Burn Girl

Gr 8 Up—Arlie has found her drug-addicted mother dead in their cheap hotel, a long-term marginal home in Durango, NM. The police assume the cause is an overdose even though Arlie has tried to make things presentable. For several years, the 16-year-old has not gone to school; instead, she's lived a hardscrabble life with the mother who stole her away from foster care in the wake of a meth lab explosion caused by her stepfather Lloyd. The fire has left Arlie with burn scars on half her face, which have caused her to be isolated from her peers. After her mother's funeral and the new beginnings of therapy and foster care, Frank, an uncle from Texas, comes to be her guardian, and Arlie finds herself suddenly attending school and trying to get to know a man who deeply regrets never knowing his niece or being able to help when she was in trouble. She joins the chorale, begins to build a relationship with Frank, and even discovers that Cody, a cute blind guy, appears to be into her. This tenuous new life is threatened by shadows of the dangerous past she thought was years and miles behind her. The many plotlines and issues often overwhelm the narrative and the writing style never quite comes together.