This had a slow build up and an intriguing premise but ultimately I felt that it was falling slightly short. Sadly I found myself losing interest pretty quickly and have decided to 'dnf' at 40%. I may return in the future but at this time I don't think this book is for me.

This feels like an important story that just wasn't told in the right way.

The pacing is awful and the book doesn't seem to know what it wants to be - contemporary commentary on current social issues? Magic realism dual story with a rather unsubtle moral to be taught? And I'm very unsure about phasing into second person narrative when we enter the dream visions from Maggie's story. It would've been better if Anna found a diary in the attic instead of a necklace that gives her visions to tell the story of Maggie.

Plot points and story threads were dropped when they stopped being relevant but were left completely unresolved.

What was the point in the history project framing device for digging into Maggie's story when we didn't even get the pay off of Anna presenting her project or even getting a grade for it? Near the end I thought we'd have her friends comment on how amazing it was or something as they were reading it but we didn't even get that.

We drop the vague obsession Anna has with her attic as soon as she obtains the necklace. She was interrupted while searching so would surely want to go back to search properly.

Can't quite believe she was like 'as I closed Glenn's door for the last time'. He's a lonely old man who's grateful for your company and you've already befriended him, are you really implying you're never going to bother visiting him ever again?

I'm baffled about showing Simon's home life so early on in the book as it's completely irrelevant, except to set him up as an antagonist due to Anna witnessing his humiliation. But if anything, the book teaches that boys like that don't need an excuse, and boys like that will treat girls horribly because they always have.

Basically, this book needs heavily trimming by an experienced editor and then the message is more likely to shine through. As I said, it's an important message, so it's a shame this book was so jumbled.

Wow. This is not a genre I would normally read, but I am so glad I did. It has been said that this is a book which should be read in schools. I have to agree with that. A compelling and essential read for women and girls everywhere.

First time I've read Laura Bates’ work and I’ve just bought “Misogynation”. I truly wish that there had been such wonderful novels around when I was a young adult. The themes are thought-provoking and very relevant to current culture. Bates’ is a YA writer with her finger firmly on the pulse of the youth of today.

I finished this book and immediately knew I had to buy my own copy as soon as the shops opened. This book is such a timely, important book and should be required reading for all teenagers, boys and girls.

This book is all about social media, bullying and the pressures society places on girls, particularly by their own age group. It deals with the way we shame and bully girls for things boys get a pass for, because 'boys will be boys'. It's hard hitting, and I was almost in tears several times, torn between wanting to throw the kindle because the situation - and the reactions - were so unfair and wanting to break down because this really happens.

The book is frank, fast paced and doesn't let up, sinking its claws into you. I read this in under two hours, and then paced about wanting to yell at the others in the laundrette to read the book.

Anna's relationship with her mother was amazing - so supportive and loving throughout everything going on. I wanted to cheer when her mother confronted the headteachers. It's great to see positive female relationships in books, to have those be the focus rather than romance. Anna's relationships with Lish and Cat are also wonderful to see.

I loved the addition of the 16th century witch-burning story line. The parallels are scarily prominent, which drives home how little underlying attitudes about women and their bodies have changed in 500 years. Not to mention the mystery the search for Maggie's tale lent the story.

A scarily realistic story on one level, which makes me fearful for my own daughter.
Not my typical crime thriller read, but a really good one. Well written, very current and topical and a book I’d like my teenager to read.
The book illustrates the devastating impact of cyber bullying/shaming on social media and thankfully also how it is possible to move forward from that.
The approach of running this strand in parallel to the discovery and investigation of a historical scandal was unexpected and worked really well.

I received a free ebook version of this from Netgalley! Thankyou to both Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this. My review is still honest.

