The Burn Journals
A Memoir
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4.5 • 69 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Fans of Thirteen Reasons Why, Running with Scissors, and Girl, Interrupted will be entranced by this remarkable true story of teenage despair and recovery.
“[The Burn Journals] describes a particular kind of youthful male desolation better than it has ever been described before, by anyone.” —Andrew Solomon, author of The Noonday Demon
In 1991, fourteen-year-old Brent Runyon came home from school, doused his bathrobe in gasoline, put it on, and lit a match.
He suffered third-degree burns over 85% of his body and spent the next year recovering in hospitals and rehab facilities. During that year of physical recovery, Runyon began to question what he’d done, undertaking the complicated journey from near-death back to high school, and from suicide back to the emotional mainstream of life.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Engrossing from first page to last, this book based on Runyon's own adolescent experiences draws readers into the world of an eighth-grader whose life is irrevocably changed the day he deliberately sets himself on fire. Brent, after narrowly escaping death, wakes up in a hospital with 85% of his body severely burned and begins a slow, arduous path to recovery. Rather than analyzing reasons the patient wanted to kill himself, the first-person narrative remains focused on the immediate challenge of survival, incorporating meticulous details of Brent's day-to-day ordeals in the hospital and later in a rehabilitation center. Time, at first, is measured by Brent's fluctuating levels of discomfort and comfort, ranging from the excruciating pain of having bandages removed to the sheer bliss of tasting ice cream for the first time in several weeks. And his repentant apologies to his parents and to Craig, his brother, who discovers Brent immediately after the incident, are wrenching in their honesty ("I hope Craig can love me again"). When his wounds begin to heal, Brent's thoughts turn from the present to the future as he nervously makes plans to return home and re-enter society. Despite its dark subject matter, this powerful chronicle of Brent's journey to heal expresses hope, celebrates life and provides an opportunity to slip inside the skin of a survivor with a unique perspective. Ages 14-up.
Customer Reviews
Loved every page.
I had to read this book for a class, and at first I was regretting it. I pushed it off until very last minute and found out that I actually loved the book. It had so much to offer. I read it in 3 days, which is fast for me. I am not much of a reader, but I just couldn't put the book down. I loved how you felt as if you were Brent, and that you had burned yourself, and going through your own recovery.
Audio book
I not much of a reader and at the time I was working for a driving company and on the road for over 12 hours at a time. I bought the audio book for this and it was the best book I ever heard. After listening to it about 20+ times to date I also read the book and it was great. It's funny because one of the reviews says nothing stuck out but when you listen the reader do all the voices and accents for the characters it makes everything stick out.
AMAZING
I am also fourteen and can compare to Brent in so many ways. He writes thoughts the way thoughts actually sound in your head and it is amazing. I finished the book in two days because I could not put it down but I would've finished it in one if my biology teacher hadnt ripped it out of my hands and tossed it across the room.