SuitabookBurn the Water
Billy Ray
- Reading
- Preview that the setting and conflict are harsh without revealing the ending. Pause after major choices to discuss loyalty, inherited hatred and sacrifice; afterwards, compare the adaptation’s choices with Romeo and Juliet.
- Themes
- Inherited hostility and divided loyalty: Rafe and Jule are raised in opposing Houses and serve as soldiers while developing a secret relationship. The book leaves its stance open to more than one reading.
- Environmental collapse and survival: A future London is largely underwater after rising oceans, and the Houses fight over the small amount of land that remains above water. The setting presents environmental change as the condition shaping society and conflict, rather than as a detached backdrop.
- Forbidden love and sacrifice: The relationship between two enemy soldiers is treated as dangerous and potentially punishable while they try to keep one another alive. The book presents this favourably.
- Worth knowing
- Consider whether a reader would welcome brutal conflict, disease, dangerous animals and threats to loved ones. The romantic story is portrayed as intense and potentially punishable, while the ending’s consequences remain unclear.