by Toona (link)
Genre drama, angst
Pairings Isaac/OFC, Taylor/OFC, Zac/OFC
Length prologue, 50 chapters and epilogue
Status Completed
Toona begins this story with a bit of a self-depricating introduction-slash-poem, which I find totally unnecessary. By the end of the lyrical prologue, I’m hooked, even though it reveals little more than the author’s writing style.
>She wastes no time before diving right into the drama. By the end of chapter one, Zac is lying dead in a hospital bed. I was curious to see where the story would go from there; there’s only so much that can be said and done once one brother is dead, and it’s rare to find a hanfic that has a unique take on what happens after the loss of one brother.
Burn most definitely is a unique take on it, though. As the chapters wear on, we find out that Taylor has a troubled past. Bits and pieces are revealed at a time, as the troubles come back to him in the wake of Zac’s death. He develops a relationship with a girl named Annissa that both saves and destroys both of them. It’s all heartbreaking and beautiful at the same time.
Music is woven throughout this story, but not in a cheesy way. Taylor’s struggle to enjoy music again in the wake of losing Zac and Annissa is central to the plot. Few of the songs featured in the story are Hanson songs, and the ones that are have been chosen carefully. The other songs come from a wide range of artists and are equally perfect for their purposes. When the lyrics aren’t woven into the text, they’re provided at the end of the chapter as the perfect sort of coda.
There’s too much in these fifty chapters for me to properly summarize here. Burn is the sort of story you just have to read to really get. Some authors can’t balance all that drama and angst without it becoming absurd, but Toona most definitely can.
The only way I feel I can properly end this review is with a disclaimer of sorts. Burn is not a story you breeze through when you want some light reading. I had to read it in multiple sittings, with several breaks during each. It hurts. It crawls under your skin. It’ll haunt you, in the best possible way.
<Review by Bethany (website)