Drew Burke is twenty -- a working-class college student in Baltimore. Seduced by the wealth that surrounds him, Drew finds himself drawn into a complex and sensually charged friendship with fellow student Bahar Richards and her brother, Jake. With Bahar, it's a soulmates' bond, with Jake, it's a romance born of a fierce sexual attraction. But a strange wall of mystery surrounds Jake, which Drew can't seem to penetrate. Then over an intimate long weekend at the Richards' family home, Jake confides to Drew that in high school he was wrongly accused of a grisly crime. The more details Drew learns, the more he suspects he hasn't heard the entire truth -- from Jake or Bahar. Torn between brother and sister, whose versions of the story don't quite match, Drew becomes caught in a maze of half-lies and manipulations, as he tries to figure out who to trust and, ultimately, who to love.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Drew Burke, the main character in Neihart's lean, intense and provocatively cool second novel (after Hey, Joe), is a 20-year-old Johns Hopkins scholarship student who hangs out with rich, spoiled and beautiful schoolmates to whom he feels inferior. The story takes place during Memorial Day weekend at the house of his best friend, Bahar Richards, and her older brother Jake, who is Drew's new crush. Unbeknownst to the innocent Drew, who attempts to emulate his fast-lane friends by popping pills and engaging in risky sex, the siblings are planning to tell him about their involvement in the rape and murder of Bahar's erstwhile best friend, Allison Myers. As in his previous novel, Neihart creates an implausible and lurid plot device in order to breed a sick intimacy among the characters ("Me and Bahar like bleed into each other," Drew explains to another friend). The cheap thrills and violence that result are impossible to mistake for depth or dramatic meaning. The breezy prose is jarringly slang-filled and the characters described in relentless designer-logo detail. The suspense Neihart builds around the crime?are Jake and Bahar guilty? is one sibling covering for the other??is palpable, but even this wears thin, as character after character keeps storming from rooms before the truth can be revealed. By the time Drew learns what really happened the night Allison was killed (when Jake calls into Larry King Live during his famous pop psychologist mother's appearance and spills his guts on television), the reader may be too exasperated to care. Author tour.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
A transgressive thriller from the author of Hey, Joe (1996), describing the troubles of a young man from the wrong side of the tracks whos taken up by rich friends and given a brutal introduction to life in the fast lane. Drew Burke is a poor boy from New Orleans who won a scholarship and headed east to study at Johns Hopkins. There, he met Bahar Richards, and she and Drew quickly become best friends. Bahar is smart, chicand utterly manipulative. Although her relations with Drew are not wholly platonic, shes instrumental in hooking him up with her bisexual brother Jake, and she watches over their budding relationship with all the self-satisfaction of a confirmed matchmaker. While he finds their life of privilege easy to adapt to, Drew has to admit that he doesnt know these people very well, and when Jake hands him a sheaf of newspaper clippings and tells him that he loves him and wants him to know all about what happened, Drew quickly discovers that hes gotten into something way over his head. Apparently, years before, Jake and his friend Troy were tried for the rape and murder of Allison Myers, a poor girl from a local high school. Jake pleaded innocent and was acquitted, but there are still enough loose ends about the case to give Drew pauseespecially as Bahar refuses to discuss it with him. As he tries to sort out the mystery of Allisons death, Drew finds himself confronted with the far greater enigma of Jake and Bahars lives. Are they what they seem to be? And just what do they want from Drew? Soon enough, Drew discovers that his story is not one of social climbing, but sheer survival. The authors annoying use of, like, MTV English and his Brett Easton Ellisish obsession with brand names (just what is the difference between a BMW 318ti and a BMW 540i?) cant suffocate this chilling and delightfully lurid talethough at times its touch-and-go. (Author tour/NPR satellite tour) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Up and Down,
By A Customer
This review is from: Burning Girl: A Novel (Paperback)
In a word: intriguing. This novel captures the reader from the beginning and slowly lets you down. I feel as though he gave up on writing at the end. And the ending--WHAT?? All together though, it was sexy, fun, and a little eery.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Scary, Sexy, Crazy, Cool,
By A Customer
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This review is from: Burning Girl (Hardcover)
In equal parts I love and hate this book. I can't quite tell how serious the author is. Some parts, I swear, are so purple and breathless, but other, blacker, sadder parts caught me off guard, made me cry. The three main characters are shallow, Dawson Leery-like "kids" who don't talk at all like kids, but then again Peanuts never talked like real kids either.The murder mystery at the center reveals a strong, harsh, judgemental moral code. The settings are as gorgeously described as anything in Myst. I really tried to guess whodunnit and I failed.The sex scenes, boy-boy and boy-girl, were sort of overdone, yet I still was aroused. The violence in some scenes made me queasy and in other parts sort of made me laugh. I wished there had been more sex scenes with Jewel music because I really get crazy when I hear "Who Will Save Your Soul" while I'm in bed with my boyfriend.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Writing 10; Story 5,
By A Customer
This review is from: Burning Girl (Hardcover)
Neihart has spun an interesting tale where the telling takes precedence over the story. Initially, the somewhat loathsome characters are mildly intriguing. Soon we are bored with them just in time for the story to blow up into a mystery of sorts. Unfortunately, it unfolds in a long, confusing sequence that ultimately does not pay off. The book seemed more like a personal experiment in writing. Recommended for writing students only.
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