This young adult book has violence (bullets exploding through people’s heads, suffocation) ‘bad’ language ( bastards, sons of bitches), and non-descript sex all making this book for high school and above reading audiences.

This is book two of three in an action packed, macho political/military battle of not one or two sides of a story, but three and four sides of the story because that is what life is truly like. It is thought provoking!

I gathered from the bits and pieces of the characters memories that in book one, Divided We Fall, the state of Idaho is seceding from the United States of America, sometime in our near future, because citizens’ rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights have been taken away.

As Burning Nation begins, Idaho is being blockaded from supplies of food by the Federal Government until the Idaho rebels turn themselves in to the U.S. Army soldiers stationed in Idaho to re-establish the peace. “  ‘Attention!’ A loudspeaker on the tank called out into the dark. ‘All Idaho military, militia, and law enforcement personnel must surrender to federal authorities immediately. All Idaho civilians must disarm, remain in their homes, and await instructions from federal authorities. Failure to comply will be met with deadly force.’  “(25)

Tension runs throughout this story. The tension felt by the armed high school students in the Idaho National Guard hiding from the federal troops, the tension of the families of Idaho National Guard members not knowing if their sons and daughters are safe, the tension of the non-violent Idahoans as to whether or not food shipments will be getting through the blockades, the tension in the New England states and Southern states calling all of their National Guard units to active duty locally so they won’t be sent to fight other Americans in Idaho, and the tension in Idaho caused by not knowing what is going on in the rest of Idaho and the United States because President Laura Griffith has cut off all communication to and from and within Idaho, only official United States propaganda is being released about the ‘Idaho crisis’ throughout the country.

Daniel Wright and his armed unit are hiding out. They have a high school friend, TJ, in their hometown of Freedom Lake, Idaho, who is secretly keeping them abreast of what is happening in the town and bringing them needed supplies when he can. After Governor Montaine and the Idaho state legislature “declare our home to be [the] fully independent Republic of Idaho. We hereby dissolve all formal ties with the United States of America …” (73)   Wright and his unit begin running recon missions, shooting at Fed troops, and bombing Fed buildings. On one of these missions, Wright is caught. Major Alsovar tortures him using extreme heat, waterboarding, and electric shocks in his effort to extract secret base locations from Wright in Alsovar’s effort to end this Idaho war. While Wright is in captivity his unit joins with another resistance group, ‘the Brotherhood’. Weeks pass. Wright is rescued.

Outside of Idaho, Texas, Oklahoma, Wyoming and Montana are forming plans to defy the strangle hold President Laura Griffith has put on their states citizens’ rights and freedoms. In a coordinated effort, these states force the federal troops to retreat and redeploy.

As Burning Nation comes to an end, the reader is left with the Wright’s thoughts, “We’d fought hard, risked everything, to win freedom and start a new country. What kind of society was this?” (417)