March 2020 – Christina de Vries

I read a digital edition of Burned that I received for free from Reedsy Discovery in exchange for an honest review.

Burned is the second book in the Great Society trilogy.

Genre: Dystopian.

Publisher: Monolith Books

Originally published: November 24th, 2019

Pages: 308 (Kindle edition)

Synopsis by the publisher:

Einsam burns.

Fowler’s coup against the Caretakers’ has plunged the Great Society into civil war. With the veneer of peace shattered, violence is spiraling out of control.

The Great Society teeters on the brink of collapse.

Fleeing Einsam with her surviving companions, seventeen-year-old Evelyn Brennan carries evidence of the Caretaker’s heinous crimes. If she can find a way of smuggling it out of the country, she may be able to rally the world to intervene and stem the violence.

But hunted by enemies and haunted by the blood on her hands, Evelyn must strike an unsavoury bargain to keep her and her friends one step ahead of the flames.

My thoughts:

I had the pleasure of getting to read Filtered last year, and I was really excited to see the second novel in the trilogy find its way to Reedsy as well. Filtered ended on quite the cliffhanger, and I needed to know what happened next!

As I mentioned in my review of Filtered was a breath of fresh air in the dystopian genre, but also one that hit quite close to home when it comes to politics and propaganda. Burned does the exact same thing, and might even feel more current now in this strange and uncertain time that we’re living in at the moment

Burned is action-packed, but also adds a lot more depth to the characters than the first novel did. We meet some new characters, and we’re reunited with old ones. I wrote in my review of Filtered that I wished I would’ve gotten to know a lot of the characters better, and Burned definitely delivered on that point. I felt a lot more invested in the characters that we got to follow in this sequel, and they sure go through a lot in this book.

Burned is a book that keeps you at the age of your seat from the very beginning and till the very end. And it leaves you just as curious as to what happens next as Filtered did.
I’m not going to say much about the storyline because I don’t want to spoil anything for those who haven’t read the first book yet, but I will say that so far, this series keeps getting better. I can’t wait to find out what happens in the third and final installment of the Great Society trilogy.
I’m impatiently waiting at the edge of my seat!