REVIEW: SMOKE (Burned #2) by Ellen Hopkins

Summary:
Pattyn Von Stratten’s father is dead, and Pattyn is on the run. After far too many years of abuse at the hands of her father, and after the tragic loss of her beloved Ethan and their unborn child, Pattyn is desperate for peace. Only her sister Jackie knows what happened that night, but she is stuck at home with their mother, who clings to normalcy by allowing the truth to be covered up by their domineering community leaders. Her father might be finally gone, but without Pattyn, Jackie is desperately isolated. Alone and in disguise, Pattyn starts a new life, but is it even possible to rebuild a life when everything you’ve known has burned to ash and lies seem far safer than the truth?

Title: Smoke

Author: Ellen Hopkins

Series: Burned #2

Source: Audiobook (Purchased at BookOutlet)

Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry

Publication Date: September 10, 2013

Rating: 4.5/5 stars

Purchase:
Amazon | Chapters | TBD

This was wonderful and beautiful. I liked Burned, but it wasn't one of my favourite Ellen Hopkins novels. So I put off reading (well, actually listening to) Smoke because I wasn't sure I wanted to even continue with the story. Two years later and I wish I had picked it up right away. This was everything I wanted from Burned and more. 

I think what made it that much better what Jackie's point of view. Because I didn't connect with Pattyn. I didn't think she was anything all that special in Burned. I was glad she got her man but I just didn't care about their relationship -- or her relationship with her family or Aunt J. But Jackie? Jackie I got. Jackie I understood. And I thought Jackie was much more relatable than Pattyn could ever be. 

But I think what I liked so much about this one was that it showed the dirty after math of what happened in the shed. It doesn't just end there, people have to pick up the pieces and move on. And I loved seeing both girl's journey to do just that. I think sometimes it is important to see that dirty part of people's lives. To see how they deal with grief and acceptance. Because then it makes you realize that you too can grieve, can accept, and can move on. And Hopkins is a freaking master of this.

I really enjoyed this one, I just would have liked Pattyn to have some closure at the farm she was staying at for me to feel better about the book as a whole.