L. K. Madigan’s Flash Burnout is a standalone novel.
Blake is an average fifteen year-old guy. He argues with his older brother, has surprisingly lenient parents and thinks he has a future as a comedian. He is also has a girlfriend named Shannon and is interested in photography. In his photography class, he is partnered up with a girl named Marissa. Through a strange coincidence Blake gets dragged into Marissa’s personal life and must balance his growing feelings for Marissa with his romantic relationship with Shannon.
Blake is another annoying protagonist from the contemporary genre. He thinks has talent as a comedian, but he isn’t funny. He is a terrible boyfriend to Shannon, yet is surprised when she gets angry, moody or upset with Most of their relationship problems are Blake’s fault. He makes a lot of bad choices as he gets closer and closer to Marissa, but the biggest problem is that these fifteen-year-olds are taking the relationship way too seriously. While his character doesn’t change much, Blake learns more about himself and relationships over the course of this story.
In all, this book was boring. While a “mary-sue” boyfriend makes a bland and boring protagonist, no one would want Blake for a boyfriend. He makes some pretty bad and insensitive choices during this book that mark him as a bad boyfriend. He also fails at being funny and, since class clown is a title he wears proudly, it’s a detriment to his personality. His jokes fall flat, are ill-timed, or are simply just bad puns. The book as a whole isn’t bad. It is well written and interesting, but a contemporary book is driven by its characters. If the characters are unlikable, bland, or one-dimensional, the book falls flat. That is sadly the case with this book. The book was completely full of hormonal teen angst. Many of the main characters act unrealistically moody. This premise of this book also centers around a love triangle. Love triangles in general are a turn off to many and I don’t like how this one was handled. Finally, the story was told using teenage slang. Normally, this isn’t bad, but at times the narrative felt too much or unnatural. I give the 321 page book 3 stars.