View source for The Burning of Juniper Slaide (The Juniper Series) by Johanna Handley

{{infobox2
|title=The Burning of Juniper Slaide (The Juniper Series)
|sort=Burning of Juniper Slaide (The Juniper Series)
|author=Johanna Handley
|reviewer= Louise Jones
|genre=Teens
|summary= A shy, psycholgically-scarred teenager has her world turned upside down when her best friend goes missing.
|rating=5
|buy=yes
|borrow=yes
|pages=240
|publisher=Rudling House Publishing
|date=September 2016
|isbn=9781910957165
|website=http://www.johannahandley.com
|video=
|aznuk=191095716X
|aznus=191095716X
|cover=191095716X
}}

Juniper and James are best friends, but their friendship is more intense than most, even though James' father is in prison for murdering Juniper's family. Most outsiders would consider their relationship ''toxic,'' but for painfully shy Juniper, having a close friend who can make decisions for her and speak in her behalf is her comfort blanket. So for now, it's James and Juniper against the world. Well, it would be, if James hadn't gone missing. Now Juniper feels guilty. She was the last person to see James alive and they had a terrible argument. Now Juniper is all alone and exposed, with nobody to shield her from the scary outside world.

''The Burning of Juniper Slaide'' is one of those ''You'd better clear your schedule...'' books, because it is so engrossing, so all-consuming that I guarantee that anyone reading will not be able to put it down until finishing the final page. There are so many things about the book that make it the perfect read: the unreliable narrator, the 'whodunnit' element, intense paranoia and plot twists aplenty. The author toys with her readers, creating a certain impression of each character before blowing the reader's perception to pieces. Bad becomes good, good becomes bad and we feel disoriented, dizzy and confused; not sure who to trust. After all, can we even trust our narrator, with her swiss-cheese memory and deep psychological scars?

The shifting sands of the plot line mean that we can never be quite sure that our preconceived ideas about each situation or character are completely correct. It's a delightfully vulnerable situation to be in as a reader. The action never skips a beat; the story twists and turns at increasingly jagged angles until the final denouement, before completely pulling the rug from beneath the reader's feet just as we start getting comfortable.

I cannot praise this book enough and although it is aimed at the YA market, I think that people of all ages would enjoy the storyline. I'd love to read more by this talented author. This is quite easily the best book I've read all year.

Bookbag also enjoyed [[Black Rabbit Summer by Kevin Brooks]], a dark crime novel for teens with a mystery at its heart.

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