Atlanta Burns
Written by Chuck Wendig
Narrated by Cris Dukehart
4/5
()
About this audiobook
You don’t mess with Atlanta Burns.
Everyone knows that. And that’s kinda how she likes it—until the day Atlanta is drawn into a battle against two groups of bullies and saves a pair of new, unexpected friends. But actions have consequences, and when another teen turns up dead—by an apparent suicide—Atlanta knows foul play is involved. And worse: she knows it’s her fault. You go poking rattlesnakes, maybe you get bit.
Afraid of stirring up the snakes further by investigating, Atlanta turns her focus to the killing of a neighborhood dog. All paths lead to a rural dogfighting ring, and once more Atlanta finds herself face-to-face with bullies of the worst sort. Atlanta cannot abide letting bad men do awful things to those who don’t deserve it. So she sets out to unleash her own brand of teenage justice.
Will Atlanta triumph? Or is fighting back just asking for a face full of bad news?
This book is intended for mature audiences due to strong language and violence.
Revised edition: Previously published as two volumes, Shotgun Gravy and Bait Dog, this combined edition includes editorial revisions.
Chuck Wendig
Chuck Wendig is the author of the Miriam Black thrillers (which begin with Blackbirds) and numerous other works across books, comics, games, and more. A finalist for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer and the cowriter of the Emmy-nominated digital narrative Collapsus, he is also known for his popular blog, terribleminds.com. He lives in Pennsylvania with his family.
More audiobooks from Chuck Wendig
Zeroes: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Trees Grew Because I Bled There: Collected Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Invasive: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Complete Double Dead Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Blue Blazes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Damn Fine Story: Mastering the Tools of a Powerful Narrative Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unclean Spirits Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related to Atlanta Burns
Titles in the series (2)
Atlanta Burns Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Hunt Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related audiobooks
Hell Ship Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Bone Triangle Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Extended Stay Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBuzz Kill: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Carrier Wave Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Semi/Human Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Memory Agent Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Hitchers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This Book is Full of Spiders: Seriously, Dude, Don't Touch It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Corporate Gunslinger: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Koko Takes a Holiday Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dead Harvest Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Echopraxia - Booktrack Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHench: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Burn the Dark: Malus Domestica #1 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ninth Metal Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This World Is Full of Monsters: A Tor.com Original Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Koko The Mighty Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Hunt Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Happy Doomsday: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Blightborn Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Unfamiliar Garden Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Red Dust Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Resurrectionist Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Condomnauts Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dead Pig Collector Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Normal: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sip Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Bad Monkeys: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
YA Social Themes For You
Powerless Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Better Than the Movies Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5We'll Always Have Summer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Summer I Turned Pretty Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5It's Not Summer Without You Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5If He Had Been with Me Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Divergent Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Thousand Heartbeats Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5They Both Die at the End Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Summer of Broken Rules Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Monday's Not Coming Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Firekeeper's Daughter Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Way I Used to Be Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The First to Die at the End Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My Life With The Walter Boys Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Weight of Blood Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5We Are All So Good at Smiling Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Butterfly Assassin Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The 57 Bus: A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime That Changed Their Lives Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Radio Silence Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Hate U Give Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Before I Fall Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Allegedly Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Warrior Girl Unearthed Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5It's Kind of a Funny Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'll Give You the Sun Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Last Magician Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Five Feet Apart Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Atlanta Burns
42 ratings5 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I find Wendig's prose entirely too aggressive to allow me to get enjoy the story.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5First things first, trigger warnings all over this book. Please be very careful with yourself if you can be triggered by sexual assault, child abuse, abuse toward a gay teen, animal harm, suicide, racism of the neo-Nazi variety. There were so many times in this book where I just plain hurt and had to stop reading in shock and horror. So. That is a thing.
Now, the book. Atlanta went through some hard stuff, went away, and now she's back and she's--of course because this is high school--outcast. She eventually makes friends with Shane (the nerd) and Chris (a member of the "Cozy Nostra," as he says). Shane was hurt, he hopes she can help him, and she does. So there we go, and this is why reviewers compare this book to VMars. The spoilers pretty much tell you what happened.
My 2.5/5 star rating is because there was barely a second of happiness in this book and there was no trade-off to make that worth it to me. Wendig's a good damn writer, otherwise I would have tapped out almost immediately, but I trusted him to take me through this story.
Now, a thing about suicide, as mentioned in the book, that I will put under a spoiler cut, not because it is a spoiler but because it could be triggery. The entire world needs to cut the shit with this "suicide is selfish" and it "lets the bullies win" crap. Don't put that sort of guilt on someone suicidal. Just don't. You won't be helping them and you may be harming.
Provided by publisher. - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5If you aren't ready to punched in the gut and kicked in the crotch, repeatedly, you aren't ready for ATLANTA BURNS.Chuck Wendig's tale of a young woman in bad circumstances is violent, soul-crushing, and more than a little uplifting. In a rural town I would never want to set foot in, Atlanta Burns is fighting back against the bullies, the Nazis, and everyone else who hates other people just because they don't like the look of them.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This book was different than most Young Adult novels I have read. I don't think I would have chosen this book off the shelf, but I'm glad I had an opportunity to read it. Atlanta Burns is one tough chick. The characters are raw and gritty, the story is captivating, and who doesn't love a female vigilante.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Atlanta Burns is the kind of book that takes time to percolate; after finishing the last page it had me feeling all discombobulated and I needed time to think on it for a bit. If you’re familiar with Chuck Wendig’s work then you’ll have some idea of what I’m talking about. Never let it be said that the guy ever holds his punches when he tells his stories, and you can be sure this is not your run-of-the-mill Young Adult fare. The book’s protagonist Atlanta Burns is a high school student who no one wants to mess with. But she’s been through some traumatic stuff, and her reputation came at a high cost. However, Atlanta’s not going to let what happened to her stop her from doing the right thing, and she’s definitely not one to stand by while bullies prey on the weak and the defenseless. There are some terrible people in this world, and armed with her shotgun and the moxie to match, Atlanta is going to do whatever it takes to stop them. Two stories make up this book, “Shotgun Gravy” and “Bait Dog”. Both are powerful, yet not easy to read. In the first, Atlanta and her new friends go up against Neo-Nazis, crooked cops and bigoted bullies. The second story sees her attempting to break up a dog fighting ring and deals with the themes of animal cruelty and abuse. Atlanta’s world is a bleak and brutal place to be, and reading about things like lynching, sexual assault, tortured puppies, kids being burned with cigarettes and such, it’s hard not to get through this book without thinking, wow, people SUCK. It made me sick sometimes, it really did.But works like these also have a place in YA fiction. Like this quote in the book says: “Life is equal parts strange and beautiful and horrible, and we’re tossed into it without a map or an instruction guide. Poems and stories have a way of helping us make sense of things.” And that’s how I see these stories in Atlanta Burns. It might not be pleasant and it might not be comfortable, but it’s important to face some of these issues head-on and not soften the blow because it’s true – one can argue that Wendig is painting things too dark but the sad reality is the things in this book do happen, and it would be a mistake to pretend they don’t. Atlanta Burns is a book that explores difficult subject matters, and exposes them in all its ugliness so that we as readers can process it, make sense of it for ourselves. Wendig has a message here. It’s not so surprising that he went with the Neo-Nazis as his main baddies, though this book is peppered with a lot of despicable scum-baggy types as a whole. Thing is, in any slice of society you look at there’s bound to be good folks and bad folks, but in Atlanta Burns there seems to be an overrepresentation of the bad, and if I’m to be honest, even Atlanta herself is not entirely likeable. To Wendig’s credit though, he does attempt to shine a light in the dark of this whole “things don’t get better” bleakness. In this world of bigots, bullies and corrupt cops are characters like Mrs. Lewis, Steve AKA “Chomp-Chomp” or Detective Holger who show Atlanta that things can be different.This was a wonderful read. However, I would be remiss if I didn’t warn you against some of the shocking, horrible things that are in this book. It’s categorized as Young Adult, but definitely not typical of the genre. Calling Atlanta Burns a dark book is an understatement; it deals with some very mature themes, and even some adults may find parts of it difficult to read especially if they are sensitive to those particular subjects. I really enjoyed this book, but as always with Chuck Wendig, reader discretion is advised.