for only young adults or teens, but needs to be read by youth and adult reader's alike. A crossover. It's important - echoing the successful works of Laura Steven in particular. Bates creates a voice which reaches beyond the page and continues to resonate with readers after the book closes; often along with a renewed acute awareness of the culture and times we live in.

Feminist storylines are always hard to review. It is difficult to review such harrowing real-life scenarios. However, for the sake of a fictional story, this wasn't perfect but was emotionally devastating. I do think this would be great for younger kids but for an adult is a bit meh.

I own Laura Bate’s first book, but have never managed to read to the end. Every time I attempt to, my heart rises up into my throat, and the vileness is too much for me to bear.

The Burning shows that Bate can write fictional stories just as well as she tackles the horror of the real world. The main character, Anna, never hates herself for her past actions, she knows that it’s not her fault, which is a relieving pov. Bates talks openly about slut shaming, and the dangers of social media, without coming across as an old fuddy duddy who thinks all technology is evil.

My only problems with the book was the shoehorned in witchcraft trials – as someone who studied witch trials in medieval England, the idea that witches were persecuted just because they were “women” is wrong, they were persecuted because people were genuinely scared of witches. There were also a few moments where Anna was surprised at wlw, which I think took me out of the narrative.

Overall, an intriguing look into modern day scandals by an author who knows her stuff.

TW: rape, slut-shaming, bullying, revenge pornography, child pregnancy, abortion, victim blaming.

Firstly I would like to thank NetGalley for providing me a copy of this eARC; all the views and opinions discussed below are my own.

When I came to read this book I honestly couldn’t remember what the plot was and went into it not knowing, which I’m quite glad about. I honestly don’t think this is a book I would have generally avoided because its YA contemporary and it’s almost one of my least favourite genres, however I am quite glad that I read this book. I won’t go so far as to saying I enjoyed the whole plot, however it wasn’t a painful or hard read. It was quite a lighthearted read, and I would definitely say the last section where they write the words on Anna’s back made this book for me. It was such a powerful moment and it did get to me.

This book tries to deal with some important issues of slut-shaming, bullying, teen pregnancy, abortion, and double standards. Some I think it does okay, others less so, but I think the main issue is that there is too much in this book. I think it would have been much better if it focused on one issue and had that as the sole focus. I appreciate the focus this book showed on double standards, however I think today’s young generation are more advanced than they’re portrayed in this book?? Don’t get me wrong there are always going to be characters and people that do act like this, but I do feel that a lot of teenagers these days wouldn’t act quite like this in the real world – I may be wrong but that’s my view. One thing that really frustrated me again was the lack of parental involvement or challenge; Anna has had private photos shared around the school, and yet no one considers contacting the police on either occasion. Anna is underage; she has had private photos sent around as revenge; essentially what we are talking about here is the distribution of child pornography. And yet no teacher (at either school) points this out, rather they just want to get rid of Anna. Again this is likely a realistic representation because it wouldn’t surprise me if teachers did this, but it was a little disappointing that this aspect of the book wasn’t addressed.

It did frustrate me a little how the three main girls resolution came about; it just seemed a little bit rushed and didn’t really give them the chance for them to really explore their issues. What frustrated me even more though was the reveal that Anna’s mother was the one who shared the information about her friends abortion with a previous friend. I know we’re meant to understand that Anna’s mother is lonely and wants friends, but we also clearly see her anger towards Anna’s past friends and their parents, so I honestly don’t believe she would then start yapping on with them about what was going on for Anna now. It just didn’t ring true to me.

What I honestly found a bit boring with this book was the flashbacks; they just didn’t intrigue me or grip me at all, and I found myself skipping through these sections as I just felt they didn’t further the plot at all. I appreciate they were meant to show parallels between the past treatment of women and how we treat women today, but it was just a bit boring for me.

Overall it was an easy read, but not one i’d necessarily be bothered about reading again.

Fire is like a rumour.

The Burning is the latest YA offering from Laura Bates, founder and campaigner of the Everyday Sexism project. YA novels don’t usually catch my eye, but the idea of a girl accused of witchcraft in the mid-17th century? That’s right up my street.

Unfortunately, I found that Maggie’s story alone - her seduction, pregnancy and rejection leading to accusations of sorcery - rather less enthralling than the narrtor. Far more drawn was I to Anna, a young girl uprooted to Scotland following the death of her father and a breach of her privacy.

The parallels between the girls’ stories - the stigma attached to these women owning their sexuality, the role of men in their downfalls, the instant assumption that they were asking for whatever befell them - was breathtaking and left me angry, full-belly-fire angry, particularly at the cruelty shown to Anna as her privacy is breached once again yet she is painted as the master of her own fate.

For fans of feminism, equality and taking a stand against everyday sexism, this book is definitely worth a read.

The Burning is one of those books that I think all teenagers, parents and teachers should be made to read as it covers such relevant and necessary material.
It tells the story of Anna Clark who has recently moved to Scotland following an awful experience at her old school involving cyber bullying and the sharing of an intimate picture. With her mother she’s determined to get a new start, but is it ever possible to escape your online presence?
Anna’s story is told alongside the story of Maggie Moran, a young woman accused of witchcraft when she refuses to lie about a nobleman raping her.
A rather bleak story in that we get to see throughout time women have been made to suffer for other’s thoughts and beliefs.
I would, personally, have liked to know a little more about what could happen after such an event. It’s still a relatively new phenomenon and one that everyone needs to stand up to.
It’ll be interesting to see how this stands the test of time, but it’s certainly an interesting thought-provoking read. Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an advance copy to review.

Anna and her mother moved to a new school and a new area to run away from unfair online slut shaming, but her story follows her. She and her new friends find a novel way to overcome the difficulties she comes under.

I couldn't put this book down! I wasn't sure how I'd feel about it, and admittedly I let it sit on my Kindle for far longer than is acceptable. But I loved it! It was gritty, it was real, it was shocking - Every girl needs to read this to save her own sanity!