DNF - I wanted to like this so much and unfortunately at around 40% I had to give up. It’s beautifully written, but this DRAGGED ON. Not much happens and when it does, it’s not that impactful. Thai felt very YA and obviously it’s a coming of age story, but I just didn’t connect with Lucy or any of the other characters. I’m sure others will love this slow burn, but it just wasn’t for me.
Thank you for the opportunity to read this!

It took me a second to realize we were in Ireland, not the American South becuase it’s rural, traditional, and way more old school than you’d expect for the early ’90s, which gives the whole book this almost historical vibe. The later years feel a bit more rooted in time like i’m familiar with.

The writing is very stream-of-consciousness with less plot, more spiraling thoughts. Minimal dialogue, lots of internal monologue, and a narrative style that skips across long stretches of time without diving into scene-by-scene detail often. It feels like reading someone’s diary in real time.

For younger queer readers or anyone who’s ever felt stuck in a place that seems to already know your whole life, this book will get you.

I love the aspect of hearing about how you learn how Lucy learns and deals with her sexuality in the 90's.

Thank you Netgalley for the ebook!

This book is so poetic and so beautiful and real and raw. I am so emotional. It reads like a diary, the very depths into a young girl's heart. I feel like I've relived parts of my life through this book.

Sunburn is about Lucy, who is realizing she feels a bit more for her best friend Suzanna than she wants to admit. But this is the early 90s in a small town in Ireland where everyone attends mass and judges people that make different choices harshly. Her family and the town expects her to end up with her best friend Martin, but her entire being just wants Suzannah.


This is a fantastic read, it's so eloquently written and beautifully heartbreaking.

(I received this as arc)

“Now is the time between birth and slaughter”

From the opening knife-twist, Sunburn pulls at the tangle of your emotions until it unravels into the most basest form of sympathy and misery. In this debut novel, Chloe Michelle Howarth tells the story of Lucy, a fifteen-year-old girl living in a small Irish town during the early 1990s, a religious place just on the outskirts of Northern Ireland. Enter Susannah, a dear friend and object of all desires, a want that Lucy is not allowed to have. While trying to navigate her own personal turmoil, Lucy must face the facts of her conservative village, traditional mother, her unadulterated love for her best friend and the tragedy of being a teenage girl over the course of several years.

This book is many things: Ice in a tea towel, pressed against warm skin; A hand on a knee beneath the table, squeezing with comfort; Love letters and bathroom kissing and the deep-rooted terror of queerness, of being found out, of being too young to see the future stretch out in front of you. Howarth’s prose drags out memories of adolescent yearning, the recycled inner monologue of pulling petals off flowers, ‘does she love me, does she love me not’. She makes you remember what it was like to be afraid, to be ashamed, and allows you to watch from a great distance what could have happened to you had you not been so brave. She so eloquently captures the beauty of being young and in love with someone unacceptable, of being so fascinated by this revelation within yourself, that it is almost like reliving a personal past in vivid color. Howarth made me cry, made me laugh, made me clench the book in anger and run out of ink in my annotating pen. She made me look at how the sun shines upon the world, happily married and queer, and remember a time when I didn’t think it possible that the clouds would ever pass. My eyes are on her. Yours should be too.

I got wrapped in this book like a warm blanket on a wintery evening. It warmed me from the inside out. It reminded me of my youth and the way I grew up between stolen glances and hidden kisses. A wonderfully engaging read.

this was a really magical book in the sense that it transports you to when you were a teenager, trying to figure life and yourself out. personally, i found my younger self relating to lucy quite a bit. i found a lot of the book quite repetitive, but when it's written as beautifully as it is, sunburn is a story that i'll keep close to my heart.

#sunburn #netgalley

100/5

This is my all-time favorite book. It is beautiful, and heartbreaking, and so relatable to those of us who grew up queer in an area where we didn't feel safe to be open about it. Absolutely incredible.

Thank you NetGalley and Melville House Publishing for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

At once heartbreaking and full of love. I immediately was invested in Lucy and Savannah . A few times I found Lucy a bit tiresome but this almost immediately changes, I had a hard time putting this down.

Startlingly gorgeous and nuanced, this is a masterpiece of a debut novel from Chloe Michelle Howarth. It will burn you in its brilliant blaze of passion, and you will be better for it.

Out of the 53 books I’ve read in 2025 so far, this was the first book I read and it is still my favorite of the whole year. I felt so transfixed reading this book - it’s the perfect queer coming of age narrative. I absolutely loved every element of this book from the writing to its characterization. All the side characters added SO much depth to our main characters’ complex dynamic. UGH it was phenomenal, I already have this preordered, I can’t wait to reread it. It’s one of the books I immediately recommend to people.

Wow- I loved this so much. Fantastically written coming of age novel about a young woman grappling with her sexuality in small town Ireland in the late 1980s. This already has a huge holds list within my system and I imagine will be a popular book club discussion title.

