Smoke

Another book completed last night in the 48 Hour Book Challenge!  Yay!  I read four hours Friday night, and another five and a half hours last night, which brings me up to 9 1/2 hours total.  I am going to try to finish reading this morning so I can get some other stuff done.  Besides which I have gotten some stuff read out of my TBR pile, which is always exciting!  I was sent Smoke by Simon & Schuster around Banned Books Week.  I of course had to read Burned first, so I could find out how the story began.  I liked Smoke a lot - it covers a lot of territory in a surprising way.  At the end of Burned, Pattyn Von Stratten was looking for revenge after the death of her true love and her unborn baby.  This book picks up just after that book ends, with the death of her father and Pattyn's escape.  Pattyn kills her father when she finds him beating her sister Jackie after Jackie is raped.  This sounds overwhelming, and it is.  Pattyn and Jackie deal with the murder in very different ways - while Pattyn leaves, Jackie must stay with the rest of her family and cope with the consequences.  Both girls heal and find love again, but it is the journey that is more interesting.  Pattyn's journey includes a migrant worker community and horses, Jackie's journey includes a confident, smart boy who has two moms.  This will speak to many high schoolers, just as the first one did.  I'll be doing a longer blog post on both books later on.