Flash Burnout

Flash Burnout L. K. Madigan

Blake often feels torn between Shannon, his perfect girlfriend, and his best friend Marissa. Things get more complicated when Blake takes a picture of a meth addict passed out in an alley way for photography class. A meth addict that just happens to be Marissa's missing mother. Blake tries to support Marissa as she finds her mom and tries to (once again) get her cleaned up, but balancing Marissa's needs with Shannon's wants is more than Blake can handle.

For about the first 100 pages, Blake's voice really annoyed me. I felt like he should be narrating something that was much more laugh-out-loud funny than the story he is narrating. It's not that there's a voice shift after 100 pages, that's just when I got used to it so it stopped bugging me.

I really liked Blake's family. I liked the dark humor of how his dad's job as a medical examiner encroaches on their home life. I liked how Blake's parents and brother were in the picture and very supportive. Even Blake's brother, whom he doesn't always get along with, was there when push came to shove, which was nice to see.

But seriously, OMG, Shannon's mom was such a @#$$%&!@$%^&! I can understand how Blake was probably a rather annoying boyfriend from a parental perspective, but woah, way to actively sabotage everything. Blake really didn't need her help in messing things up. But because of how evil her mom was, I wasn't nearly as sympathetic to Shannon as I should have been. I also think Shannon got the short stick in the Blake-Shannon-Marissa triangle, because Shannon didn't have any real drama in her life and Blake was spending all of his time with Marissa, so Shannon was just kinda there, but wasn't really given a chance in the story for the reader to connect with her. Poor Shannon.

Book Provided by... my local library

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