Loved this messy, dramatic and sometimes cringy coming of age / coming out story. The style is so unique -- very few scenes with dialogue and yet Lucy's teenage introspection moves the plot forward nicely. We get a great sense of who the characters are through her eyes (though unreliable teenage eyes). Reading as an adult, you just want to give her a hug and also give her a stern talking to, but hey, we've all been 17 before...

I specifically loved the setting. It felt real and familiar. I saw a lot of myself and my home village in Crossmore, for better or for worse.

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC!

I love coming of age stories, especially in an Irish setting. The author really captures the all encompassing energy it takes to be young and around peers, and the obsession with another person. Beautifully done

Set against the golden haze of an early 1990s Irish summer, Sunburn is a poetic and devastating exploration of first love, longing, and the suffocating weight of societal expectation. It reminded me of Call Me By Your Name, but through a distinctly feminine lens.

Lucy’s love for Susannah burns quietly, fiercely and the intensity of it practically breathes off the page. The longing is so palpable it feels like a living thing, threading its way through every line. Their relationship is tender, obsessive, secretive, and heartbreakingly real, shaped by the conservative pressures of their small town and the looming presence of Lucy’s mother and community.

What makes Sunburn so powerful is its honesty. It doesn’t flinch from the sadness of being unseen, or the quiet despair of having to hide who you are. At times, it’s overwhelmingly sorrowful. You want so badly for things to work out, for Lucy and Susannah to have a place in the world, but the reality of their time makes that hope feel distant. Still, what the novel offers is something just as meaningful: a deep, aching portrait of love in all its raw, messy beauty.

Beautifully written, Sunburn is a moving, melancholic coming-of-age story that lingers long after the final page. A must read for those who remember their first heartbreak, and perhaps the first time they knew they were different.

Thank you NetGalley and Melville House Publishing for my ARC.

Thank you toNetGalley and Melville House Publishing for the early eARC!

Wow! So far this is my book of the summer. It gives you ALL the feels. Seriously you're going to go through every emotion. I will be in my hammock reading this over and over.

Special thanks to NetGalley and Melville House Publishing for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book was beautifully written and engaging. It was very honest and real. The reason why I gave it this rating is that a) this story is not necessarily unique, it’s the setting that makes it stand out and b) the characters are very insufferable and are pretty much mean girls which makes it hard for me to root for them

This was beautiful and I loved it.
Sunburn will be the perfect summer read and I think a lot of people are going to love it too.

rated 4/5

At first, I wasn't super into this book. The first few chapters are a lot of exposition that felt kind of repetitive, and the general tone/style of writing felt too sophisticated for a teen. However, once I got to around chapter 4, there was a lot more plot than rumination/exposition. I started to get really invested in the story, not wanting to put the book down. Even though the writing style still felt a bit sophisticated, there were some really beautiful quotes and metaphors sprinkled throughout that made it really enjoyable to read. I started to realize that the voice was just kind of how the character is when I was reading her letters. The romance was excruciating in the best way -- it's so important to note our recent pasts to understand and appreciate the progress that others have made for us. I really enjoyed the setting and the characters; even when Lucy did questionable things, you could understand the thought process behind her actions, so you couldn't judge her too much. She felt like a realistic teen, and you could really feel her struggle with her emotions. Lucy felt so real and honest, even if she couldn't be honest about herself with other characters. Overall I would recommend this book to people as I really enjoyed the story and the writing.

Storygraph review linked below, Instagram review to be linked once it is posted closer to the release date (likely June).

I finished this book this morning, and it’s a huge call but I think it is one of the best books I’ve ever read! This story absolutely shattered me but was so beautiful and was one of the most complex love stories I’ve ever read. If you love books like Shuggie Bain, Honeybee, and Call Me By Your Name, then I highly recommend this!

This book shows how hard it really was for gay people in Ireland in the 1990’s and the pressure of the Catholic Church and the generations of parents of teenagers in that era. It spoke highly to the pressure people face when it comes to ‘normal’ life experiences and expectations and the idea that young women are expected to grow up, marry a good man and have children and be done. So much of the story was told through written letters and email correspondence and the love story that blossomed between Lucy and Susannah was such a beautiful journey to follow.

I wanted to share my favourite passage from the book, because I just can’t communicate enough how stunning the writing was in this book. I want everyone to read it and love it as much as I did. I will be thinking about this for a long, long time.

“I’ve been smoking a lot recently - the smell always reminds me of you. From the second when the flame hits the joint, you are with me. Then the flame goes and I am left with only embers of you to breathe. I cannot live on your embers anymore. If you want me, I’m yours, if not, let me know now so I might learn to live without you.

Susannah, you are heaven made flesh. You have been the greatest fire of my life. It’s not good enough, I know, but for every time I made you feel inadequate I have died a hundred deaths. I’ll love you until the earth finishes. Just tell me, yes or no.“