Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced reader copy of Sunburn, by Chloe Micelle Howarth.
Howarth is a new and fresh voice in fiction. This is a queer coming of age story set in Ireland - and the setting is an integral part of this book.
This reader found the story somewhat slow to evolve but this is a character driven novel that explores all of the nuances of growing up and into one's true self. This novel will make you want to travel and have coffee with the characters and see what they are up to now.

I really need to stop assuming a book will be amazing just because the main character is a lesbian, when that has never been my experience with any books about lesbians I've read. The comparisons to CMBYN didn't help either.

God, I deeply love this book. This will probably be in my top 10 for the year which is a big call since it’s only March but I know myself and my love for this book will likely transcend all others I read in 2025. This book has everything I crave—lesbians, religious imagery, and, my god, the yearning! I am honestly gobsmacked that this book is a debut! I can’t wait to read every other book Howarth graces us with.

Sunburn transports readers to 1990s small-town Ireland, where Lucy grapples with first love, identity, and the constraints of a deeply traditional society. Long past my own teenage years, Lucy’s story still transported me back to sixteen, seventeen, eighteen—when I thought I had it all figured out but was only just beginning to understand the world. Every line Howarth writes feels like poetry—if I had a physical copy, it would be covered in underlined passages. The writing is captivating, immersive, and achingly beautiful.

Thank you to @melvillehouse for a copy of this gorgeous debut novel!

A queer coming of age novel, but it genuinely is more than that. Sunburn explores themes of abandonment, identity, societal and familial expectations, and conditional/unconditional love.

How do you choose between what you know and what you want? How courageous do you have to be to exist authentically?

There are so many things this book did well. The religious upbringing and the guilt that usually comes from that upbringing. The author portrayed high school friendships and their fickleness with such sincerity that I was actually transported back in time. There is, of course, the secret relationship between Lucy and Susannah accurately displays that first true relationship you have. It’s all encompassing, passionate, desperate, overwhelming, and doomed. Throughout the entirety of this book, there’s an undercurrent of unhappiness and uneasiness. It doesn’t go away, and that lends itself to Lucy’s identity.

To quote Lucy herself, “wouldn’t it be nice if I could be a person on my own”. She struggles with this the entirety of the book. Again, the portrayal is accurate. The fight within yourself to do what is comfortable or to be yourself is a hard one. And we all tend to do what is easy and comfortable as does Lucy.

My main issue with this book is that the end was too neatly tied. I don’t feel like that was an accurate or truthful ending. We don’t see her on her own or become just Lucy; we don’t hang out with her as an adult for super long. I truly feel adult Lucy needed more time for the ending to be what it was.

Overall, highly recommend this book and author.

Oh youth! This was a whirlwind of the emotions and hit way to close to home. I love the setting and ambience surrounding these characters. This is for those haunted by their adolescence and first gay awakening.

How beautiful and how devastating. And how grateful I am not to be a teenager anymore.

A reminder of how niceness is a curse.

3.5 and a big thank you to Verve Books & NetGalley!

4.25 ✰
a queer coming of age story set in rural 1990’s ireland? say less. what a breathtaking and heartbreaking glimpse into such a wildly different time and place. i went into this story blind so i really enjoyed figuring out alongside lucy what her feelings about susannah meant. there really is nothing like young love, but it is truly devastating to realize how many love stories like theirs have been tainted by religion and intolerant families. my heart broke as lucy grappled with the choice of losing the love of her life or losing the life and family she’d always known. my only wish is that we’d gotten a nice little epilogue at the end, but i also kind of like the unknown.

thank you to chloe michelle howarth, melville house publishing and netgalley for the arc 🖤

some quotes that stuck with me:
“perhaps there is no remedy for it, and all we can do is learn which parts of ourselves to deny and which parts to bring into light.”

“what is there to fix? there is evil in my yearning, i know, i just can’t see where yet.”

“being alone with her now, i feel i am the nearest i have ever been to god. it is her, she breathed my soul into me.”

“my parents don’t like to see people looking for equality, or for any change at all. they like the world as it was, not as it is becoming.”

“to be with her is a sin, to be without her is a tragedy.”

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an early copy of this book in exchange for my unbiased review.

