Burn for Burn Books in Chronological Order – Complete Reading Guide

Quick Answer (TL;DR)

If you just want to know how to read Burn for Burn Books in Chronological Order, here’s the short version:

Read in publication order—because publication order is chronological order for this trilogy:

1. Burn for Burn (2012)
2. Fire with Fire (2013)
3. Ashes to Ashes (2014)

All three books follow the same core timeline on Jar Island and build directly on one another. There are no prequels, novellas, or side stories you need to juggle—just this tightly plotted trio of revenge, romance, and supernatural fallout.

If you love:

• High-school drama with teeth
• Messy friendships and even messier crushes
• A slow-burn paranormal twist
• And the emotional punch of Jenny Han’s The Summer I Turned Pretty or To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before

…then reading the Burn for Burn books in chronological order is the best way to experience Kat, Lillia, and Mary’s story from first spark to final ash.

Introduction

There’s something irresistibly cathartic about revenge stories—especially when they’re set in small communities where everyone knows everyone else’s secrets… or thinks they do. Jar Island, the fictional setting of Burn for Burn, looks like a glossy postcard: quaint shops, beach houses, and perfect prom photos. Underneath? Cruelty, class divides, and one very haunted girl.

The Burn for Burn Books in Chronological Order guide is built for readers who want to follow that descent from picture-perfect to full-on chaos without missing a beat. Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian start you with three angry girls and a pact to “get even” and then slowly twist the knife—layering on secrets, supernatural reveals, and escalating consequences with every book.

This trilogy also hits a sweet spot: it’s YA contemporary enough to feel grounded—pep rallies, bonfires, hookups, homecoming drama—but it also leans into paranormal territory as Mary’s story unfolds. Think Pretty Little Liars meets a softer Carrie vibe, wrapped in the emotionally honest style that’s made Han’s other series so beloved.

If you’ve already devoured Jenny Han’s To All the Boys and The Summer I Turned Pretty, or you’re coming from twisty series like A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, this is the darker, moodier side of YA you’ve probably been craving.

Quick Facts

Item	Details
Series	Burn for Burn Trilogy (3 books)
Best Order	Burn for Burn → Fire with Fire → Ashes to Ashes (publication order = story order)
Setting & Tone	Postcard-perfect Jar Island, with summer houses, beaches, and a tight-knit high school; tone shifts from contemporary drama to paranormal revenge and genuine horror elements
Pages (approx.)	Burn for Burn: ~356 pp; Fire with Fire: ~528 pp; Ashes to Ashes: ~400 pp; total trilogy ~1,250–1,300 pages (varies by edition).
Estimated Read Time	~10–12 hours per book, ~30–35 hours for the full trilogy at an average pace; audiobooks are typically 10–13 hours each depending on edition
Reading Difficulty	Moderate YA – multiple POVs, emotional themes, and a gradual paranormal reveal, but accessible prose and fast pacing
Genres	Young Adult • Contemporary • Supernatural/Paranormal • Mystery/Thriller • Revenge Drama
Content Warnings	Bullying, fat-shaming, emotional abuse, underage drinking/drug use, suicidal ideation and past suicide attempt, toxic relationships, death, grief, some sexual situations (handled in a YA-appropriate way)
Media Adaptations	The trilogy has been optioned for TV development, but no official film or series has been released as of now.
Ideal Age Range	14+ – marketed to teens (publisher age range 14–17), but very readable for older YA and adult readers too.

About the Book Series

The Burn for Burn trilogy centers on three girls—Kat DeBrassio, Lillia Cho, and Mary Zane—who are each carrying their own scars from Jar Island. They don’t start as friends. In fact, you could argue they barely even like each other at the beginning. But they share one thing powerful enough to override old grudges: the need to get revenge.

• Kat is the tough, outsider girl who’s been frozen out by her former best friend, queen bee Rennie.
• Lillia is the wealthy, popular girl who’s realizing the boys she trusts may be crossing serious lines—with her younger sister, Nadia.
• Mary is the fragile newcomer, returning to Jar Island after a traumatic incident that left her broken… and maybe not entirely human anymore.

Together, they hatch a plan: small paybacks at first, then bigger ones, all hidden behind the island’s glossy surface. What begins as almost cathartic pranking quickly curdles into something uglier and more dangerous—especially once Mary’s strange abilities begin to affect events in ways none of them can control.

Unlike a lot of sprawling YA series with prequels, novellas, and spin-offs, Burn for Burn Books in Chronological Order are a contained, linear story. Each book picks up the emotional thread left dangling at the end of the last one, turning up the volume on both the drama and the paranormal until the final, fiery conclusion in Ashes to Ashes.

