Blaze

Title: Blaze
Author: Laurie Boyle Crompton
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Publication Date: February 1, 2013
Pages: 309
Genre: Contemporary
Source: Amazon
Rating: 4/5

Blaze is tired of spending her life on the sidelines, drawing comics and feeling invisible. She’s desperate for soccer star Mark to notice her. And when her BFF texts Mark a photo of Blaze in sexy lingerie, it definitely gets his attention. After a hot date in the back of her minivan, Blaze is flying high, but suddenly Mark’s feelings seem to have been blasted by a freeze-ray gun, and he dumps her. Blaze gets her revenge by posting a comic strip featuring uber-villain Mark the Shark. Mark then retaliates by posting her “sext” photo, and, overnight, Blaze goes from Super Virgin Girl to Super Slut. That life on the sidelines is looking pretty good right about now…

This is probably the most fun book I’ve read thus far in 2013. It was very funny, but in a more crude kind of way that you don’t usually see from female protagonists, but that made it different and special.

I really liked Blaze as a character, largely because she was so different from most other female protagonists in YA lit today. I didn’t necessarily relate to her that much, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying her story and her unique voice.

Even though Blaze is partially a revenge story, even that part of it was different from other revenge books I’ve read recently. For this kind of story, usually the revenge carried out by the female characters is done fairly pettily. However, Blaze carries out her revenge in a fun, creative way, which makes it all the more powerful.

Blaze was a cool, cute, fast read that will appeal to many readers of any gender.