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Selected as an Evening Standard 'one to watch in 2023' 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. But only one can offer her real happiness. Sunburn is an astute and tender portrayal of first love, adolescent anxiety and the realities of growing up in a small town where tradition holds people tightly in its grasp.
Publication Year: 2023
This book has officially made me cry. Iโll always have a soft spot (not sure thatโs the correct term but wtv) for stories about queer people being in a heteronormative relationship because society will judge them for who they really are, while theyโre still thinking about the person they love but canโt be with
Absolutely loving the writing in this book, but story wise I'm not really feeling it? Maybe (hopefully) I'll get more into it the more we get into the story, but I'm just finding it a bit boring so far and it feels like nothing is happening, but then all of a sudden a lot of time has passed and a lot has happened already. Lucy sometimes is mean, sometimes is nice, I'm very confused about her, and Susannah is just...there. I'm liking the romance and Lucy figuring out her love for Susannah, but the characters individually aren't giving me much