I'm very impressed by this underrated read! I was mostly attracted to this book because the author, Laura Bates, is the founder of the Everyday Sexism Project and is an all round inspirational woman. I can happily say that this book reflects those feminist values that I so love reading about and was well worth my time.
The Burning is a feminist contemporary cross magical realism cross mystery. It follows a girl named Anna who's just moved to Scotland with her mother after something awful happened at her last school in England. While there, she begins to explore the story of a woman burned for witchcraft centuries ago in her new hometown.
This book deals with so many heavy topics in an excellent way, especially slut shaming! It shows the impact of it in such a heartbreaking way. It reminded me a little of The Exact Opposite of Okay, which I also liked. I did see some reviews of that one that said that the main character had made some bad choices and should take some responsibility (a sentiment I completely disagree with) but I do think that Anna is a much more relatable character than the heroine of TEAoO and it's very easy to understand how she was persuaded to do the things she did. I really felt for her for the entirety of this book, and really loved the message.
The magical realism section was a small sub-plot, but did have such an impact. It added something different to this story and created a really interesting parallel between the treatment of women centuries ago compared to now. I think I'd have enjoyed this less without that aspect in this. It had great discussions about grief and abortion and revenge porn and parental relationships and friendships. I loved the relationship Anna had with her mother-it was complex and maybe not entirely healthy, but really showed that they both cared.
The only thing I took a star off for is that it didn't completely wow me.There was nothing necessarily wrong with it aside from some minor pacing issues, but I think I just wanted a little bit more. Still a great read!

Laura Bates is the founder of the Everyday Sexism Project, and her previous books have mostly focused on sexism and gender bias, so it’s no surprise the plot to her YA debut book also includes this.

Anna and her mum move to Scotland to try and escape the sexual harassment and abuse Anna is facing. The story does an excellent job of showing what it is like for a teenage girl, the victim blaming that occurs in most of these cases and the double standards when it comes to teenage girls and teenage boys’ sexuality.

Throughout the book, Anna is researching witches for a history project, so we jump back in time to Maggie, a young woman accused of being a witch. I wasn’t sure about this to begin with, but the more I read about Maggie, the more interested I was in her story.

I am always intrigued by any book that finds parallels with history in a modern problem and The Burning did that very well. It follows Anna, a teenage girl, who has moved away from a big city to a small fishing village in the East Neuk of Fife in Scotland. Anna and her mother have moved to escape the fallout from an incident involving the very real dangers of modern technology. She then begins to find out more and more about a girl who lived in the village hundreds of years ago who was accused of witchcraft.

The first thing I loved about The Burning is the setting. Being a Scot myself, the area of Fife in which this book takes place is one that I am really familiar with and it’s an area of Scotland I haven’t seen represented in fiction before which pleased me immensely. The author described the atmosphere of a tiny fishing village so beautifully and it is clear she has done her research. The relationships in The Burning are also nicely dealt with. In particular, I thought the bond between Anna and her mother was portrayed in a subtle but affecting manner. I liked the genuine feeling of love between them and the strength of their relationship was a real high point of the story. The nature and complexity of friendship was also explored in The Burning. Teenage friendships are so full of intensity and betrayal but can also be so supportive and genuine. The author did a great job showing these two extremes. She writes teenagers in a way that feels honest and not patronising which is a trap young adult fiction sometimes falls into. The way these teenage characters behave is at times shocking but at the same time disturbingly plausible.

The other focus in this novel is on the history of witch hunting, especially in Scotland. I was aware already that the number of women vilified for supposed witchcraft is comparatively much higher in Scotland than in the rest of the UK. This is such a disturbing and fascinating fact and I loved the way the author seamlessly wove in the story of a young woman persecuted pretty much entirely because she was a women at the wrong time. I was amazed that the practice of witch hunting, which we think of as arcane and medieval, can be so easily compared to the way in which women are still treated. Things may have improved and changed but when it really comes down to it, women are still held to a completely different standard from men and are punished when they are judged to have failed to live up to it.

I think this is exactly the sort of book that should be read in schools. Luckily for me, social media was just beginning to become the monstrous influence it is today and so I never really had to deal with the problems it has created for young people. It is however not going anywhere so any book that explores the distress it can create and the ways it can be exploited is vitally important.

New girl Anna Clark moved from Birmingham to Scotland to escape something terrible that happened in her past. But you can’t outrun your demons quite that easily, especially not when they’re plastered all over social media for the world to see.

While the other students embark on a slut-shaming mission against her, Anna has a project of her own to focus upon. She’s investigating the possibility that there may have been witches living in the little village she’s moved to, and that she may have found a necklace belonging to one of them hidden up in her attic.

