The writer, who wrote under a pseudonym, just died yesterday & only when I read her obituary in the Oregonian did I realize that she is a woman I worked with, knew & corresponded with for some years. I just ordered her book today.

I just finished this funny high school boy story about decisions both good and bad. I really enjoyed it, but found some of the latter part of the book a little farfetched--too many problems in too little space. That said, the author nails the voice--refreshing, candid and full of wit which would appeal to sophomores of all stripes.

For me, much of the joy in reading this book was in hearing an old friend's voice and humor brought forth in a published, awarded book. She was so justifiably proud. ( )

The writer, who wrote under a pseudonym, just died yesterday & only when I read her obituary in the Oregonian did I realize that she is a woman I worked with, knew & corresponded with for some years. I just ordered her book today.

I just finished this funny high school boy story about decisions both good and bad. I really enjoyed it, but found some of the latter part of the book a little farfetched--too many problems in too little space. That said, the author nails the voice--refreshing, candid and full of wit which would appeal to sophomores of all stripes.

For me, much of the joy in reading this book was in hearing an old friend's voice and humor brought forth in a published, awarded book. She was so justifiably proud. ( )

Narrated by MacLeod Andrews. As the jacket copy says, Blake's girlfriend Shannon loves him, but his friend Marissa needs him. After he takes a picture of a homeless woman who turns out to be Marissa's meth-addicted mother, he finds himself becoming more and more of a support for Marissa as she tracks down her mother and brings her back home. It's not hard to guess what happens eventually with his relationships, but the description of his agony and guilt is palpable and real. I didn't really care for how narrator Andrews voiced the girls; they sounded whiny and a bit too girly-girl. ( )

Great character development, and the dynamics between Blake and several other important characters were interesting and well developed.

( )

Great character development, and the dynamics between Blake and several other important characters were interesting and well developed.

( )

Wonderful characters, even when they did things that displeased me. I especially loved Blake's family, and the fact that Shannon wasn't a cliche. The ending surprised me, but in a good way.

On Goodreads, I have a shelf called “Good Books. . . Just not sure I Like.” This shelf was made for books like Flash Burnout. This is a really good book, and if I was judging on writing alone and removing all my own biases, this would be a 5 star book. Since, however, this is my blog and I can be as biased or unbiased, as emotional or unemotional as I want in my reviews, it’s slightly less than the highest rating available. However, I did want to state up front that I think this is a well-done book.

By far the best part of Flash Burnout is the voice. I don’t know how L.K. Madigan accomplished it, but she really got into the head of Blake and his narration is spot-on. I am not nor have ever been a teenage boy, but from my limited experience Blake’s actions and voice seem perfect for his character. I really do like male main characters, but they seem really tricky to write, even for male authors. I feel like I typically walk away from a book with a male MC feeling the character was unbalanced; they were too hormonal(John Green, I’m looking at Miles in Looking for Alaska), too intelligent(I love intelligence, but are all main characters genuises? Don’t they ever struggle?), too distant from their families. There is none of that here. Blake does embody most of those things, but in a balanced way.

Speaking of families, Blake’s family is probably one of my favorite YA families that I’ve read. His parents have some of the most depressing jobs I can think of(one is a hospital chaplain, the other is a medical examiner), but they really provide support throughout the story and there’s no case of absent parents here. They treat Blake as a teenager and not an adult who just happens to live in their household, which I found refreshing.

The plot of the book wasn’t really my cup of tea, which is why this isn’t going to be an instant favorite for me any time soon. It’s well-written and well-executed, but I just didn’t like the way it played out. Purely a personal preference sort of thing. And because of that, there’s really not a whole lot left to say in this review.

Final Impression: This book is one of the hardest reviews I’ve written, just because there’s a gap between how good I objectively KNOW the book is and how I feel about it. This book is supremely well-done and on it’s merit alone, would warrant a full 5 stars. However, the plot was just not something I was really interested in. The strong voice of Blake as a narrator kept me going, however. For me, this book is 3/5 stars, but I would still highly recommend it to people. ( )

Flash Burnout was amazing! Blake is a tenth grader who has a wicked sense of humor and who is involved in his first serious relationship. I love how realistic.the characters seem. Some authors who write ya try to hard to make teens sound hip and it comes off sounding phony but L.K. Madigan has done a wonderful job of writing a story that is thoroughly readable and believable. I recommend this book to fans of Sara Zarr and A.S. King. 4 stars! ( )

When 15-year-old Blake inadvertently photographs his friend Marissa's mother passed out in front of a bar, he begins to get to know her and the problems she's having at home.

