Book Review: Burn Baby Burn, by Meg Medina (2016)

The banner for Saint Paul's Read Brave program, author Meg Medina, and the cover of the Read Brave paperback edition of Burn Baby Burn (2016).

Meg Medina’s 2016 young adult novel Burn Baby Burn focuses on Nora Lopez. Nora is seventeen years old as the novel opens, and she’s ready to leave high school behind. Nora isn’t quite sure what she wants to do with her life, but she knows one thing: she wants to move out of the small apartment she shares with her mother, Mima, and her younger brother Hector. 

Burn Baby Burn is set in Queens in 1977, one of the worst years in New York City’s history. The city was on the verge of bankruptcy, a 25-hour blackout on one of the hottest days of the year sparked rampant looting and arson, residents were terrorized by the serial killer eventually known as Son of Sam, and the Mets traded their ace pitcher Tom Seaver to the Reds. All of these events form the backdrop for Nora Lopez’s story, and they all play a role in the novel. (Yes, even Tom Seaver’s trade is mentioned.) 

Author Meg Medina does a superb job of bringing Nora’s voice to life, and Nora is an engaging and witty guide to the trials and tribulations that she faces as the narrative unfolds. Medina grew up in New York City, and she grounds the novel in a sense of place that paints a vivid picture of a big city in crisis.

I read Burn Baby Burn as part of the city of Saint Paul’s Read Brave program, a citywide reading effort that in 2019 focused on the issue of housing. Nora’s family is living paycheck to paycheck, and to pay the rent they are dependent on the monthly child support checks that come from Nora’s father, who has remarried and lives in Manhattan. When those checks don’t come on time, it’s Nora’s job to call her father and be the go-between, since her parents aren’t on speaking terms. 

There’s a lot of rich texture in Burn Baby Burn—Nora’s job at Sal’s Deli, her flirtation with Pablo, her handsome new co-worker at the Deli, Nora’s relationship with her best friend Kathleen, and Nora’s deteriorating relationship with her brother Hector, who has started using drugs. Burn Baby Burn is an excellent novel that deals with substantive issues. I liked hearing Nora’s voice as she detailed her complicated life, and I’d be eagerly on board if Medina ever wants to write a sequel and continue Nora’s tale.