Description: Julia and Cassie have been friends since nursery school. They have shared everything, including their desire to escape the stifling limitations of their birthplace, the quiet town of Royston, Massachusetts. But as the two girls enter adolescence, their paths diverge and Cassie sets out on a journey that will put her life in danger and shatter her oldest friendship.

Review: The Burning Girl examines the tumultuous friendship among young girls into their teenage years. Messud's book is beautifully written and dense. Purely character driven, the author takes her time in exploring the various aspects of her character's lives.
Since their nursery school years, Julia and Cassie Burnes have been more like sisters than friends. They have shared adventures and dreams, but as they cross the pivotal threshold also known as middle school where friendship, loyalty, and peer pressure can either make the friendship stronger or break it into tiny fragments, Julia starts to feel a separation with Cassie. To the reader, the splint between Julia and Cassie is inevitable especially as the two girls begin to take to different interests,  Cassie is drawn to boys, alcohol, and drugs while Julia hasn't reached puberty yet.
 There is a clear distinction between the two girls. Julia comes from a stable household where her parents take an interest in her, but Cassie's unreliable mother transfers her affection to a controlling lover who destroys Cassie's sense of security. Desperately unhappy, Cassie discovers her "dead father" who was put on a heroic pedestal may actually not be dead and sets out to find him, which begins a spiral of self-destruction that Julia, now no longer Cassie's intimate friend, must hear about from the boy they both love.
  There are beautiful and biting passages that perfectly captures the wild roller coaster of puberty and coming of age that settles on being a girl from the biological changes that are thrust upon you to the scary realization of female vulnerability where "being a girl is about learning to be afraid". Ultimately, Julia notes that everyone has a mysterious story and that parts of those stories are composed of myths that we create. Though I enjoyed the writing of the story quite a bit, I was hoping for more of originality to the plot. I feel like this story has been written before. I found myself reading it in bits and pieces because it wouldn't hold my attention. If you are a fan of quiet, character-driven novels I would recommend picking it up.

Rating: 3 stars

Words of Caution: There are strong language, underage drinking and drug use in the book. Though the book features teen characters, the slow plot may not hold many teen readers' attention and therefore might be more suitable for adults.

If you like this book try: Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah