"Let's go hang out with the hippies and their wine and weed." 🍷🌿.
The thing with T. J. Klune’s books is that, no matter what, they make me laugh. I always struggle to narrow it down to just one quote to include in a review. 😅 We Burned So Bright was no different. Don and Rodney are so funny—even as they’re facing the end of the world, their little quips bring light to the inevitable and often leave a smile on other people’s faces. 😊
I loved the sense of community that builds along their journey to complete a task they promised themselves they’d finish before everything goes dark. 🌍✨ So many of the people they meet are just embracing those last days and weeks without a care. No need to pay for gas—who cares? Take my truck, I’m not going to need it! 🚗💨
This book is a little dark—what with the world ending and everything—but it’s also a lovely read, full of fun moments, with memories woven throughout. 🖤 I really enjoyed it.
I don’t pick up short stories all that often, but T. J. Klune has become a favourite author of mine this year, and I’m keen to read everything he’s written. 📚 So when this one appeared, I had to read it!
Thank you to Pan Macmillan, Tor Books, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review We Burned So Bright. 🙏
About the Book
The road stretched out before them. No other cars, just the headlights on the blacktop. Above, the cracked moon in a kaleidoscope sky….
Husbands Don and Rodney have lived a good long life. Together they’ve experienced the highest highs of love and family, and lows so low that they felt like the end of the world.
Now, the world is ending for real. A wandering black hole is coming for Earth and in a month everything and everyone they’ve ever known will be gone.
Suddenly, after 40 years together, Don and Rodney are out of time. They’re in a race against the clock to make it from Maine to Washington State to take care of some unfinished business before it’s all over.
On the road they meet those who refuse to believe death is coming and those who rush to meet it. But there are also people living their final days as best they know how—impromptu weddings, bright burning bonfires, shared meals, and new friends.
And as the black hole draws near, among ball lightning and under a cracked moon in a kaleidoscope sky, Don and Rodney will look back on their lives and ask if their best was good enough.
Is it enough to burn bright if nothing comes from the ashes?
About T.J.
TJ Klune is the #1 New York Times and #1 USA Today bestselling, Lambda Literary Award–winning author of The House in the Cerulean Sea, Under the Whispering Door, In the Lives of Puppets, the Green Creek Series for adults, the Extraordinaries Series for teens, and more. Being queer himself, Klune believes it's important—now more than ever—to have accurate, positive queer representation in stories.
