Burn by Peter Heller ~ a Review

by Donna Huber

A novel about two men—friends since boyhood—who emerge from the woods of rural Maine to a dystopian country racked by bewildering violence.

Amazon affiliate links are used on this site. A free book was provided for an honest review.

August 2024; Knopf; 978-0593801628
audio, ebook, print (304 pages); post-apocalyptic

My mystery book club read Peter Heller's Celine and I enjoyed that book. So when I saw that he had a post-apocalyptic book coming out I knew I had to read it as a possible recommendation to my post-apocalyptic book club.

It reminded me a little of Cormac McCarthy's The Road as the story is focused more on the journey that the two friends Jess and Storey are on rather than the apocalyptic event.

I was as invested as the two characters in figuring out what happened from the start with the description of an entire town burned to the ground followed quickly by Black Hawk helicopters coming out of nowhere to mow down a single woman in a rowboat. As details emerge I started to wonder what led to the events, however, that part of the world-building is vague. Speaking of world-building... it is pretty sparse. At first, I thought it was in the distant future but as technology and things are mentioned it felt more like the very near future.

We get a lot more backstory from Jess than from Storey. Perhaps it is because Storey is looking forward to finding his family, returning home to the town he grew up in. Whereas Jess, who left their Vermont hometown for Colorado and has no one to return to is more focused on the past. First it is the recent past with his wife leaving and their dog dying to further back into his teenage years. I'm not sure what point the author was really trying to make with all the introspection. It wasn't boring but given the ending, I'm just not sure what the point was.

Jess and Storey stumble upon a 5-year-old girl. This plot thread would make for a good discussion. While Storey seems to focus on the girl and her needs (perhaps because he is a father), Jess seems much more concerned about himself (which might be why Jan left him). 

I enjoyed the book up to the end. I don't like ambiguous endings (like we get with The Giver by Lois Lowry). The story just ended. If you want everything wrapped up neatly or at least reasonably explained, then you probably won't like the ending either. There is no indication that this is the start of a series, but that is almost how the ending feels - like it is setting up book 2. I wouldn't mind a second book if it explained more about the world and what happens next for the characters.

I picked up this book as a possible recommendation to my book club. Will I recommend it? Yes. I think many people in my group will enjoy it. If we do read it as a group, there is plenty to discuss.

I don't normally comment on the cover of a book in my reviews but I really like the cover of Burn and I would like to have a print copy to have the cover on my shelf.

Buy Burn at Amazon

Donna Huber is an avid reader and natural encourager. She is the founder of Girl Who Reads and the author of how-to marketing book Secrets to a Successful Blog Tour.

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