Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Burn
    Burn
    Burn
    Audiobook10 hours

    Burn

    Written by Patrick Ness

    Narrated by Joniece Abbott-Pratt

    4/5

    ()

    Switch to ebook

    About this audiobook

    On a cold Sunday evening in early 1957, Sarah Dewhurst waited with her father in the parking lot of the Chevron gas station for the dragon he’d hired to help on the farm…

    Sarah Dewhurst and her father, outcasts in their little town of Frome, Washington, are forced to hire a dragon to work their farm, something only the poorest of the poor ever have to resort to.

    The dragon, Kazimir, has more to him than meets the eye, though. Sarah can’t help but be curious about him, an animal who supposedly doesn’t have a soul but who is seemingly intent on keeping her safe.

    Because the dragon knows something she doesn’t. He has arrived at the farm with a prophecy on his mind. A prophecy that involves a deadly assassin, a cult of dragon worshippers, two FBI agents in hot pursuit—and somehow, Sarah Dewhurst herself. 

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateJun 2, 2020
    ISBN9780063018044
    Author

    Patrick Ness

    Patrick Ness is the author of seven novels and a short-story collection. His five novels for teenagers have won the Carnegie Medal twice, the Costa Children's Fiction Prize, and has been shortlisted for the LA Times Book Prize and the Arthur C Clarke Award. Patrick's works have been translated into 25 languages and have sold over a million copies worldwide. Born in America, he lives in London.

    More audiobooks from Patrick Ness

    Related to Burn

    Related audiobooks

    Young Adult For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      The Bone Shard Daughter

      Sep 9, 2020

      RELEASED 10 SEPTEMBER 448 pages | Hardback/ebook/audiobook Author Andrea Stewart Publisher Orbit Books Epic fantasy has long had a thing for One True Kings. You know the drill: a dreadful tyrant is murdering people for fun and generally imperilling t

      1 min read

    • Article

      The Jasmine Throne

      Jun 16, 2021

      The Jasmine Throne
      2 min read

    • Article

      Follow your HEART

      Apr 20, 2022

      Follow your HEART
      8 min read

    • Article

      How the Lark Got Her Crest

      May 30, 2023

      How the Lark Got Her Crest
      15 min read

    • Article

      Saving Freyfaxi

      Feb 1, 2024

      Saving Freyfaxi
      8 min read

    • Article

      The Dancing Skinny

      Jul 11, 2019

      The Dancing Skinny
      12 min read

    • Article

      Concerning The Future Of Souls

      Mar 19, 2024

      As a toddler she had caused a sensation in her family when she announced she wanted to live in a little hole like the ant. Not an ant, the ant. This might have been misheard. She was an easygoing child, not particularly thoughtful and stubbornly inar

      13 min read

    • Article

      Saving Freyfaxi

      Apr 1, 2024

      Saving Freyfaxi
      10 min read

    • Article

      Drawn to THE MOORS

      Feb 8, 2022

      Drawn to THE MOORS
      11 min read

    • Article

      Taking Sides

      Apr 1, 2022

      Taking Sides
      7 min read

    • Article

      Saving Freyfaxi

      Mar 1, 2024

      Saving Freyfaxi
      8 min read

    • Article

      10 Literary Witches To Hex Trump

      Mar 24, 2017

      In case you hadn’t heard, witches across America—including Lana Del Rey—are uniting to take down Trump via a binding spell, which calls on the spirits to keep the President from doing harm (it already seems to be working). Covens, communities, and so

      5 min read

    • Article

      Where the Grizzlies Roam

      Aug 9, 2019

      Where the Grizzlies Roam
      5 min read

    • Article

      ‘My New Texas Life!’

