SUMMARY
- Burn Scars is a crime novel that follows the protagonist Rusty Talbot as he tries to get his life together. Coming from poor circumstances and generally disliked by the town, he alone is in charge of choosing to do something with his life. When offered the chance to make some easy money, he agrees to take part in a heist with his co-workers. But as the description says, Rusty isn't a lucky guy, and it doesn't go the way anyone planned.

CONTENT WARNINGS: Alcoholism, drug abuse, explicit sexual content, character death, murder, implied incest, paedophilia.

REVIEW
I was intrigued by the plot of this book, and went into the experience expecting high octane action, mystery, murder and deceit. What I got was an entirely different vibe.

You follow the story of Rusty Talbot, a victim of poor circumstance with burn scars on his face. The story build's his character as a very put upon individual, who is struggling to do anything of note with his life, and only has the support of his girlfriend.

The atmosphere from the outset is very graphic, you get the sense that this is a very gritty novel, populated by lowlife characters and dingy room settings. You immediately get an understanding of the protagonists despair at how challenging it will be to escape his crappy life; a view that is backed up in the first quarter of the book to the point of overdoing it.
The plot was fairly simple. He wants a different life though isn't particularly motivated to achieve this through hard work, hence following through on a crime he would never have committed otherwise.

However I felt that leading up to the action, reading in general felt forced. I felt that the characters could have been developed more to build the readers empathy towards them. While the plot has a clear direction, and there are reinforcing hints throughout the text indicating where the story might go, I didn't feel compelled to see what happened to the characters. There was plenty of dialogue establishing relationships, but these interactions lacked depth and didn't really build an understanding of each character as an individual. Their motivations were mostly the same, gritty, hard done by and lightly sympathetic toward the protagonist. It felt a little one-dimensional.

From my experience reading this book, I'd recommend it to a male audience. The writing appeals to the male gaze, with.. interesting descriptions... on the female body in its various states of undress. This book wasn’t my cup of tea, but if you’re looking for something down and dirty, it could be for you.