Flash Burnout

Someone told me today that the name of this book would prevent them from actually picking it up and enjoying it and reading it. Unbelievable!

I love this title! Partially because I truly do understand why it's there as a granddaughter's photographer and, plus, I didn't take enough time to actually look at the title. I kinda just looked at the book, flipped it, read about it, and bought it.

Right now is actually the first time I started assessing why it could possibly be called Flash Burnout.

I still think it's a brilliant title. That goes along with a beautiful book cover and wonderful story that is enlightening and kinda stupid.

I don't usually read stories that have the point of view of a guy. The first time (that I can remember) I read in the point of view of a guy was in... I think the summer before 3rd grade. It was Sign of the Beaver, not a requirement for Gate but extra credit so I read it. I will openly say I loved that book enough to pass down to my younger sister.

But the point is I've read a total of maybe five to ten books in a male, a boy, a guy's point of view. This happens to be among them.

The book with the awesome cover and title.

Time to review: This book was weirdly humorous.

On the very back of the book, it said it would be but I really didn't expect it to be. These are critics grading books and giving their opinions. Usually, I only take the reviews lightly. Like I should have the next part of the review.

It said the book was deep. For whatever reason, I didn't take that all to lightly.

I should have.

Maybe it's because the book was so short or because I read to fast or because the character was not really spilling his emotions, I don't know, but this book was not deep enough for my taste.

When a book says it is deep, it had better be deep!

Okay, let's get to the story's main idea. It's about a guy named Blake. He has a cute girlfriend named Shannon and an awesome photography buddy named Marissa. Blake loves being with his girlfriend. And he loves being with Marissa, his friend. Only his friend.

Who knew it could turn for the worst.

As a project, Blake takes a picture of a woman, drunk and passed out against a building. Marissa sees it and freaks out, stating that's her mom. Of course, Blake freaks out as well, asking questions in his head he wouldn't voice.

Eventually, Marissa finds her mom, her meth-head mom, and gets her into rehab.

Things go back to normal. Until Marissa's mom goes missing again.

Along with Marissa's drama, Shannon feels like Blake is spending too much time with Marissa, even if they are just friends. And, hey, how can Blake not notice this when he really loves his girl Shannon and really wants to do...it with her.

L.K. Madigan

My rating: 6 out of 10. It made me smile. And giggle weirdly on the bus so much people started watching me but still, this book was really just too small and jam packed for the big stuff going inside Blake's head that I can't even feel sad about Marissa or Blake or Shannon or the mom.

And the ending...I still need some time to really think about whether I liked it. I'll just have to say that the ending was something... you interpret that however you want to.

Oh, the author is a female, if you were curious. I sure was because this book was a little boyish, I just had to look up the author's gender.

Jay