Goodreads

Release date: May 19, 2026

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Synopsis:

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.

Review:

Sarah Damoff’s The Burning Side is the kind of family drama that slowly works its way under your skin, building an emotional portrait of love, marriage, parenthood, and grief that feels deeply authentic from beginning to end. After loving The Bright Years, I went into this one with incredibly high expectations, and it absolutely lived up to them. Damoff has such a talent for rich, layered storytelling that captures both the tenderness and strain within families, exploring how people can love each other fiercely while still struggling to truly understand one another. This is a heavily character driven novel, the kind that prioritizes emotional depth and relationship dynamics over fast moving plot, and it completely pulled me in.

The aftermath of the house fire becomes less about the physical loss and more about everything simmering beneath the surface of April and Leo’s marriage and family life. Through alternating perspectives and glimpses into the past, the novel carefully unpacks resentment, guilt, exhaustion, longing, and the complicated realities of long term relationships. I especially appreciated how nuanced every character felt — no one is simplified into being fully right or wrong, which made the emotional conflicts feel all the more real. Deb’s storyline involving her husband’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis added another layer of heartbreak and reflection about aging, memory, and the shifting roles within a family.

Despite the heavier themes, The Burning Side never feels emotionally bleak for the sake of it. There’s warmth, humor, tenderness, and genuine love woven throughout the story, balancing the sadness beautifully. It’s ultimately a novel about what remains after loss, what we inherit from the people closest to us, and the ways families continue trying to rebuild even after damage has already been done. This feels like the perfect book club read because there is truly so much to unpack and discuss, especially for middle aged readers and parents, though honestly anyone could find pieces of themselves somewhere within these relationships and experiences.

Overall rating: 4/5

Thanks to the publisher for my review copy.