Books at a Glance (with Amazon Buy Links)

Note: These are core series titles only—no novellas to track, no weird side-stories. Just three books, one explosive arc.

#	Title	Amazon Buy Link
1	Burn for Burn	Buy on Amazon
2	Fire with Fire	Buy on Amazon
3	Ashes to Ashes	Buy on Amazon

*Years shown are first major English-language publication years; your specific edition may vary slightly.

Burn for Burn Books in Chronological Order (Recommended Reading Path)

Because the Burn for Burn Books in Chronological Order match publication order, you can follow the spine numbers and trust that you’re experiencing the story exactly as Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian intended. Let’s go book by book with spoiler-light blurbs and what each installment adds to the overall arc.

1. Burn for Burn

Core vibe: Setting the stage, forging the pact, and hinting that something is very wrong beneath Jar Island’s glossy exterior.

We meet Kat, Lillia, and Mary in alternating POV chapters. They’re from different social strata, different friend groups, and at first glance they have no business teaming up. But each has been deeply hurt:

• Kat by a former best friend who turned the entire school against her.
• Lillia by a betrayal that threatens her younger sister’s safety and innocence.
• Mary by a boy whose cruelty nearly destroyed her years before.

When their paths cross, they realize that their enemies are connected, and so are their wounds. They agree to help each other—for plausible deniability, but also because it feels good to be understood.

What this book does in the timeline:

• Establishes the core setting: Jar Island’s high school, the beach community, and social hierarchy.
• Shows how each girl’s revenge target ties into Reeve, Rennie, and the wider friend group.
• Seeds the paranormal element through Mary’s experiences—her panic attacks, gaps in memory, and a growing sense that her very presence can shift reality.

By the end of Burn for Burn, the girls have crossed clear ethical lines—but they’ve also tasted power. If you’re reading the Burn for Burn Books in Chronological Order, this first installment sets the emotional stakes that will reverberate through everything that follows.

2. Fire with Fire

Core vibe: Escalation. The revenge pact deepens, the fallout from book one gets worse, and Mary’s true nature pushes closer to the surface.

In Fire with Fire, Kat, Lillia, and Mary are trying to live with what happened at homecoming. The aftermath isn’t neat or tidy: Reeve is injured, reputations are shredded, and Rennie is angrier than ever.

The girls should walk away. Instead, they double down—especially when they realize that boys like Reeve will continue to skate by unless someone makes them face consequences. Their new plan involves a more dangerous emotional weapon: love.

Key developments in this stage of the chronology:

• Lillia agrees to be the bait in a long-con romance scheme, luring Reeve into falling for her so they can break his heart the way he broke Mary’s.
• Kat wrestles with her own grief and guilt, and starts to imagine a future beyond Jar Island—college, a life that isn’t defined by Rennie’s cruelty.
• Mary… changes. There’s a growing sense that she’s not just traumatized—she’s other, and her connection to the island (and its history) might be supernatural in origin.

Emotionally, this is where the Burn for Burn Books in Chronological Order really start to hurt—in a good way. Characters you hated in book one get depth. People you liked make awful choices. The line between victim and villain blurs.

The ending of Fire with Fire is a genuine “oh no” turning point that pushes the trilogy fully into paranormal territory and guarantees that you’ll reach straight for book three.

3. Ashes to Ashes

Core vibe: Finale, fallout, and supernatural reckoning.

Ashes to Ashes is the last entry in the Burn for Burn Books in Chronological Order, and it carries the narrative from simmering tension to full boil. The consequences of the girls’ revenge campaign are no longer hypothetical:

• Reeve has been hurt.
• Rennie is dead.
• Jar Island is mourning, gossiping, and ready to assign blame.

Mary now understands who—and what—she is, and how deeply Reeve’s bullying scarred her life. Her desire to make him pay becomes something larger and more dangerous than personal vengeance. The haunting, atmospheric side of the story amplifies, with the weather, the island, and even time feeling warped by her rage.

Kat and Lillia, meanwhile, are frantically trying to keep things from spiraling completely out of control. They’re grieving Rennie, questioning their role in everything that’s happened, and beginning to realize that some damage can’t be undone.

As a conclusion, Ashes to Ashes:

• Resolves the mystery of Mary’s past, including the incident that drove her off the island in the first place.
• Forces every character to face the truth about what they’ve done—whether they intended harm or not.
• Brings the paranormal arc to a cathartic, bittersweet end that fits the series’ themes of justice, guilt, and letting go.

Read in order, the trilogy feels like one long, three-act story: setup (Burn for Burn), escalation (Fire with Fire), and consequence (Ashes to Ashes).

Series Timeline & Character Development

One of the reasons it’s so satisfying to read the Burn for Burn Books in Chronological Order is how clearly you can trace each girl’s arc from victim to active agent—and, in some cases, back again.

Kat DeBrassio

• Book 1: Kat is pure prickly defense mechanisms. She’s the outsider who pretends she doesn’t care, but the hurt from Rennie’s betrayal runs deep.
• Book 2: She starts imagining a life beyond Jar Island, applying to colleges, and confronting the idea that she deserves something better than the small-town script she’s been handed.
• Book 3: Kat is the one most determined to stop the chaos, even when it means admitting that her own thirst for revenge helped light the fuse. She becomes almost a stabilizing force between Mary’s rage and Lillia’s guilt.

Lillia Cho

• Book 1: Lillia begins as the “good girl” in a privileged friend group, gradually realizing how unsafe that world can be when you’re a girl of color surrounded by entitled boys.
• Book 2: She willingly weaponizes her own desirability in the plan to break Reeve’s heart—and gets emotionally entangled in ways she didn’t plan. The cognitive dissonance between justice for Mary and her real feelings for Reeve is brutal.
• Book 3: Lillia must confront the fact that she can’t control people’s reactions once she sets events in motion. Her arc becomes one of accountability, forgiveness, and learning to separate genuine love from obligation or guilt.

Mary Zane

Mary’s trajectory is the most dramatic:

• Book 1: She seems fragile, traumatized, and somewhat naïve—a classic bullied victim trying to reclaim her life.
• Book 2: Her anger grows more volatile and, crucially, begins to manifest in supernatural ways. The more she fixates on revenge, the more reality itself bends.
• Book 3: Mary’s true nature is fully revealed, and her storyline becomes a haunting metaphor for unresolved trauma—how it lingers, how it can consume, and how letting go may literally be the only way to save everyone.

Reading the Burn for Burn Books in Chronological Order lets you see how each girl’s choices ripple outward over homecomings, holidays, and school events. Time moves steadily forward, and the series never resets or jumps back—it all builds.

Novels Sorted in Order of In-Universe Events

Here’s the good news: there’s no hidden prequel or weird mid-series novella you need to shoehorn in. The in-universe chronology is straight and simple:

1. Burn for Burn – The revenge pact is formed; early schemes and the first big disaster.
2. Fire with Fire – Recovery from homecoming, the “make Reeve fall in love and crush him” plan, and the deepening supernatural angle.
3. Ashes to Ashes – Aftermath of Rennie’s death, Mary’s full reveal, and the ultimate reckoning on Jar Island.

If a future novella or bonus story ever appears, it would likely slot between books two and three or act as an epilogue. As of now, though, the Burn for Burn books in chronological order are just these three.

Novels Sorted in Order of Publication

For completeness—and for those who like to see exact release years—here’s the publication order (which again matches the timeline):

1. Burn for Burn – First published September 2012 (hardcover), with later paperback editions in 2013.
2. Fire with Fire – Published August 2013.
3. Ashes to Ashes – Published September 2014.

If your copies are UK or international editions, you might see slightly different dates on the copyright page, but the sequence always stays the same.

Companion Works

Strictly speaking, there are no official companion novels, novellas, or short stories set in the Burn for Burn universe—no prequel from Rennie’s POV, no Reeve side story, nothing like that.

However, if you’re building a themed reading project around Burn for Burn Books in Chronological Order, here are some unofficial companion reads that pair well:

• To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before trilogy by Jenny Han – same author, lighter tone, but shares themes of reputation, crushes, and how private feelings leak into public life.
• The List by Siobhan Vivian – a standalone centered around a list ranking girls’ looks at a high school and the fallout it causes; excellent if you liked Burn for Burn’s examination of social cruelty.
• On Books in Chronological Order, check out To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before books in chronological order, A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder books in chronological order for another twisty YA series, and The Cheerleaders books in chronological order for more small-town secrets and tragedy.

Editions & Formats

You’ve got several options for how to collect and experience the Burn for Burn Books in Chronological Order:

Hardcover

• Original hardcovers were released between 2012–2014 by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers.
• Great if you want dust jackets and the most “collectible” feel, though they can be harder to find new.

Paperback

• Widely available, especially the matching US paperbacks with soft pastel-colored spines and photo covers of the three girls.
• Often sold in 3-book box sets, which are a cost-effective way to grab the trilogy in one go.

eBook (Kindle and others)

• All three books are available as eBooks, often discounted during promotions.
• Good if you’re binge-reading the Burn for Burn books in chronological order back-to-back and don’t want to lug paperbacks around.

Audiobook

• The trilogy has audiobook editions, with narrators who differentiate the girls’ voices well and capture the shifting tone from contemporary drama to eerie suspense.
• Audiobooks typically clock in around 10–13 hours per title, making them good weekend-or-two listens.

Special / International Editions

• UK and international editions sometimes feature different cover art and slightly different trim sizes or page counts.
• Jenny Han’s official website also links to multiple editions and retailers if you prefer to browse by region.

Whichever format you pick, try to keep the Burn for Burn Books in Chronological Order together visually—matching covers and spines look fantastic on a YA shelf.

Why Read in This Order?

Because the Burn for Burn Books in Chronological Order follow the same progression the authors wrote and released, you get several key benefits:

1. Clean Emotional Arc
   You meet Kat, Lillia, and Mary at their lowest points and watch them grow (or spiral) together. Reading out of order would completely sabotage the slow reveal of Mary’s backstory and the escalation of the supernatural elements.
2. Mystery & Reveal Timing
   Clues about Mary’s true nature, Reeve’s guilt, and Rennie’s complicated relationships are scattered across all three books. The payoff in Ashes to Ashes only lands if you’ve lived through the earlier misdirection and half-truths.
3. Thematic Build-Up
   The trilogy moves from “petty” revenge to life-altering consequences. That shift is part of the point: actions that seem small at first can snowball in ways teenagers don’t foresee.
4. No Canon Confusion
   Some series tempt you to read prequels first. Here, there aren’t any. The Burn for Burn books in chronological order are literally 1 → 2 → 3. Simple, satisfying, and easy to explain to friends.
5. Best Binge Experience
   Because each book ends on a strong note—often with a twist or emotional gut punch—reading them chronologically in a short window keeps the tension sharp and the character beats fresh in your mind.

Author Spotlight

Jenny Han

Jenny Han is a powerhouse in YA fiction—and increasingly in TV and film. She’s the author of:

• The Summer I Turned Pretty trilogy (adapted into a hit TV series for Prime Video, where she serves as creator and showrunner)
• To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before trilogy (adapted as a hugely popular Netflix film series)
• Several standalones and a chapter book

Burn for Burn was her second YA trilogy, co-written with Siobhan Vivian and published between 2012–2014.

Han’s trademarks—sharply observed teen dynamics, complicated family and friend relationships, and the tension between private emotions and public labels—are all present in the Burn for Burn Books in Chronological Order, just channeled into a darker, more vengeful story than her other series.

Siobhan Vivian

Siobhan Vivian is a YA author, editor, and creative writing professor whose work often tackles reputation, girlhood, and the ways institutions can harm or protect teens. She’s written:

• The List, about a high-school list ranking girls as “prettiest” and “ugliest” and the damage that does
• Stay Sweet, We Are the Wildcats, and several other acclaimed contemporaries

Her collaboration with Han on Burn for Burn blends vivid character work with a willingness to let those characters make selfish, even cruel choices.

Together, Han and Vivian bring both warmth and razor-sharp observation to the trilogy, which is part of what makes the Burn for Burn Books in Chronological Order so bingeable: you care deeply about these girls, even when they’re doing objectively terrible things.

Media Adaptations

As of now, the Burn for Burn trilogy has no released film or TV adaptation, but there are a couple of things worth noting:

• The series has been optioned for TV development in the past, meaning producers at least explored adapting Jar Island’s revenge saga for the screen.
• Jenny Han’s other books have a very strong adaptation track record:
  • To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before became a three-film Netflix franchise.
  • The Summer I Turned Pretty became a multi-season Prime Video series, with Han actively involved.

Given how cinematic the Burn for Burn books are—bonfires, homecoming dances, eerie island weather, and paranormal set pieces—it’s easy to imagine them as a limited series in the future. If anything changes (and a Burn for Burn show gets announced), this is exactly the series where reading the Burn for Burn Books in Chronological Order before watching would massively enhance the experience.

FAQs

Final Thoughts

Reading the Burn for Burn Books in Chronological Order is like watching a spark catch dry grass, then trees, then the whole island. You start with three hurt girls whispering in the shadows and end with a supernatural storm that forces everyone on Jar Island to face the truth.

What makes this trilogy stand out isn’t just the revenge or the paranormal twist—it’s how grounded the emotions feel. Kat, Lillia, and Mary are messy, contradictory, sometimes selfish, sometimes brave. They feel like real teens, not perfect victims or flawless avengers.

If you’re in the mood for:

• A tightly contained, three-book story
• An escalating blend of contemporary drama and eerie supernatural elements
• Complex female friendships framed through the lens of revenge

…then organizing your TBR around the Burn for Burn Books in Chronological Order is absolutely the way to go. Start with Burn for Burn, clear a weekend (or three), and let Jar Island pull you under.

When you’re done, don’t forget to swing back to Books in Chronological Order for more YA-friendly reading plans—To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, and The Cheerleaders are perfect next stops on your journey.