      Apr 17, 2022

      ‘My New Texas Life!’
      3 min read

    • Article

      Weird World Folklore Frenzy

      Oct 6, 2022

      Weird World Folklore Frenzy
      2 min read

    • Article

      Speed of Mercy

      Jul 30, 2021

      Speed of Mercy
      10 min read

    • Article

      Saving Freyfaxi

      Jan 1, 2024

      Saving Freyfaxi
      8 min read

    • Article

      Follow your HEART

      Apr 13, 2022

      Follow your HEART
      9 min read

    • Article

      A Lifelong Love Affair

      Jan 2, 2024

      Christmas morning, 1959. A skinny 12-year-old kid, one normally almost impossible to get jump-started in time to get him to school before the tardy bell, bounces out of bed at the crack of dawn and thunders down the hall, like a cutting horse after a

      3 min read

    • Article

      Follow Your HEART

      Mar 30, 2022

      Follow Your HEART
      9 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Burn

    4/5

    129 ratings12 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      HOLY SHIT!! This book is absolutely epic. Please read this. And then read it again!
    • 4/5
      It definitely is an epic story, that I feel was almost rushed. So many different topics are touched upon here. I also enjoyed that every character's veiw point is mentioned. Even the most hated character could be seen with empathy.
      Moreover, it could have easily turned into a trilogy. Honestly though I'm not sure if I would have read a trilogy of Burn. I can't exactly put my finger on why.
      Overall, it's entertaining and worth listening too. Its like a movie in your head, which all good books should be.
    • 4/5
      Not my favorite Patrick Ness book, but still really enjoyable. This narrator is so good that you can't help but stay engaged.
    • 5/5
      Amazing! Ness has never ever disappointed me. What is better than a world with dragons?
    • 2/5
      Mature themes for young adults. The book bounces back and forth from different storylines without any indication of what is happening. It’s frustrating.
    • 5/5
      Round of applause are in order. The narrator was fabulous. The book was intense and filled with flames I didn’t know were coming. I am so sick of falling deeper in love with everything Patrick Ness. This freaking book rocked and I can’t wait for the next book. Release here we come !!!
    • 4/5
      I read Burn by Patrick Ness because it has a dragon in it. I really like stories about dragons, especially if they can talk and have personality and aren't evil. The novel takes place during the Cold War. Russia has arrested an American pilot accused of spying with his plane. Russia is also about to launch a satellite into space. The United States worries that this satellite will spy on us and Russia will have the upper hand. Oh, and dragons are common. They live in the Waste Lands and have a peace with mankind.Sarah Dewhurst lives in Frome Washington, in 1957, and is central to a prophecy. She will stop the world from burning. I should stop there and let you see what happens. Okay--let's see what you need to know. Sarah's mom is dead; her father is a bit distant but has good instincts and loves his daughter greatly; her boyfriend is Japanese, so he is discriminated and bullied because WWII has ended 12 years previously. Sarah is also discriminated against because she is half black. The farm isn't doing well, so her father has hired a dragon to clear the fields as a last ditch effort. Usually red dragons do this work, but a blue Russian dragon arrives, named Kazimir. That's the setup for the novel. He appears to want to protect Sarah while Sarah's dad gets threatening letters to kill the dragon. Who does one believe? Do prophecies come true? Can you change a prophecy?Let me give you a list of characters and you can imagine the conflicts: Deputy Kelby - power-hungry, mean Deputy who abuses everyone, especially those who are not white. Malcolm - the highly trained teenage assassin sent to kill Sarah for the Mitera Thea; Sarah's death will bring peace to the world. Nelson - innocent gay teenager told by his parents that he's an abomination; finds and loves Malcom; has really bad luck Jason - Sarah's boyfriend who defends Sarah at all costs Agent Woolf - an expert on dragons trying to find who killed officers of the law in Canada, following the assassin from Canada to the US; partnered with Agent Dernovich. Agent Dernovich - smart agent who desires to save everyone. Kazimir - the dragon who knows the prophecy; the guide for the humansI really liked the book--it's very different; it's not uplifting. The ending is realistic---in the sense of what would really happen if this story happened. It sugar-coats nothing. There's a distance to the writing where the characters don't have much depth--you won't get emotionally involved with them. You distantly watch these things happen to them, but you won't have tears in your eyes. They accept knowing that nothing can change what has happened. It's a story of people victimized by a prophecy with dragon magic unleashed in two worlds at the time when Russia and the US are prepared to destroy each other with nuclear weapons. You can't be too sentimental because the government has said that mutual destruction can come at any time. No time for tears or emotion. I assume it's a standalone. There's room for a book two, but I think it works best alone.
    • 2/5
      This is an Eisenhower America that has a tenuous relationship with dragons. Malcolm is on a quest to fulfill a prophecy and Sarah, a farmer's daughter, is unwittingly a part of the prophecy. Well, that's as far as I got before I dropped it.
    • 4/5
      I am a big fan of Patrick Ness but while I enjoyed this novel, it was not a favourite of mine. Still worth reading though.
    • 3/5
      It took time to get into this book but I did enjoy it in the end. The plot was interesting with lots going on - dragons, alternate worlds, racism, police corruption, the Cold War, murder and so on (the list is long). There were also a range of different characters and I particularly liked Sarah and Kazimir, the dragon.For me, the first half of the book was the best. I was totally invested in the story but the second-half wasn't as strong. However, the ending was great and left me happy with the resolution. Although "Burn" wasn't up to the standard to the "Chaos Walking" series, it did turn out to be quite an entertaining read.
    • 5/5

      Ness has created another excellent weird and wonderful dragon filled adventure that leads not only to the end of the world, but back to what really matters; family, friends & unexpected love. The world created within these pages will keep you guessing through all the twists, turns & dragon fire!
    • 3/5
      The down to earth aspects of Burn tended to draw me in more than the fantasy. Sarah’s father hires a dragon to help on their farm, but there’s much more to it than she’s aware of, a prophecy that possibly involves Sarah and a war.Early on I did find a lot of the dragon stuff interesting, they talk, there are different kinds who live in different countries, they hire themselves out as workers, people fear them yet at the same time fantasize about which type they’d be, etc., all of that intrigued me. However to some degree, I felt like most of that ended up going nowhere. There are two dragons featured here but their involvement felt more standard than I’d expected after reading those inventive aspects of their lore mentioned towards the beginning of the book.My other issue with the fantasy parts of the book is how the prophecy is mentioned approximately a billion times yet no one who mentions it actually knows concrete details about the prophecy. Not only did it make it tough to get a handle on what was happening when even the characters themselves weren’t particularly sure of what was happening, but by making the prophecy so malleable it was too easy to insert plot twists. Several of the twists did take me by surprise, which is good, and there’s a character introduced via one of those twists who I adored almost immediately, it’s just that twists don’t feel as earned if there are no rules governing things. I guess I just admire a situation more when an author has to work their way out of a corner and turn a story in a particular direction. When there aren’t really any restrictions placed on the world of the story changing gears doesn’t seem like quite as impressive of a feat.Burn is told from several points of view, at times the change in POV occurs at a rapid pace so you do have to quickly adjust which can be tricky. As is often the case with so many points of view there were definitely some I preferred to others, like for instance, I really wish more of the story had come from Sarah’s point of view and I probably could have done without Detective Woolf.What had me most engaged with this one is the 1957 time period and how it related to Sarah being mixed race (black mom, white dad) and dating an American born Japanese boy and Malcolm being gay and falling in love with Nelson and their interactions with police. I tended to be more invested in those moments and in pretty much any family moment than I was in the more fantastical ones. Obviously I had mixed feelings about this one, but I would encourage other readers to give it a try for themselves since it certainly is something quite different, plus it does touch on timely subject matter (it’s disturbing/depressing how little has changed since 1957) and maybe the fantasy will fit your personal preferences better than they did mine.