I read this book for English class this year, and it was a very intriguing book. The book is an adventure that involves three perspectives, Lovely, PT Sir, and Jivan. Lovely is an aspiring actor who finally finds some success after years of trying. PT Sir is a PE coach who finds success within a political party. Jivan is a woman who witnesses a terrorist attack and is framed for it. The perspectives of Lovely and Jivan are told in first person while PT Sir’s perspective is told in the third person.

The book shows corruption and internal conflict between the characters. Although they all have separate lives, they are somehow related through Jivan’s court case. Sacrifice is a big theme in the book. For example, Lovely becomes popular through her acting career,. She is left with the choice of either helping Jivan’s case or being successful in acting. She chose to ditch Jivan and become successful with acting, although it was a hard choice.

Another big theme is corruption, and this is shown through PT Sir’s actions when he gets power. Bimala Pal, the political party’s official instructs PT Sir to testify against innocent people in order for him to gain more power through the political party. PT Sir accepts and puts multiple innocent people in jail.

Overall, this book shows the reality of the court system in some countries. A lot of innocent people are put in jail for false accusations, and in this case, Jivan ends up unfortunately being put to death because of it. I would recommend this book to everyone as it is pretty fascinating to see the characters’ development. It takes place very recently, so the book incorporates technology like phones and Facebook.

-Albert X., 10th Grade

A Burning by Megha Majumdar is available to check out from the Mission Viejo Library. It is also available to download for free from Libby.