Sunburn: Shortlisted for the 2024 Book of the Year: Discover Award by the British Book Awards
** Shortlisted for the 2024 Book of the Year: Discover Award by the British Book Awards ** ** Shortlisted for the 2023 Nero Book Award for Debut Fiction ** ** An Evening Standard 'One to Watch in 2023 ** ** An Independent 'Best Romantic Summer Reads' ** It's the early 1990s, and in the Irish village of Crossmore, Lucy feels out of place. Despite her fierce friendships, she's always felt this way, and the conventional path of marriage and motherhood doesn't appeal to her at all. Not even with handsome and doting Martin, her closest childhood friend. Lucy begins to make sense of herself during a long hot summer, when a spark with her school friend Susannah escalates to an all-consuming infatuation, and, very quickly, to a desperate and devastating love. Fearful of rejection from her small and conservative community, Lucy begins living a double life, hiding the most honest parts of herself in stolen moments with Susannah. But with the end of school and the opportunity to leave Crossmore looming, Lucy must choose between two places, two people and two futures, each as terrifying as the other. Neither will be easy, but only one will offer her happiness.
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Community Reviews
âIt feels as though I am an island, apart from everybody else. Perhaps we are all islands, apart from each other. Perhaps everyone else feels foreign in their hometown too. Yes, perhaps we are all just islands, as wild and merciless as each other, separated by our countless defects. 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 the light.â
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I went into this book expecting to like it, and left it completely in love. It was gut-wrenching, intoxicating, devastating, and perfect. I couldnât stop thinking about Lucyâa teenage girl in a small Irish villageâand Susannahâs relationship. To watch two queer female characters fall in love while also trying to navigate living in an environment that is trying to push them in different directions was an intense experienceâ¦but such a beautifully-written one!
I donât think Iâll ever have enough good things to say about this book, even when I think about Lucy and Susannahâs more frustrating and self-sabotaging moments.
I need literally everyone I know to read this book so that I can talk about it for the rest of my life. This is definitely going to be one of my topâif not THEâbooks of the year. I cannot wait to devour the authorâs next one!
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âYears from now, I will say that tonight was the night I knew that she was the girl I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. This is about more than her body, her tanned skin, her perfect mouth. I am in love with her blood, with her smell, with intangible things that I will never holdâher laugh, her anger, her soul.â
âï¸âï¸âï¸âï¸âï¸
I went into this book expecting to like it, and left it completely in love. It was gut-wrenching, intoxicating, devastating, and perfect. I couldnât stop thinking about Lucyâa teenage girl in a small Irish villageâand Susannahâs relationship. To watch two queer female characters fall in love while also trying to navigate living in an environment that is trying to push them in different directions was an intense experienceâ¦but such a beautifully-written one!
I donât think Iâll ever have enough good things to say about this book, even when I think about Lucy and Susannahâs more frustrating and self-sabotaging moments.
I need literally everyone I know to read this book so that I can talk about it for the rest of my life. This is definitely going to be one of my topâif not THEâbooks of the year. I cannot wait to devour the authorâs next one!
âï¸âï¸âï¸âï¸âï¸
âYears from now, I will say that tonight was the night I knew that she was the girl I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. This is about more than her body, her tanned skin, her perfect mouth. I am in love with her blood, with her smell, with intangible things that I will never holdâher laugh, her anger, her soul.â
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