As someone who has read and loved most of Laura Bates’ releases – particularly Everyday Sexism, which I would recommend everyone grab a copy of – I thought The Burning was bound to get five stars from me, but that wasn’t the case.

One of the first issues I had with the book was how unoriginal Anna’s story was. With the blurb and the cover nodding towards some kind of deep, dark secret, I was expecting something other than leaked nudes to be plaguing her. I’m not negating the seriousness of the events that Anna has to cope with, but I am criticising the way that the book was marketed. Knowing that Anna is investigating a girl from centuries ago who was accused of witchcraft, I was holding out hope that Anna’s secret might be more magical.

The pacing of the book was also very odd. When Anna is first settling into the school the pace is very fast even though it’s only focusing on everyday occurrences, but when her intimate images hit Facebook and the main story kicks off it all starts moving very slowly. In my school experience, if anything like this happened the school staff members would find out and get involved very quickly. Anna’s plight remaining undiscovered for weeks didn’t seem true to life.

I also felt as though the climax of the novel wasn’t realistic in the slightest. I’m not going to reveal what happens at the end of the book, but Anna’s actions didn’t feel authentic. Again, this issue could be chalked up to me setting my expectations too high: due to Bates’ history – tackling sexism by creating the Everyday Sexism project – I was hoping Anna would do something just as proactive as a response to her own troubles.

When I was a teenager I wasn’t interested in feminism at all, and I can’t think of a single one of my friends who identified themselves as a feminist. My interest in feminism didn’t develop until I was 18 and one of my colleagues introduced me to Laura Bates’ work. The Burning had the potential to be an accessible way to introduce young adults to feminism and its continued relevance, but the language used and the internal monologues showing the reader how Anna’s feeling just aren’t as engaging as they could have been.

I’m a fan of Bates’ and even I found my attention wandering, so it’ll be interesting to hear the thoughts of some younger reviewers as to whether this book had the intended impact upon them.

However, I did enjoy the way Bates’ linked the need for feminism in the modern era with the way that it was absolutely vital back in the 17th Century. Maggie’s story is harrowing and emotional, and I found myself wishing that she’d decided to focus on that story and tell it in its entirety, rather than just splashing it through in irregular flashbacks.

If you’re a young person who is interested in feminism but aren’t sure where to start, I would highly recommend trying Everyday Sexism or Girl Up! before you give The Burning a go. Despite the fact that they’re both non-fiction books, they’re a lot less dense and far more engaging than The Burning, so they should make it very interesting for you to learn more about feminism. It’s a good idea to get to grips with the basis of feminism before you read this book to see instances of everyday sexism and misogyny in action, because that’ll make The Burning far more influential upon you.

The Burning - Laura BatesLet me start with an accurate representation of me spotting that this was a thing:What't this you say? A YA fiction book by founder of Every Day Sexism, Laura Bates? Sign me up.And here were have an accurate representation of me being notified that I had bee approved for an early copy on Netgalley:Basically, here are a few reasons as to why you should read this book:It's Laura BatesIt is a contemporary and very British story about sexism among teenagersThere are witches in it. Yes. Really.And a cat.Also Laura Bates wrote it.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.Ok, so if you haven't guessed it by now, I am a bit admirer of Laura Bates. In case you weren't aware, she is the founder of Everyday Sexism and idk about you but watching that twitter feed grow and give a voice to women all over the world so they have a chance to call out misogyny is pretty awesome.She's also written some non-fiction - both of which deal with gender equality and calling out problematic behaviour in society that perpetuates these issues. These are the themes you'll also find in The Burning because although taking down the patriarchy is an admirable vocation it is important to make your message accessible and well... fiction is way more popular.There are moments that this story is just as harrowing as some of the anecdotes shared via Everyday Sexism. It certainly isn't fun, light read and I should point out that there are trigger warnings for bullying and sexual assault.This is Anna's story. She is a teenager who after an incident at school finds herself alone and the victim of cyber bulling, so she and her mum relocate to Scotland where she finds herself once again dealing with social media trolls, slut shaming and all of this set against the backdrop of a school project into local witchcraft, the persecution of the witches being aptly used to illustrate the relentless hounding of young women in the modern day.It is an important story that shows how people can be affected by online bullying and sexual assault. It talks very candidly about the every day sexism that young women have to deal with and are forced to accept as the norm, no matter how uncomfortable it makes them.The story is well paced and the secrets are revealed in good time, which leaves your curiosity satisfied even if you remain sympathetic to Anna and her plight. The historical and vaguely supernatural elements were a nice touch and I liked how Maggie and Anna's experiences complemented each other, though it is sad that hundreds of years later, books like this still need to be written.I really enjoyed this and it was nice to have some British YA for a change, though in some places I did feel like the message was being hammered in a little too much, some subtly wouldn't have gone amiss. Overall though, this was a solid book and I look forward to more fiction from Laura Bates in the future!

