Burning Blue by Paul Griffin

Irina Martynovskaya

Period 5

Burning Blue by Paul Griffin

5 Stars
★★★★★

I'm rating this story with five stars because it has a great layout, a lot of mystery, and a very unexpected plot twist. It leaves you wondering and interested throughout the story. 

Main Setting:

The main setting of this story takes place in New Jersey. Mostly at Jay's or Nicole's house, but it starts off in Brandywine Hollows high school on September 8th. This story is over the course of September through December of modern day.

Main Characters:

There are two main characters of this story, Nicole and Jay, who were so different at the beginning of the story. When the main conflict of this story took place, they became more alike in many ways. This story is mostly in Jay's point of view, but some chapters were written Nicole's point of view from her diary.

• Nicole Castro: Nicole Castro is very popular, mostly defined by her beauty. She was a tennis champ, has won a beauty pageant, and been on a couple of newspaper covers. Everybody knew her and she knew everybody. In the beginning of the story, she got acid sprayed on half of her face.
• Jay Nazarro: Jay wasn't popular, in fact, people only knew him because of a seizure he had. Somebody had recorded it and posted it. Jay isn't really the social type either. He purposely tries to avoid people all the time, well, besides Nicole after her acid incident.

Main Plots:

• At the beginning of the story, you learn about Nicole first. You learn that she was very beautiful and popular. Shortly after this, you read about how Nicole got sprayed with acid, burning the left side of her face. You get to learn about Jay and how he understands what its like to be treated differently.
• Jay and Nicole meet and become close. Jay is secretly a good hacker and he tries to figure out who sprayed the acid on Nicole's face. He is stumped at first, but once he gets help, he starts to get himself into some danger.
• Jay starts suspecting everybody, even Nicole. The story takes a very shocking turn when you find out who poured the acid on Nicoles face and why. 

Conflicts:

• The main conflict of the story is figuring out the mystery of who sprayed acid on Nicole, burning half of her face and the reason behind it.
• Internal conflict:
• Nicole was known for her beauty, but after the acid attack she doesn't believe she is beautiful anymore. She couldn't even get herself to say the word beautiful and she couldn't stand to even look at herself in the mirror anymore. She started having a hard time trusting people, she didn't believe them which lead to ending friendships and relationships.
• External Conflict:
• Jay has a hard time figuring out who attacked Nicole with the acid. He uses his hacking skills but still has a hard time solving why and who would do such a thing. 

Recommendation:

I recommend this book to anybody who is into mystery and suspense. A reader who likes to try solving a mystery on their own or just likes a story that easily grabs your attention. It's not like some girly book or anything like that. I also recommend this story to people who have time to read because once you start reading, good luck trying to stop.