Macleod Andrews does a fantastic job of narrating this funny, poignant story. I'd recommend it to fans of John Green, or possibly Carter Finally Gets It, although the tone is more serious. ( )

Blake, a budding young photographer, has a girlfriend (Shannon, uber hot) and a girl friend (Marissa, fellow photographer). In Blake's mind, there is no comparison: Shannon is his girlfriend, Marissa is a friend who is a girl. But of course it's never that easy in a high school relationship, and as Blake discovers more about his girl friend's life, his girlfriend gets more and more jealous. A funny and touching story about developing relationships, with a refreshing tie-in to photography. ( )

Blake has a girlfriend, and a girl who is a friend. He loves his girlfriend, but his friend has a seriously messed up family, and really needs him. ( )

Well written fresh take on a high school love triangle. ( )

An exciting and drama filled novel. Themes of romance, drug addiction, homelessness, family and friendship are explored. Some content not suitable for younger readers.

Not a typical YA read, the character Blake's voice is effectively portrayed by Andrews and readers will relish in the protagonist Blake's humor in this gritty and heart-wrenching coming of age story. ( )

"First off, I need to say I'm shocked, really. All of the way through the book I wondered continually if the author was male or female. As you can see, if not intentionally, the first name of the author was left off the book and only the first to initials and last name were revealed (L.K. Madigan). Not until I was completely done with the book and preparing to write the review did I research about the author. Now, why am I shocked? Never in my mind would I have thought a female author could write from the viewpoint of a male character so well. This could be because not many of the books I read have a male character in the lead, but I was surprised and pleasantly so.

"Flash Burnout focuses on the life of a young high school boy, Blake, and the struggles he has balancing friendship and new love. How do you choose between a close friend with a troubled background and the girlfriend you've just told you love for the first time? It's complicated and along the way Blake makes some somewhat juvenile mistakes as well as some other not so juvenile mistakes. He also shares with you his comedic ability and whit, which will keep you laughing even through the tough times in the book.

"What I found most interesting about Flash Burnout was viewing this time of life through his eyes. I know how things happened through my own eyes back in high school, but it was neat to see how similar it really was for a young man. Now I'm not going to say Blake was a saint by any means, in some ways he was very much a typical teenage boy with raging hormones and a one track mind eighty percent of the time. But there were times when you could see the depth of character he had, the concern for the people in his life and it wasn't entirely driven by his desire to fulfill some carnal impulse he may have.

"All this being said, the book still had plenty of what I would think a 'typical' teenage male would think about. As a parent of a some day teenage boy, I'm thinking about possibly loaning him out during those years, just so I don't have to think about it. (Not really! I'm only kidding.) With that, I would have to say I think this book is a tad bit too mature in content for someone under the age of sixteen. I'm not kidding myself here, I know teenagers tend to have one track minds. But as a parent I feel it's irresponsible to condone this behavior by handing over a book full of it during a time when I feel it's inappropriate. That's just me, you may feel differently, and I'd actually be interested to hear what you think. Let me know." ( )

I seriously enjoyed this book right from the beginning. Blake is a 10th grader who is in his first relationship. He's crazy about his girlfriend Shannon, and vice versa. He's also friends with Marissa, who turns out to have very serious family problems. Not only is this a real shock to Blake because he comes from a very stable, loving family, he feels duty bound to keep silent about the specifics about her problems. While that at first leads to trust issues between him and Shannon, Shannon learns to trust him. When a crisis arises with Marissa and her mother, Blake steps up to help but ultimately makes some choices that doom his relationship with Shannon. Unbelievably, this is written by a woman in the point of view of a teenage boy, and it felt very real to me. There is lots of good humor, especially at first, and the teenage characters are well drawn. Blake's voice is especially compelling (or maybe likable is a better word). While there's no graphic sexuality, he's definitely preoccupied with sexual matters. ( )

Blake is a pretty normal high school boy, the class clown, dating Shannon, but friends with Marissa, a girl in his photography class. When he unknowingly takes a picture of Marissa's mother, a junkie, she decides to find her and get her help. This complicates things with Shannon, who thinks he's spending way too much time with Marissa. A coming-of-age novel about love, loss, and navigating relationships. ( )

Reviewed by Sally Kruger aka "Readingjunky" for TeensReadToo.com

Blake is trying to understand relationships. He has a girlfriend and he is also the friend of a girl. Both relationships are important to him, but he realizes balancing them requires artful skill much like in his hobby of photography. There are rules to follow and one mistake can cause everything to go out of focus.