This only thing this book was missing was a bit more witchcraft. I loved the parallels that Bates used between Anna's story in the present and Maggie's story in the past, showing that the way women were oppressed in the past are still very much still being used today.

Anna and Maggie were both normal girls who made the mistake of trusting the wrong guy. I loved how Anna delved so deeply into her research on Maggie, how the information wasn't as easy as just going to the library and reading a story that was laid out nicely for her in a book or too. I find the details of real historical research fascinating, making a mystery so much harder for a character to find and much more satisfying when they get the information.

I've seen so many books about cyber-bullying and naked photos lately, so I'm just really interested in seeing Bates bring forward a new way to tell this story. Her characters and plot are interesting, but it's definitely the historical witch hunt element that sets this book apart from others of it kind.

Another must read for feminists!

3.5 Stars.

I received this eProof for free from Simon & Schuster Children's Books via NetGalley for the purposes of providing an honest review.

Trigger Warnings: This book features rape, non-consensual pornography, sex shaming, victim blaming, bullying, discussion of abuse due to abortion, and discussion of death from cancer.

When I first heard Laura Bates was writing a YA novel, I was so excited to read it. I loved her feminist non-fiction books, Everyday Sexism and Girl Up, and I was sure The Burning was going to be incredible, too! Unfortunately, it left me a little disappointed.

When Anna moves from Birmingham to St. Monans in Scotland, she hopes it will be a fresh start. She's left her past behind, and is ready to begin anew. She's just starting to settle, to find her feet, and has made some good friends, when her past finds her, and everyone knows what she ran from. As she struggles with the abuse and bullying, and the sudden loss of her friends, her history project keeps her going. She must research the life of a local person, and has discovered that in the 17th Century, a teenage girl, Maggie, was executed as a witch. The more she discovers, the more she finds she relates to the girl whose whole town turns on her because of something someone else did - and that the world is not so different now as it was then, with girls getting blamed for what boys do to them.

I really, really wanted to love this story, but there were a number of things that just left me wanting more, sadly. From Bates' Author Note, we know that the things that happen to Anna are based on the experiences of girls and young women she has been told about when she's visited schools. In that regard, The Burning is a really important story. What Anna goes through is horrific, and it's harrowing to read. Imagining that happening to real girls and young women, today, in schools across the country, is really difficult to swallow. The Burning is going to be a great conversation starter, a way for people to face the truth of what's happening, but also how others, those in authority, react and try to deal with things. What happens in this book probably isn't going to be much of a surprise to those in schools. They will recognise this story. They probably know someone who experienced some of what Anna does, or have themselves. With The Burning, they will feel seen and understood, and that they are not alone, and the powerful effect of that can't be understated.

Because of the previous books Bates has written, I'm pretty sure her adult readers and supporters will pick this up, too, and in that case, I think it will have a massive impact. London Live tweeted a brilliant video interview with Laura Bates, and in it she discusses how teens today have parents who didn't have the pressures or the consequences that came with social media, and how there is a divide between what they experienced and what their children are now experiencing, and how she hopes The Burning will help to close that gap, to help them understand. And this is another reason this book is going to be so important, and so powerful.

But as a story, I did find it kind of lacking in areas. Once Anna's past has caught up with her and everyone at school knows about it, it's awful. The bullying and abuse she suffers is, as I've said, horrific. I really felt for her in her fear, her shame, her desperate desire to escape, to hide. But from that point on, that's pretty much all that happens to her; she is bullied and abused, and she hides it from her mum and from the teachers, and so nothing happens. It escalates at times, but otherwise, there's no change. And while it's awful, the story kind of plateaus there. So you're just reading more of the same for most of the book. I was expecting a book that would be of a girl fighting against sexism, because of Bates' previous books, and while I understand why she wrote this book, and the impact it will have, I wish there was some kind of change.

