Feel The Emotional Fire of "Smoke"

Smoke (Burned, #2)Title:  Smoke
(Burned #2)
Author:  Ellen Hopkins
Format:  E-galley
Length:  560 pages
Publisher:   Margaret K. McElderry
Rating:  5 stars

Pattyn Von Stratten’s father is dead, and Pattyn is on the run. After far too many years of abuse at the hands of her father, and after the tragic loss of her beloved Ethan and their unborn child, Pattyn is desperate for peace. Only her sister Jackie knows what happened that night, but she is stuck at home with their mother, who clings to normalcy by allowing the truth to be covered up by their domineering community leaders. Her father might be finally gone, but without Pattyn, Jackie is desperately isolated. Alone and in disguise, Pattyn starts a new life, but is it even possible to rebuild a life when everything you’ve known has burned to ash and lies seem far safer than the truth?   -Goodreads

My Thoughts
In "Smoke," the long awaited companion novel to Ellen Hopkins' "Burned"; readers are reintroduced the turbulent lives of the Von Stratten family.  Pattyn, who has not yet recovered from the tragic loss of her boyfriend and unborn child; finds herself once again in the eye of the violent hurricane that has always been her father's rage.  This time however, it is her younger sister Jackie, who is the target of his abuse.  Follow these two young women as they fight to survive the life altering aftermath of a night that will leave their father dead, Pattyn on the run, and Jackie questioning everything.

Pattyn continues to be the strong, resilient, kind, and loving person that she was in "Burned".  Though one would not think it possible, she proves even more so in "Smoke".
While she never stops missing Eathan, Pattyn does manage to find that part of her that allows her to love again.

Jackie is a victim of her father's brutality and of the selfish act of someone that she trusted.
After the death of her father, she must choose whether she will continue to be the victim of other's making, or a hero of her own creation.

In a raw and honest style all her own.  Ellen Hopkins tackles issues such as family violence, rape, grief, loss, and love.
What stand out in this novel is it's positive spin.  This is one Hopkins novel that allows readers to see the light at the end of the gut wrenching, heartbreaking, thought provoking literary treasure that is "Smoke".


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