Emily Vance Brown

by Chloe Michelle Howarth

5/5

I purchased a copy of Sunburn at a bookstore called Novellette in Nashville halfway through my 10-day drive to New York City, and I could not have chosen a more riveting read to accompany me. Sunburn is a devastatingly beautiful (but not necessarily unhappy!) story of first love and repression. Everything about it was just gorgeous, from beginning to end. The characters, the connections, the setting, the imagery of the golden summer sun on skin. I was extremely attached to the main character, Lucy, and I saw a lot of myself in her. I’m obsessed with the way Howarth handles the representation of internalized homophobia combined with genuine attraction and care. Lucy is so terrified of doing something wrong and of being perceived negatively by the ones she loves that it practically seeps through the page; however, it never manifests as explicit self-hatred or as anger at Susannah, which I really respect. She experiences a constant back-and-forth of her emotions, behaviors, and beliefs, and Howarth delicately represents this in a nonjudgmental and relatable way. I look forward to reading more of her work.