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4.35 AVERAGE
4.35 AVERAGE
challenging
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug use, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Infidelity, Grief, Lesbophobia, Outing, Alcohol
Moderate: Cancer, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Blood, Outing, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship
4.5 I think!! Not to ignore the sapphic romance, but the relationship between Lucy and Martin is heartbreaking to me …
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
she would have fucking loved chappell roan
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
So I’m not a big romance reader but can appreciate what this book says about social norms, expectations for girls and what that awkward space of adolescence looks like between being a kid and growing into your own self.
But I thought the prose overall could have used a finer sweep of edits. Some lines throughout were just downright cliché (but hey! Maybe that’s because I’m not a romance girly, who knows.) I also wonder if the book overall could have been more successful if it had been written in the third person omniscient. I wonder this because the current first person perspective that the book is written in sometimes already teeters into third person omniscient territory, before snapping back into our narrator’s own mind again. As a reader, this wavering perspective at times took me out of the story and made me question: “Hmm how does the narrator even know all of this information about these characters.” It was unrealistic at times.
All in all, I did enjoy reading this book and found myself immersed in the character’s lives, stories and the setting. It wasn’t my favorite book in the world but not every read needs to be. It made me think about and critique different areas of society, which I believe good fiction should do. 3.5 stars.
But I thought the prose overall could have used a finer sweep of edits. Some lines throughout were just downright cliché (but hey! Maybe that’s because I’m not a romance girly, who knows.) I also wonder if the book overall could have been more successful if it had been written in the third person omniscient. I wonder this because the current first person perspective that the book is written in sometimes already teeters into third person omniscient territory, before snapping back into our narrator’s own mind again. As a reader, this wavering perspective at times took me out of the story and made me question: “Hmm how does the narrator even know all of this information about these characters.” It was unrealistic at times.
All in all, I did enjoy reading this book and found myself immersed in the character’s lives, stories and the setting. It wasn’t my favorite book in the world but not every read needs to be. It made me think about and critique different areas of society, which I believe good fiction should do. 3.5 stars.
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
It's character driven as long as it's about the other characters. The MC floated around waiting to be told what to do. But with the setting and time as well as the message and vibes of the story, it worked well. In a remote, generationally conservative small town in a time just before the widespread of the internet and texting.
The story is relatable to any queer girl from a small, conservative, religious, possibly farming, area where the most one heard about queerness was the odd cousin here and there that no one speaks of other than a passing whisper.
The feeling of isolation is augmented with the tone, style, POV, and the setting of the book.
It shows that even in the most remote places with the least amount of "outside" influence, there will always be queer children that need to see a life beyond the straight and narrow confines of tradition.
The story is relatable to any queer girl from a small, conservative, religious, possibly farming, area where the most one heard about queerness was the odd cousin here and there that no one speaks of other than a passing whisper.
The feeling of isolation is augmented with the tone, style, POV, and the setting of the book.
It shows that even in the most remote places with the least amount of "outside" influence, there will always be queer children that need to see a life beyond the straight and narrow confines of tradition.
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The gasp that I gusped at that last page, I need to be held 😭😭
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Sunburn is one of those books that quietly works its way under your skin. It’s tender and aching, sometimes messy, always intimate. Chloe Michelle Howarth captures first love in all its contradictions—how it can feel both divine and dangerous, exhilarating and devastating.
“She took her Eucharist before mine and I quietly apologised to Jesus for the downgrade from her tongue to mine”
We follow Lucy, growing up in 1990s Crossmore, Ireland, during one summer where friendship shifts into something deeper, sharper, and harder to name. Her relationship with Susannah is slow-burning but all-consuming—the kind of love that feels holy in private but impossible to hold in the light of family, faith, and small-town expectations. Reading it felt like eavesdropping on a secret I wasn’t supposed to hear, a mix of thrill and heartbreak.
I loved how immersive this book was—Lucy’s voice felt raw, flawed, and painfully real. With that said, I found Lucy in the last part of the book to be quite insufferable. The prose meanders in a way that fits the story: contemplative, lingering on the small moments, always circling back to Susannah. It’s not a fast read, but it’s a consuming one. What stood out most to me were the mother-daughter relationships woven through the novel—complicated, tender, and sometimes brutal. They grounded Lucy’s story in an everyday reality that made the love story feel even riskier and more luminous. Also, the reality of growing up in a small isolated town deeply resonated with me.
“Imagine a place where I could scream and not be heard, and fail and not be seen. A place where my insignificance would not hurt, because everybody would be insignificant.
Sunburn manages to capture that rare feeling of being young, in love, and trapped between desire and duty. It reminded me of Sally Rooney’s witing in that way—quiet, devastating, and impossible to shake.
“Stupidly, I had expected that this might fix the void inside me, but it turns out coffee tables don't do that. It was just another way of getting through the weeks”
This was a perfect buddy read for summer and it’s one I’ll be thinking about for a long time.
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated