I truly, truly, wish I enjoyed this book more than I did. Burn Down, Rise Up has a wonderful premise: a queer black teen involved in a terrifying missing person case in the Bronx. Despite that, I felt that there was quite a bit lacking for me in terms of the execution of this concept. The characters in the story did not truly resonate with me, and they felt rather flat, dimensionless and predictable. Much of the dialogue also felt contrived in a way. To be honest, the events of this book weren’t easy to read either. I found myself struggling to deeply care about the events of the story, especially in the first half.

In spite of everything mentioned above, there are things about this book that still made me stick around to see its ending. The author did a great job of telling the story of the history of the Bronx, which helped pull me back into the plot. Also, even though I felt the characters were predictable, they were still likeable, I could easily sympathize with each of their motivations. I could also relate to the subtle social commentaries that were made within the text as well.

Overall, this was a fairly okay book to read, and I could see myself recommending this to someone who is looking for a quick horror to read.