So I was more interested in the story of Maggie. Researching Maggie's life is the only thing that's different in Anna's story. I was really interested in the excerpts Anna read from non-fic books on witch hunts and trials, and the punishments for women who didn't behave the way men expected. So much so, I've started looking up non-fic on witch hunts / trials through a feminist lens, or their links to sexism. But there wasn't a huge deal of that research in the end. It was more a combination of conversations with an old local historian, Glenn, who is helping her, and him telling her what he's discovered, and then the dreams Anna experiences after finding a necklace hidden in her attic; she starts to dream of Maggie's life, and what she experienced. I was much more interested in the actual research than the conversations and the dreams. I was hoping Glenn would actually show her what he had found, rather than just tell her, and with the dreams, they were only snap shots of Maggie's life leading up to her death, and while what happened to her was disgusting and horrific, there wasn't enough of her to become as invested as I would have liked. I feel I would have been more invested if there were more excerpts about her life than dream visions. I also felt her story in those dream visions ended quite abruptly. I knew what was coming, but I expected more from that last dream vision, and it fell a little flat for me.

And then there's the fact that we don't really know much about any of the characters. Anna likes to swim, and was on her swim team at her previous school. Cat, one of Anna's new friends, is really into photography, and wants to be a photography. Alisha is super smart, hard working, and always gets top grades. Robin is a carer for his disabled mum. That's as much as we find out about them. No other hobbies or interests to fully flesh them out. I mean, they do have distinctive personalities and voices, but I can't tell you much about who they are, because we're not told.

I wasn't so keen on the ending, either, unfortunately. It's more that I didn't find the reaction to what Anna does quite believable, I just don't think it would have happened like that. Maybe it's end the story on a hopeful note, but I had various question marks over it - would Anna have actually have done that? Would she have said what she said? - and it just felt a little unrealistic? But maybe that's just me.

So yeah, I was pretty disappointed with The Burning. But a lot of other people have really enjoyed it, so do read some other reviews before deciding whether or not to read it.

The Burning is written by the author of Everyday Sexism and as such deals with a multitude of difficult, but relevant, issues in society today; slut-shaming, double standards, social media, cyber bullying and revenge porn to name a few. There is a very clear comparison made between social media today and the horrific nature of witch hunts, back in the 16th Century, which adds historical fact into the narrative.

The Burning captures the emotions of Anna exceptionally well. The constant need to check social media, despite knowing what is on the other side, made me feel anxious, stressed and somewhat trapped myself. I could feel the tension rising, along with Anna's mental health declining. Every issue that a teenage girl might find herself faced with is touched upon (albeit sometimes not in enough detail); double standards, revenge porn, nude photos, bullying, slut-shaming - you name it, it's there. I thought this was incredibly important - being a teacher I know how important it is to raise awareness and discuss these topics openly. For this reason alone I think this is a fantastic YA book.

I enjoyed the historical element, although the narrative felt messy at times. It was an interesting connection to make and I can see what the author was aiming for. I thought the ending was slightly rushed, although I did appreciate the feminist approach.

A YA book that deals with these issues, set in the UK, is also significant. I felt I could understand the system more than I would have an American based novel.

Overall, The Burning is a great YA novel that touches upon very important issues faced by women and young girls today. It explores these in a way that is relatable to young people, from a female perspective. I think this is a really important book for society today.

Thank you to NetGalley, Simon and Schuster UK Childrens and Laura Bates for the chance to read and review this novel.

“Girls are like marshmallows”....

I did not expect to love this book so much or to be so consumed by it. It truly was like it had lit a fire in me and I just had to keep reading. This young adult debut is an important story about life for both teenagers and their parents in the age of social media.

