I had such high hopes for Sunburn but I just didn't enjoy it as much as I had anticipated. I felt my mind drifting off frequently which is usually a sign that i'm not 100% invested in the story or writing style.

Thank you NetGalley and Melville House Publishing for the ARC!

When I started this one I thought I was going to enjoy it thoroughly. But it was mostly forgettable. I got to the end and realized that I couldn't quite sum up what had happened or how I felt about it. I do think that there are some people who this will work for and I will be sure to tell them that they should look into it. I wish I had more of a well-rounded review but I really breezed through it without retaining much.

On a sentence level, it is beautifully written.

So poignant and heartbreaking. Beautifully written. Lucy and Susannah live in a time and place where being gay/lesbian is unheard of, unacceptable. The intensity of first love, especially as a teenager, is something that will always be a part of you. It gets burned into you, your mind, your soul. It feels like /the/ love. My heart breaks for the two of them traveling through life having to had separate and not see things through. Breaking up, choosing not to be together, when you still love each other is harder than any other break up. This novel perfectly displayed the questioning of sexuality, wanting to fit it and be accepted that you fake who you are to get it. There is nothing quite like the first teenage relationship - especially one such as this. My heart shattered knowing that people have gone through and still go through this. Such an exceptional novel.

I enjoyed this, but the format for the eARC was pretty messed up and difficult to read; it was unreadable on Kindle so I had to switch to my laptop reader, and even that had some formatting difficulties.

Thank you, Net Galley, for the ARC copy of Sunburn. This was uniquely and intricately well-written. It was the 90s, Irish, sapphic literary fiction I didn't know I needed. The author's characterization of small-town life, expectations, judgments & beliefs was told in a story-telling style that raised a basic premise to a masterpiece.

The descriptions. The lushness. The violent and grotesque metaphors. The symbolism. Sunburn is so wonderful-not necessarily because of what happens- but because of how the story is told.

I did not expect to love this as much as I did- and I couldn't stop reading it. I devoured this one. Thank you Chloe Howarth, for your beautiful work.

Reminiscent of growing up in small town in Uk. This is 1990s Ireland. Gay wasn’t even a term spoken of. Well written and evokes small town communities. Thank you to the author. Thank you to #netgalley and the publisher for an ARC.

The whole book I wanted to yell at Martin.
Overall I did enjoy this book, it had many impactful quotes. I enjoyed the internal monologue regarding Lucy's sense of self. This is exactly the kind of book I want to read, I wish it could go on forever.

A coming of age story in which the main character is forced to choose between pleasing her family or following her heart. Ain’t that the way. Though the main character is mature and introspective, the teenage awkwardness & anxiety was very real and reminiscent. The characters felt genuine - flawed and emotional. There were some that I wish we had gotten to know a bit better. The book was hard to put down and the writing itself was lovely.

When I first started this book I was not sure it was going to be for me. It seemed to be a simple coming of age story. The more that I read the more that the story pulled me in. The struggles that the characters were dealing with were relatable. I feel that some stories make loving someone seem easy and this story shows how hard it can be. I would recommend this book to anyone, but especially those in the LGBTQ community who are looking to understand the way they grew up in a world that didn't accept them.

Such a good coming of age story about girls being girls. But the message in here is clear. A beautiful story.

really well written book with strong themes and discussions of religion and identity and how our fls love is treated as a sin. 5 stars. tysm for the arc.

This was a 5 star read. It was a soft, beautifully written story about finding the courage to be true to yourself. It meant a great deal to me having grown up in a conservative home and finding myself at a young age compromising who I was and maintaining a relationship for a long time simply for the church and my family. I found my heart breaking for Lucy and for myself over and over again throughout the entirety of this novel. Thank you, Chloe, for writing something so deeply relatable. This is my favorite read of the year so far.

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.”