Thank you Libro.fm / Simon & Schuster Audio for the ALC and SimonBooksBuddy, #partner, for the advanced copy of The Burning Side in exchange for my honest review.
Publisher: Simon Books / Simon & Schuster Audio
Published: May 19, 2026
Summary:
From the author of The Bright Years, the story of April and Leo, a couple on the brink of collapse. When their house goes up in flames, family secrets and thorny histories emerge as they are forced to decide what is worth salvaging.
When April and Leo’s house burns in the middle of the night, they escape with their two young children and the quiet knowledge that the fire is not the only thing threatening their family. They retreat to April’s childhood home in Dallas, where her spirited parents and siblings provide both comfort and complication.
As the family reckons with the aftermath—grief, guilt, logistics, and memories scorched and intact—the fire exposes the cracks already forming in April and Leo’s marriage. The novel unfolds in alternating perspectives: from April, who feels the crushing weight of motherhood, marriage, and self-blame; from Leo, a high school history teacher shaped by a lonely, fractured childhood; from Deb, April’s generous and no-nonsense mother who has to contend with her husband’s recent Alzheimer’s diagnosis; and from flashbacks that trace April and Leo’s relationship from its earliest days of connection to the devastating decisions that led them here.
A family saga suffused with humor, longing, and heartbreak, The Burning Side is about what we inherit and what we choose, about forgiveness and the ache of being known. It is, above all, about the meaning of home and the costs of long love.
My thoughts:
I absolutely loved Sarah Damoff’s debut novel, The Bright Years – it was one of my top reads last year, so I didn’t even hesitate in picking up her sophomore novel – and it exceeded all my expectations and then some! I don’t even know if I could pick which I loved more – they are both fantastic and worth the read!
This book is as emotionally charged as it is wonderfully heartbreaking – in the best ways possible. I love stories about families, the messier the better, and this one had such a hold on me. The relationships that we get to witness, the characters that we meet, are all so real, so relatable that it was impossible not to feel emotionally connected to just about everyone. And it’s no wonder that I found myself in tears many times throughout the book. Sarah Damoff has this uncanny way of capturing human experiences so clearly that you feel every moment lived right along with the character – every emotion, good or bad, that the character is feeling.
This is a quiet novel that has such big emotional moments. It’s not filled with lots of big action, but rather small, poignant moments or memories that hit hard. It expertly explores grief, generational trauma, resilience and the complicated ways love can both hurt and heal. It’s raw, complicated and deeply human.
This book will absolutely be a top read of the year, and I know I won’t be forgetting it anytime soon, nor will I stop talking about it! It’s going to be the book I recommend to just about everyone!
Audio thoughts:
This was amazing on audio with the full cast. Each of the narrators, Stacy Gonzalez, Timothy Andres Pabon and Jackie Sanders, all did an amazing job with their performances, infusing just the right amount of tension and emotion into their voices as needed.
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