Burn for Burn

The novel is set on Jar Island, a small, insular community accessible only by ferry. The story is told in alternating perspectives by three teenage girls who form an unlikely alliance to take revenge on the people who have wronged them.

The novel opens during the last week of summer. Mary Zane, seventeen, rides the ferry back to Jar Island after a four-year absence, returning to confront a boy who tormented her in seventh grade. She moves in with her Aunt Bette, her mother's eccentric sister. Lillia Cho, a wealthy, popular senior, spends the day at the beach with her close-knit group: Rennie Holtz, the ambitious cheerleading captain; Alex Lind, a good-natured boy Rennie wants Lillia to date; Reeve Tabatsky, the cocky star quarterback; and several others. Kat DeBrassio, an edgy, working-class girl, has spent the summer bonding with Alex at the marina where she works. They kissed on their last night before his fishing trip, but when Alex returns, Kat discovers another girl asleep in his bed after a party.

School begins, and each girl's grievances sharpen. Kat overhears Rennie loudly implying she is a thief and snaps, shoulder-checking Rennie in front of the school courtyard. Rennie retaliates by recounting a humiliating incident from ninth grade, and Kat spits in her face. Mary witnesses the scene and then spots Reeve for the first time in four years. He walks right past her without recognition, and she retreats to a bathroom stall, devastated. Lillia enters the same bathroom crying after Reeve spills a drink on her and makes a remark about her not liking to be touched, triggering a deeper anguish she keeps hidden. Kat discovers Mary in the stall, and Mary reveals that a boy tormented her in seventh grade badly enough to drive her family off the island. Kat immediately guesses it is Reeve.

Through flashbacks, the novel reveals the histories binding these girls. Lillia, Rennie, and Kat were childhood friends during summers on the island. When Rennie decided before high school that she needed to be popular, she froze Kat out, and Lillia went along, a choice she still regrets. Lillia's hidden trauma is also revealed: Rennie pressured her into leaving Alex's welcome-home party to visit college guys. At the other party, both girls drank heavily, and a college guy had sex with Lillia while she was too intoxicated to consent. Rennie dismissed Lillia's distress, insisting they never speak of it again. Meanwhile, Lillia discovers that her freshman sister, Nadia, was drinking at Alex's party and lied about it. She becomes convinced Alex is secretly involved with Nadia after Kat spots them together in his SUV late at night.

Mary struggles with her return. She feels academically behind and friendless. On her second day, she tries to confront Reeve in the hallway, but a sudden gust of wind slams every locker door shut simultaneously, an inexplicable event that terrifies her. She flees to the ferry dock, intending to leave for good, but cannot bring herself to board. Kat finds her there and brings her to the yacht club at two a.m., where Lillia also arrives. Kat proposes a pact: They will help each other exact revenge on the people who hurt them. They establish strict rules, including that each girl must participate in all three schemes, they cannot be seen together in public, and no one can bail halfway through. Lillia insists they target Alex first.

The campaign against Alex unfolds in escalating stages. The three sneak to his house at night, where Kat finds his private notebook of poetry. Lillia impulsively hurls a rock through his rear window. Later, Lillia uses cheerleading squad records to access Alex's gym locker and replace his sunscreen with Retin-A, a prescription medication that causes extreme sun sensitivity. Within days, Alex develops a painful, blistering sunburn. Kat then pulls the fire alarm and plasters copies of Alex's poem "Red Ribbon" throughout the school. When students read it aloud, it becomes a viral joke. Lillia realizes the poem is about her, inspired by a red ribbon headband she wore at a Christmas party freshman year. For the season's first football game, Lillia swaps a custom jersey reading "Limp" instead of "Lind" into Alex's locker. When the announcer calls out "Alex Limp," the crowd laughs. Humiliated, Alex tackles Reeve, believing Reeve is behind the pranks, and is benched.

During powder-puff football practice before homecoming, Alex confronts Lillia. He explains that Nadia got drunk on her own at the party, and he spent the night taking care of her. He drove Nadia around only because she called him in tears, afraid Lillia would find out about the drinking. Lillia believes him and feels sick with guilt, realizing their campaign against Alex was based on a misunderstanding.

In a late-night meeting, Mary tells Kat and Lillia her full story. At Belle Harbor Montessori, Reeve was a scholarship student who relentlessly bullied Mary about her weight, giving her the nickname "Big Easy" after a social studies unit on New Orleans. Despite the public cruelty, Reeve confided in Mary on their daily ferry rides about his father's alcohol addiction, and Mary believed they were genuinely friends. One day, when she publicly claimed their friendship by putting her arm around him at the ferry dock, Reeve shoved her into the water. Dockworkers rescued her with a life preserver, and she vomited seawater in front of everyone. That evening, Mary attempted suicide. Her mother heard her feet tapping against the wall and saved her. Mary spent a year receiving psychiatric treatment and was held back a grade. Kat and Lillia vow to destroy Reeve by targeting what matters most to him: football.

The girls plan a double strike at homecoming. To hurt Rennie, they will rig the homecoming queen vote by removing Rennie's ballots so that Ashlin, Rennie's overlooked friend, wins the crown Rennie covets. To bring down Reeve, Kat purchases liquid ecstasy from a drug dealer, and Lillia will slip it into Reeve's drink so he acts erratically in front of teachers. Lillia tells the others that the revenge against Alex was a misunderstanding, but they agree to proceed against Rennie and Reeve. Kat and Mary tamper with the ballots while Lillia creates a diversion.

At the dance, Lillia slips the drug into Reeve's punch. He drinks it and begins acting wildly, grabbing teachers and dancing uncontrollably. When the homecoming court is announced, Reeve wins king, but the queen is not Ashlin. It is Lillia. Kat failed to account for Lillia's votes when tampering with the ballots. Rennie is devastated. During the king and queen's dance, Reeve, clearly under the influence, kisses Lillia on stage. Then, looking into the crowd, he spots Mary and whispers her old nickname: "Big Easy."

The recognition shatters Mary. She feels an electrical surge coursing through her, and every light in the gymnasium explodes. Glass rains down, sparks fly, and speakers screech. Reeve has a seizure on the edge of the stage and falls to the gym floor, breaking his leg. An ambulance takes him away.

In the aftermath, Lillia waits at the hospital, where Reeve is in the ICU with a broken fibula. Doctors do not test him for drugs. Kat finds Mary outside the school, distraught and insisting the catastrophe was her doing, connecting it to the locker doors slamming shut weeks earlier. Kat dismisses these claims, and the official explanation is an electrical fire. The following Monday, Lillia visits Reeve in the hospital, where Rennie is coldly territorial at his bedside. Reeve refuses Lillia's cookies, saying he does not eat junk during football season, a painful reminder that his career may be over. Kat tries to visit Mary, but her house is dark and no one answers. The novel ends with unresolved tension: The girls' revenge has spiraled beyond what they intended, Mary's apparent supernatural abilities remain unexplained, and the bonds among the three girls, forged in secrecy, hold an uncertain future.