Flash Burnout by L.K. Madigan

Release Date: October 19, 2009
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Age Group: Young Adult
Pages: 320
From: Publisher
Interest: debut author

Fifteen-year-old Blake has a girlfriend and a friend who’s a girl. One of them loves him; the other one needs him.

When he snapped a picture of a street person for his photography homework, Blake never dreamed that the woman in the photo was his friend Marissa’s long-lost meth addicted mom. Blake’s participation in the ensuing drama opens up a world of trouble, both for him and for Marissa. He spends the next few months trying to reconcile the conflicting roles of Boyfriend and Friend. His experiences range from the comic (surviving his dad’s birth control talk) to the tragic (a harrowing after-hours visit to the morgue).

In a tangle of life and death, love and loyalty, Blake will emerge with a more sharply defined snapshot of himself.
Three words; gritty, pretty & bizarre

There was just something so very unique about this story. I couldn't stop turning the pages, even though on the surface the plot isn't something I'd think of as a "page turner".

Madigan seamlessly blends humor with more serious matters. She's somehow realistically channeled the mind of a teenage boy (to me anyway) that most authors even the male ones, have a hard time doing. The characterization was fantastic. Even the most minor characters seemed to leap of the page.

This was just an awesome debut novel. Fantastic characterization, genuine dialogue and highly entertaining.