Burn
by Black Artemis
Burn is set in New York and revolves around Jasmine Reyes, a female, Latina bail bondman. Her background includes
drug addicted parents who abandoned her as a teenager and a twin brother who committed suicide while in a holding cell.
When she meets Malcolm "Macho" Booker, he reminds her of her twin, and she takes a chance by posting his bond with
no collateral. When Macho skips his court date, she is on the trail by investigating his employer, Dr. Adriano
Suarez. Her journey to find Macho takes her into the world of graffiti artists and leads her to a different understanding
of her dead twin.
There is a wide variety of interesting characters in this book as well as a wide range of social and moral issues.
Characters include illegal immigrants, graffiti artists (writers), are transgender, have HIV/AIDS, and are prostitutes,
drug addicts or sellers. Some are stereotypes and flat, while Artemis spends most of the book developing Jasmine.
Artemis takes Jasmine from her background of being a prostitute to running a bail bonds company to discovering she is
HIV positive. Her lifestyle changes as a result, and she explores the social issues involved with lifestyle choices.
This book was difficult to read for me due to the use of strong, obscene language and subject matter. Another
aspect that made the book difficult to understand is Artemis’ use of acronyms. There were no clues as to what they
meant, except for legal.
The book is not meant for a quick late night read, but to stimulate and challenge your way of thinking. Jasmine
challenges the system and questions what is right and wrong and what to do with her own conflicts as well as her
belief system and the world around her. This is Artemis’ third novel and it will be interesting to read the previous
ones and contrast them with Burn. Artemis definitely has a social agenda, and this reminds me of Make
Lemonade by Virginia Euwer Wolff. |
The Book |
New American Library, a division of Penguin Group |
August 2006 |
Paperback |
0451218574 |
Young Adult / Realistic contemporary |
More
at Amazon.com |
Excerpt |
NOTE: Black Artemis is the pen name of Sofia Quintero. |
The Reviewer |
Patty Foster |
Reviewed 2006 |
NOTE: |
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