15-year-old Anna and her mother have moved from Birmingham to the tiny fishing village of St Monans in Scotland to start anew. There was an incident that led to Anna’s friends turning against her and was so traumatising that she can’t bear to even think about it, though she is still haunted by unwanted flashbacks. She starts St Margaret’s Academy with a new surname, has deleted all her social media accounts and no longer has a phone so that there’s no way what happened can follow her. Though she initially blends into the background anonymously, people are curious about her and she becomes friends with two girls Cat and Alisha. But she is torn between happiness at her new friends, guilt at keeping secrets and the terror of everything being discovered.

“We are the granddaughters of the witches you burned. And we’re not putting up with it anymore.”

When she is assigned a history project that requires her to write about a local person she stumbles on a footnote about a young woman tried for witchcraft in the 17th Century. With the help of local author and amateur historian Glenn Sinclair she searches for more information and is soon absorbed by Maggie. As she learns more she finds that she has more in common with her subject despite having lived 400 years apart: it seems some things don’t change but evolve into a different form. Vivid dreams begin to make her understand Maggie in a very real way and the assignment becomes a distraction from her own problems as her secret is somehow discovered and she finds herself reliving her worst nightmare once again…

“The words aren’t the worst part. It’s the names...Somebody I would have called a friend”

While the teenage years have never been easy for any generation, the current generation face unrelenting pressure from the ubiquitous presence of social media and technology. The parents of today’s teens find themselves parenting children in a situation they couldn’t have dreamed of and are often at a loss how to help or guide them. I know this because I’m one of those parents with two of those teenagers. I have have seen the bombardment that teenagers face with online bullying. It is vital that as parents we understand what they face and equip them with the tools to navigate these issues.

Though this is a book that covers the pressures faced by teenage girls it doesn’t look at the situation from a biased and sexist viewpoint. The author explores all sides involved in these types of incidents: the boy and girl themselves, the friends on both sides, the parents and the school. She reminds us of the double standards that see boys congratulated and girls shamed, where girls are often the worst culprits of slut shaming and that any boy that dare stand up and refuse to take part can be subject to homophobic slurs from the others. Also covered is the complexities faced by teenagers: girls trying to walk the fine line between frigidity and sluttish behaviour, and boys under pressure to ‘act like a real man’. Schools and parents have their roles to play too and we see how so often the wrong decisions reinforces these hypocrisies.

“Peer pressure is a powerful and ancient force.”

I liked Anna as a protagonist and thought her inner monologue encapsulated her feelings in such a way that it was like I was experiencing them myself. She was real and raw and what happens to her are things that are experienced by others every single day. She is someone young girls can relate to and anyone else that reads the book could learn from. When I learned that Maggie was a real character from Scottish history I liked her even more. She is a strong woman who sees the wrong in how she’s being treated and bravely stands up against it. Having Maggie’s story included in this book not only empowered Anna, it serves as a reminder that the things happening to her aren’t new. These things have been happening for hundreds of years, they just shift their shape a little as the cultural landscape changes and technology advances. Instead of a shaming stool in a church people now write slurs in comments on social media or via messages. This means there is a more intensified experience that lasts 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and not just a few hours on a Sunday. Seeing these parallels in the two women’s stories was disheartening but the fact that we are now talking about these issues more and making changes hopefully means we will see less and less of such one-sided conduct.

The Burning is a riveting, culturally relevant book that everyone should read. It is one that will hopefully make a difference: empowering those who feel weak or under duress, and bring empathy and pause to those who might pressurise, judge or debase.

On the cover of this book Holly Bourne describes it as a book teen girls NEED to read and I fully agree. This book is spectacular, it deals with the unknowingly common abuse girls face in high school, the slut shaming, the cyber bullying, the ostracising of young women by society.
There are two time lines throughout this book, the present tense Anna who is attempting to start over in a new school for reasons unknown at the beginning of the story. And the tale of Maggie from 400 years ago, a young woman who had a baby out of wedlock and who was later accused of witchcraft.
Both girls are shamed for 'their behaviour' even when it is the behaviours and attitudes of others who has put them in the position they're in. Sound familiar? This, sadly, happens on a daily basis. Boys are admired when they spill the details whilst girls are shamed and considered immodest.
I really enjoyed the intermingling of the two time lines, the comfort Anna found in researching Maggie's story and the self belief and confidence she found along the way.
This is an important story, the ending was strong and empowering. I would consider this also a book that is essential for parents of teens to read as well, the story told from Anna's perspective really emphasises the damage and misery one action can cause. The snowball effect of destruction is shown in a very true and realistic way.
As a debut YA author, I am impressed with Laura Bates' brilliant writing.