I really enjoyed this. I like anything Irish and this was no exception. This is one of those books that takes you right back to that feeling of being younger and just makes you feel terrible for all the things you did or didn’t do. There was that general air of even when things were going well, you knew they were going to take a turn and just constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop which was kind of sad. Thoroughly fantastic book and really made you feel embodied emotions.

If you read and enjoyed Young Mungo, this very well may be for you. Highly recommend.

Really great story. The internal monologue was so gripping and had such a great flow to it that I never wanted to put the book down. You could really feel Lucy’s aching and pining, and it was heartbreaking seeing her go through that pressure of fitting into societal norms in order to keep her family, I really felt like I was there with her. I do wish there was some more dialogue, because I felt that some characters like Martin didn’t have much of a voice and we were only told who they were from Lucy’s perspective as opposed to shown. Overall amazing book.

Thank you Melville House Publishing for providing me with an arc!

This is the perfect summer novel in my opinion. I didn’t think this would be so heartbreaking but here we are. We follow Lucy as she’s growing up in a religious Irish town. Lucy realises she doesn’t have desires like her friends and instead falls in love with her best friend, Susannah. Howarth’s prose is perfection. We clearly understand the infatuation and obsession Lucy has towards Susannah through the tender letters they write to each other. Her admiration for her best friend was almost suffocating but I couldn’t stop reading and rooting for these characters.

I cannot believe this book is a debut and will be picking up anything Howarth publishes from now on.

This book took me for a RIDE. I was 100% locked into this setting and these characters. Queer women coming of age in 1990s Ireland? Intense, lyrical, and breathtaking at times, this will absolutely be a top 10 read of the year and it’s only March. It might be a little esoteric for some, as it focuses a lot on the vibes and internal lives of the characters, but they’re so fantastic that picky readers should give it a try anyway. ESPECIALLY recommend for queer people who maybe haven’t dealt with the residuals of their messy youth—not that I know anything about that ;)

I was asked to review this book, and it’s an emotional, beautifully written coming-of-age novel. Set in 1990s Ireland, it explores queer identity, comp-het, and the quiet devastation of longing. The prose is lyrical, and the characters feel heartbreakingly real. Though some side characters could be more developed, the raw portrayal of adolescence and first love makes it a compelling read. Perfect for fans of Normal People and Call Me By Your Name.

This was one of the best books I’ve ever read. I adored every second of it. The prose is beautiful, the setting is wonderful, and the characters are so well-built and tragic. This type of book about comp-het and how it affects young lesbian women is so incredibly engaging, and the whole story moved me to tears at numerous points. I’m interested in anything this author works on in the future after this masterclass of a debut.

This was a lovely coming of age novel with beautiful prose. I really enjoyed the raw and accurate portrayal of adolescence and the awkwardness of being a teen and just wanting to fit in. The anxiety of navigating friendships and relationships was palpable.

Becoming who you were meant to be always starts somewhere. And in this case it starts in Ireland in the 90s. It’s queer and hopeful and heartbreaking

This was a very beautiful and moving book that broke my heart. I did find it frustrating at times, but in such a relatable way that rang true to my experience as a young adult. There’s definitely this feeling of being completely paralysed by the choices you suddenly have to make, and how it’s impossible to make a choice that will make everyone happy. Sometimes it’s easier just to do nothing and let yourself be pulled along until you realise you can’t do it any more. All very ‘Good Luck Babe’.

Some of the language around queerness maybe felt anachronistic for it being set in the 90s? But I can’t say for certain having not grown up in this part of the world at this time. The side characters felt a bit flat, and there were certain things that might have been fleshed out more but overall I enjoyed it even if it was a bit of a painful read at times!

4.5 stars

Beautiful, devastating, real.

"There isn't anything left of me but the useless blood my heart keeps circulating. You can have all of it, if you want. I have no use for it now. "

This book!!! Normal People but make it queer! The bisexual girlies like me are going to live for the tension, the secrecy, the comp-het, the spiciness… gorgeous depiction of first loves and the way they stay with us into adulthood.

This is going to be very easy to recommend to people. It has that kind of flowery and honest desciriptions about love and longing that a lot of people (me included) loves! It's coming of age, it's lesbian, it's irish, it has religious imagery. It made me cry a lot because it's very touching and I'm an emotional and sad person. A strong debut! Recommended for fans of Call Me By Your Name and people who are very into yearning!