Book Club No. 2: Sunburn

I have a perfect end of summer book for you this month. It is still blisteringly hot here in Colorado, so an end of summer book, feels perfect to bring in fall.

Last month, we read Fear of Flying, which was a becoming story of the ways that we constantly evolve through our sexuality and relationships over the course of life.

Sunburn, is a true coming of age story of learning how to embrace who you are. It’s more complicated though, as the character Lucy is navigating discovering her sexuality and realizing her queer identity in rural 1990s Ireland. Not only, is she a teenager, trying to figure out what this all means, but she is discovering that it is not what everyone expected her to be. She questions, is it better to deny who you are or go against the grain and be who you are?

In Sunburn’s love story, you can’t help, but think about how crazy love makes us. All the things we think about when we are in love, how it clouds our mind and opens our heart. The intensity and consuming power of love. You hear it through a young adult’s perspective, but yet it’s so relatable to any intense love that you’ve ever experienced.

Sunburn by Chloe Michelle Howarth

In reading Sunburn, you are drawn back to the memories of your own adolescence. Reminded to have grace for your inner child and all the learning you had to do on your own. The turmoil of being a teenager, exists for all of us. It’s a time when we are discovering who we are and really stepping toward that adult part of life. We are just beginning to learn who we are and often times we do discover that it may not be who we were expected to be. Growing up in a small rural town, you’re expected to live life a certain way and to follow the same path that everyone else did. 

Choosing a different path in your sexuality and identity can feel isolating and feel risky. You risk your friendships, relationships, family connections, and you risk yourself. In the book, you notice how much the characters struggle with this, but then how it brings up more deep questions.

It reminded me of myself, in how within the considering of something, those reflections will grow and evolve into so many more. I understand choosing to live differently than you were expected to and not always been accepted for that. I know what it is like to open yourself to scrutiny. That challenge is bound to change you, it’s just a matter of how it does.

Ultimately we come to a place in life where we have to choose if we are living for everyone else’s expectations of us or if we are going to choose to follow our own. I hope for everyone to decide to follow their own, but the truth is that most of us do not (at least not right away.) First, we follow what is expected of us, because that is what we know and is often easier to stay in the status quo than to isolate ourselves outside of it. The longer we ignore what is truly within ourselves and in our hearts, the louder it becomes.

When that voice gets loud, parts of us begin to act out. We feel the weight of holding secrets. The risk of telling the truth feels like a sore thumb. Selfishness is released inappropriately. We struggle to know our own integrity. Immense shame can make it hard to love yourself and give yourself enough grace to listen. Because life is always trying to guide you the right way, but you need to be open to hearing it. 

Sunburn is a beautiful story of young love, woven into a coming of age story. Through the challenge of growing into your queerness and the balance of family expectations. When do we choose our truth over someone else's? The story is a beautiful reminder of how powerful love is. 

Love does not always conquer all, but nobody can deny how loud the feelings of love are. I felt deeply inspired by the reminder of how powerful love is. Love can make us feel crazy, but nothing can ever compare to how that feels within us.

Whether or not we choose to follow a love in our life, we will always carry that love somewhere within us. Because love makes an impact. The love of your family, the deepest relationships in your life, the best friend that you love. Each of these imprints upon us and helps guide us towards where we go. The way we understand ourselves and follow love is then upon us. 

As a lover and someone who leads so much from their heart, this book was like a big hug to some of the love stories in my life. An inspiring story to how lucky we are to love others and learn to love ourselves. I feel such a deep sense of joy when myself or others follow the truest love that is in their heart. 

I’m so excited for you to read Sunburn with me this month. I hope you love it as much as I did. And that it leaves you feeling inspired to love a little more. 

Read Sunburn

xx Megan

P.S If you missed last month, you can read about that pick, Fear of Flying, here.