Following the death of her dad, Anna Clark moves to Scotland with her mum. At first it seems like the trouble from her previous school has been left behind, but it soon catches up with her. Whilst trying to cope with what is happening, Anna starts to research a previous resident who was branded a witch in the 17th century.

I just knew this book was going to be worth reading. The author cleverly links the misogyny and double standards which permeated both the witchcraft accusations of old and the present day bullying/cyberbullying, including revenge porn, of girls. It was quite difficult to read at points with the sheer relentlessness of it, and equally horrifying to read that it was based on true life experiences. Women have always had to walk the line between virgin/whore dichotomy, and I really feel for young girls and women growing up with the added pressure of social media. Absolutely recommended, but be warned that it's not an easy read.

TW: some sexual aspects, revenge porn, bullying, cyberbulling.

Thanks to NetGalley and publishers, Simon & Schuster UK Children's, for the opportunity to review an ARC.

‘It’s worth knowing that sometimes people see you as a symbol of something, instead of a person. And, when they do, it reflects on them, not on you’.

The Burning follows Anna, who has moved to Scotland following the death of her father and following her nude photos being leaked across social media. She is in a new school, in a new town, with a new last name and she still can’t escape the rampant bullying and slut-shaming she has experienced over one photo. For a history project, Anna has to research a local person of interest and she comes across a woman accused of witchcraft and is desperate to find out her story.

The Burning is an important, albeit brutal, book about sexism, double standards, sexual harassment, and online abuse that a lot of young girls go through while at school. I think The Burning is an exceptionally important book for young people at the moment, cyberbullying is a huge problem and I think The Burning does a good job at representing that, while also highlighting how this bullying and harassment is of a sexual nature for a lot of young girls.

I also really like the quote; ‘Fire is like a rumour. 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’.

While The Burning mainly focuses on modern-day online abuse and shaming, it does also feature flashbacks to a witch trial in Scotland and while I did enjoy that aspect, I do think it sometimes dragged you out of the story a little bit, especially as the supernatural aspects didn’t fit the tone of the book BUT I do appreciate the attempt at contrasting how women and their bodies were treated and shamed in the past to how it is today.

There was one scene that I really did dislike though. It was a scene where Anna and Alisha were talking about love and Anna was extremely shocked when Lish revealed she was in love with a girl. PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD NORMALISE GIRLS LOVING GIRLS – ESPECIALLY IN UKYA!!

Alongside the main plot of the book, there was a nice healthy romance too between Anna and Robin, and also showed the importance of friendship too which I liked.

Overall, The Burning is an important and relevant book about slut-shaming and online harassment.

I received this book from the publisher via Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

The Burning is part social commentary, part historical and part witchy fantasy. It’s a good mix. The majority is definitely more contemporary than I expected, but I really liked the way that the author dealt with the topics of sending nudes, slur shaming and social media. And I loved how the story set in the now melded with the historical aspects, folded together with a little bit of witch-magic.

It is pretty hard hitting and powerful, and it’s hard not to feel for Anna. Her story is sadly not uncommon, and while I would have liked to see some of the topics handled in more depth (particularly dealing with the school!) I think the breadth of the things Anna had to deal with is reflective of the situation and well handled.

I like Anna as a main character. It is a little frustrating to find out so slowly what happened exactly, which is sadly in keeping with a lot of YA, but she is sympathetic as a character, and her descriptions of the way it all makes her feel were fab. Plus I like her feeling the connection to Maggie’s story and chasing down information on her. I hope she got an A on that report!!

I did find it frustrating that she was so isolated - not just from her previous life and ex friends, but at the new school. I get it from a story perspective but it’s so hard to watch a character go through all that without support!

The witchy element is well done too - a very light touch that easily could have ruined it or felt like a distraction but for me it just added a little something extra.

I was so excited for this one as I am a big fan of Laura's other work - and wasn't disappointed! Atmospheric and a captivating setting in a small village in Scotland, I loved the interweaving of the historical elements with the present day. Witchy and twisty and dark.