Author: TJ Klune
Rating: ★★★★☆ (4/5)
Format: Audiobook
Source: NetGalley
I received an advanced reader/listener copy of this book. All opinions are my own.
We Burned So Bright follows Don and Rodney, husbands who have been together for 40 years, as they take one final road trip across the country. A rogue black hole is heading toward Earth, everyone has about a month left to live, and Don and Rodney are driving from Maine to Washington State to take care of one last piece of unfinished business before the world ends.
This is a short book, under 200 pages, and I think that was exactly the right length. The road trip structure worked really well because part of the story was trying to figure out where they were going and why. Along the way, the people they met showed all these different ways people might react if they knew the world was ending. If the book had been much longer, I think those stops could have started to feel repetitive, but at this length it worked.
The premise created this constant sense of dread for me. The idea that the world was actually ending, and everyone knew exactly how much time they had left, was genuinely terrifying to think about. The family moments were especially hard. There was a family with a little kid and another baby on the way, and I could not stop thinking about what it would feel like to face something like that with my own kids.
I was also really struck by the more free-spirited people Don and Rodney met along the way. Some of them seemed to have accepted what was happening in a way I absolutely cannot imagine. I don’t think I would ever get to that level of peace, but I liked that the book showed more than one way to face the end.
This was definitely heavier than what I usually like to read. I ended up listening to it over a few days because I needed breaks from sitting with the fact that every single person in the story was going to die. But even with all of that darkness, Klune still does what he does best. He finds warmth and love and these unexpected little feel-good moments in the middle of something incredibly sad.
My favorite part was Don and Rodney’s relationship. One of them was grouchier, but with a much softer heart underneath, which is always going to get me. I loved that after 40 years together, and after everything they had been through, they were still best friends. Their relationship felt lived-in and real without needing a huge book to explain every detail of their history.
I listened to this as an advanced listening copy, and the narrator was excellent. His voice, pacing, and inflections fit the characters so well, and I think the audio really added to the emotional weight of the story.
The ending left me devastated, but maybe a little hopeful too. This is not my favorite TJ Klune book, and I probably wouldn’t recommend it as the first one someone reads by him. I’d still point new readers toward The House in the Cerulean Sea or Under the Whispering Door first. But for established Klune fans, this is a quick, emotional story about grief, lasting love, and figuring out what matters when there is almost no time left.
Thank you to the publisher for providing me with an advanced listening copy in exchange for an honest review.
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