Burn Girl

July 1, 2015
A teen girl learns she can't erase her past but she can forgive herself and look hopefully to the future in Mikulencak's debut novel. When 16-year-old Arlie Betts finds her mother dead of an apparent drug overdose, Arlie's life takes a major turn for the better. After being both parent and child most of her life, Arlie now has to trust adults to take care of things. Enter Frank, an uncle Arlie never knew existed. As they learn to relate to each other, stepfather Lloyd, whose meth lab exploded seven years earlier, disfiguring Arlie's face, arrives and threatens their tenuously happy home. Lloyd demands that Arlie steal money from Frank to settle a debt Arlie's mother owes him. If Arlie doesn't comply, Lloyd will destroy everything and everyone Arlie cares about. Although her story is compelling, Arlie isn't. Her first-person narration is generic and flat, and her lukewarm personality remains static throughout the novel. Fortunately, the well-drawn supporting characters hold everything together, notably best friend Mo, love interest Cody, and grandmother figure Dora. Frank, however, is the life of the story. As a first-time father to a teen niece he's just met, he's a wonderfully awkward mix of clueless and clued-in as he navigates his new role and works to create a home for Arlie. Readers will likely feel impartial to Arlie, but her story is tense enough to catch an audience. (Fiction. 13-16)

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August 1, 2015

Gr 8 Up-Arlie has found her drug-addicted mother dead in their cheap hotel, a long-term marginal home in Durango, NM. The police assume the cause is an overdose even though Arlie has tried to make things presentable. For several years, the 16-year-old has not gone to school; instead, she's lived a hardscrabble life with the mother who stole her away from foster care in the wake of a meth lab explosion caused by her stepfather Lloyd. The fire has left Arlie with burn scars on half her face, which have caused her to be isolated from her peers. After her mother's funeral and the new beginnings of therapy and foster care, Frank, an uncle from Texas, comes to be her guardian, and Arlie finds herself suddenly attending school and trying to get to know a man who deeply regrets never knowing his niece or being able to help when she was in trouble. She joins the chorale, begins to build a relationship with Frank, and even discovers that Cody, a cute blind guy, appears to be into her. This tenuous new life is threatened by shadows of the dangerous past she thought was years and miles behind her. The many plotlines and issues often overwhelm the narrative and the writing style never quite comes together. VERDICT A serviceable problem novel with elements of romance and suspense somewhat undermined by mediocre YA authenticity.-Suzanne Gordon, Lanier High School, Sugar Hill, GA

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