Tonight, I Burn

It isn’t easy to put out something that feels unique in Young Adult fiction, but I think Tonight, I Burn brings something refreshing and deeply intriguing to the category. Set in a world where witchcraft has been shackled and bound to the whims of a dictator, Penny Albright and her coven exist solely to appease the Warden’s quest for power. However, her coven, the thorn witches, can walk in the realm of death, which they achieve only by burning themselves alive every night. When it’s Penny’s turn, the desire to save her lost sister leads her to break the rules of death-walking, leading her to fall in love with a man from the world of death and a woman from life.

Tonight, I Burn is dark, enticing and alluring, an exciting foray into supernatural YA fiction. Katharine J. Adams delivers rich imagery, nuanced worldbuilding, and profoundly moving queer and matriarchal relationships throughout the book. Penny and her sisters are constantly tested with the idea that the world they’ve come to know, and the powers of life and death, are not what they seem – ideas paired with dangerous and alluring romantic interests and slightly older characters in their early twenties. As the first title in an eventual trilogy, Tonight, I Burn leaves many unanswered questions but is ultimately a promising start to an exciting new world to delve into. For ages 15+.