Blake is a cool character. He dreams of life as a stand-up comic and uses almost every opportunity to test out jokes and one-liners. He chalks up an invisible mark every time he gets a laugh. Many of those laughs come from Shannon. Blake can't believe how much fun she is, how beautiful she is, and how much he is really starting to love her.

Marissa is Blake's partner in photography class. As the two youngest in the class, they became partners by default, but it's a partnership that has worked well. Their friendship revolves strictly around photography until the day Blake accidentally takes a picture of Marissa's mother. He didn't realize they were mother and daughter when he stumbled across the homeless woman sleeping on the street. The photo begins a change in their friendship as Blake learns the truth about Marissa's mother.

What makes this story unique is the combination of an interesting cast of characters in a mix of serious situations and refreshing humor. My attention was immediately grabbed in the opening pages as Blake enters the kitchen for breakfast. He describes the snapshots of gunshot wounds fanned out across the kitchen table and the snoring of his father, the coroner, asleep on the nearby couch. Then there's the entrance of his mother, a hospital chaplain, dressed in only underwear and a blouse. As she fixes her morning coffee, Blake is disgusted, but not particularly shocked, when she warns of an oncoming hot flash and promptly removes her blouse.

With an introduction like that, how can readers not continue turning pages?

L. K. Madigan has fun with her characters as she takes them through the good times and the bad. Readers are sure to find at least one character to relate to and at least one experience to learn from. Several added bonuses include a photography tip at the beginning of each chapter and two interesting playlists with commentary from Blake at the end of the book.

FLASH BURNOUT doesn't come out until October 2009, but be sure to watch for it; it's a worthwhile read. ( )

What made me decide to read Flash Burnout basically encompassed the photography aspect and the girlfriend + girl that is a friend. And thankfully those two aspects of the book were pretty satisfying, unfortunately they came with a few other things that were bothersome to me.

Let's start with the good, I loved how each chapter started with something related to photography, be it from a manual or Blake's homework and the way that photography was used to move the story forward. I would have loved to have seen Blake's and Marissa's photographs. They sound beautiful.

I also loved seeing Blake try and balance having a girlfriend he adored and that adores him (Shannon) and a girl that is a friend that really needs him (Marissa). The feeling of being torn and trying to do what's right for everyone is explored wonderfully in this book.

Another thing I really liked was Blake's family, his open-minded parents and his older brother, Garrett. I actually liked Garret at times better than Blake and his storyline about his friend with benefits Cappie. Would have loved to have seen that explored more.

While I liked all of that I did have some problems that distracted and took away from the good things in the book. Right off the bat I noticed Blake's slang and sort of annoying sense of humor, stuff like talking to Houston in his head all the time etc. I could have done without those types of things. And another thing that became rather bothersome for me was the way that Blake talked about his girlfriend Shannon and her body and touching her body. Yes, I know boys have hormones and they think about that stuff, but it was just too much for me and it made me sort of dislike Blake during those passages. Another thing I didn't find funny at all was that basically any time Blake mentioned Shannon's father he insulted him, I can understand insulting her mother but her father, he never did anything to deserve that!

Overall a nice coming of age story with some downsides that somewhat distracted from the story. ( )

Reviewed by Mrs. Foley

This is a Gateway nominee for 2011-2012. Interesting photography terms, etc. start each chapter. The relationships explored seem honest and are probably quite common (although it has been awhile since I was a teenager!). :)

Review from Booklist:
Fifteen-year-old Blake believes he has the perfect set-up a gorgeous girlfriend (Shannon) and a friend who shares his love for photography who just happens to be a girl (Marissa). But a chance photo op of a street person begins the unraveling of his happy situation when Marissa realizes that the passed-out woman in the picture is her meth addict mother. It's impossible for Blake to be the friend Marissa needs while being the boyfriend Shannon wants. While many of the storylines are traditional sibling rivalry, boy-girl love, lust, and drama (and a high-school setting replete with cafeteria and parking lot scenes) Madigan also introduces the unexpected. Blake's parents are strong, loving, and likable (his dad is a medical examiner who occasionally brings his work home, his mom is a hospital chaplain); his teachers are engaged, empathetic, and human; his girlfriend works at not being jealous while his friend-who-is-a-girl respects that relationship, but it all ends badly. With just enough humor to diffuse the tension and the art and science of photography as a backdrop, this rich romance explores the complexities of friendship and love, and the all-too-human limitations of both. It's a sobering, compelling, and satisfying read for teens and a promising debut for a new young-adult author. ( )