A July 2025 IndieNext Pick

PRAISE FOR THE US EDITION
"Beautifully written … it’s enchanting." —Publishers Weekly

"Absolutely gripping . . . A romantic, funny, and painful exploration of the cost of being true to yourself." —Kirkus Reviews

PRAISE FROM BOOKSELLERS

“A deeply engrossing look at the pressures brought to bear on young queer people and how that can both heighten and damage first love. Chloe Michelle Howarth’s narrator is so precisely drawn that readers will share her desperation and feel implicated in her guilt. A wonderful debut.” – bookseller Keith Mosman, Powell’s Books

“A beautiful story of first love and the lasting emotional impact that comes from having to hide who you are as a young queer person who is still figuring it all out. Lucy’s story is intense, honest, ugly, tragic, healing, and ultimately hopeful. The book is released just in time to be a summer read that will transport you entirely." – bookseller Torrin Nelson, Queen Anne Book Co (Seattle, WA)

“The yearning, the YEARNING! With language so decadent, Sunburn explores the immense pain and pleasure of first love with 90’s Ireland as the backdrop.” – bookseller Emily Sperber, Third Place Books 

“I devoured this book. Set a story in Ireland and I’m already halfway there. Sunburn didn’t disappoint, with lyrical prose, rich characters, and A flashback to a time when same-sex relationships were not open and accepted by most, especially Catholic Ireland in the early 1990’s. Thus sets the stage for a truly moving coming-of-age story that will grab your every emotion. Not your typical beach read, Sunburn is for the reader who wants to fall into a powerful tale set over the course of one summer.” – bookseller Pat, Orinda Books 

“ 'Susannah is a beam of the sun; we can’t look directly at her.’ Following two young girls as they fall in passionate, but impossible love in 90’s rural Ireland, this novel is the song Triple Dog Dare by Lucy Dacus in book form. Reading it felt like getting sunburn. The beating, passionate heat of the sun warming your skin, the pain of the burn, the relief of aloe vera, and the peeling back of skin, revealing something nascent yet terrifying. A must, must read.” – bookseller Jeanette Byrnes, Browsers Bookshop, Olympia, WA

“Lucy knows she’s supposed to fall in love with the boy next door, marry him, and have children, yet her heart leads her to Susannah. Dripping with the sexually charged heat of first love Sunburn by Chloe Michelle Howarth is an excellent debut about striving to break free from society’s expectations and make a life of your own. A perfect summer read; I loved this book!” – bookseller Caitlin Baker, Island Books, Mercer Island, WA) 

"Gorgeous. Lucy’s interiority is perfectly drawn, her love story with Susannah feels amazingly real. Howarth’s command of the subtle, devastating politics of female friend groups shot an arrow right through my heart; the plot crushed it." — bookseller Vanessa, Green Apple Books

“Girlhood! Sunburn is painfully and bleedingly so girlhood. Chloe Michelle Howarth has managed to depict the trials and tribulations of what it’s like to be a young queer girl in love. With writing so incredibly beautiful it blooms in such a way where all the pain and obsession and love can be felt through the pages. The intricacies of such a main character like Lucy is what makes this work as precious as it is. It is through her mistakes and deliberations that we feel its relatability and vulnerable moments so much more. Sunburn is a book you hold close to the heart even as it breaks you over and over again. Encapsulate yourself in a story brimming with tragic love in all its forms.” – bookseller Dora Ledesma, Changing Hands, Tempe AZ

PRAISE FOR THE UK EDITION
** Shortlisted for the 2023 Nero Book Award for Debut Fiction **
** An Evening Standard ‘One to Watch in 2023 **
** An Independent ‘Best Romantic Summer Reads' **
** A Book of the Month pick for Diva, Irish Examiner, Novellic & Sainsbury’s Magazine **
** A Most Anticipated pick for PinkNews & Queer on the Street **

'Capturing all the intensity of first love, blended with the claustrophobia of small-town life, this debut, inspired by real experience, is tender and raw' - Bookseller

'Intense and all-consuming - like the first love it describes - Sunburn transported me to the heart of summer and the heady days of late adolescence. I won't soon forget Chloe Michelle Howarth's addictive, lushly written debut' - Laura Sims, author, How Can I Help You

'A beautiful coming of age love novel written with an insightful poetical prose, rich with religious allegory and texture which underscores the transformative, spiritual power of first love explored' - Scene Magazine

'This is an often gut-wrenching divulgence into a complex queer story that... painstakingly captures the realities of queerness in 1990s small-town Ireland' - The Gay Saint