A review by breanneporter
Sunburn by Chloe Michelle Howarth

emotional sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This was an atmospheric read; a bit slow but there was some beautiful writing and meditation on first love and the struggle of coming out when your family and friends have a different idea of who you should be and what your life should look like. It follows the inner monologue of a 15-year-old girl, Lucy, from a small Irish village, as she falls in love with her female best friend and is torn between her passionate love for her and her peaceful platonic love for her childhood (boy) best friend. We see her through her final years in high school and her first few years of adulthood. It takes place in the early 90s, though there’s almost no reference to the Triubles (or any Irish politics of history from the er, which seems realistic since we’re completely inside the mind of a teenage girl in romantic crisis). Because the POV is solely Lucy’s, the other characters seem underbaked, by design. But there’s a lot of relatable stuff and I found my attention ebbing and flowing as I read. I’m not sure I’d recommend or read again but it was a pleasant enough voyage into the recent past. 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings