Book Review: Burn the Water by Billy Ray

  Billy Ray is maybe best known as the screen writer for The Huger Games films, but he is an author also! 

Burn The Water is his first novel and it's Billed as a YA dystopian romance set in 2425 London. 

With this being my year of reading Water themed books, i saw this on Net Galley and hit the request button so fast. 

Personally, I think this book is perfectly within the realm of an adult/YA novel.  The themes are not "coming of age"  as much as they are "forbidden romance" . One reviewer notes that it felt like a retelling of Romeo and Julie, but I felt like that was really a very surface look at the novel.  The themes are quite different from Romeo and Juliet and though the story is of course similar, it really really...isn't a futuristic Romeo and Juliet. Frankly, I think it's unique and does some great stuff while also hitting some familiar beloved tropes.  

Non-Spoiler "Synopsis" because Spoilers are not the best!  The novel is set in a future London/UK setting where most of the world is underwater. Communications are set back to more ancient times, and most technologic advancements have been lost to the water. Two factions are fighting over the last bit of land available for living. Enter Rafe and Jule- both leaders- but leaders of the different factions. Of course... love is in the air, or in the water as the case may be. These two star crossed lovers are really both desperately tired of this ongoing war and wish for peace, but find it hard to conceptualize how to make that come about. Within this environment, tension is building that threatens to break apart as foreigners appear on their shores.

With Ray's lauded cinematic background, it was not surprise that this novel reads a  bit like a screen play.  For me , this wasn't an issue, and Ray did an excellent job showing and telling at appropriate times.  I felt like this was a bit of cautionary tale for our future, and part plain old against all odds enemies to lovers romance. 

Very much enjoyed this one!  I hope it has great success! 

STATS

First Published : March 2025 

Pages: 304

Available as an Audio Book : not Currently

Trigger Warnings: violence, blood, death, grief, War, Death of child,