Burn and Rave

by Max Porter

Meet Lynette - actor, writer, director, showrunner.

It's her birthday. She's waking up in a hotel room, hungover, in a dreary English seaside town. Outside are grey skies, crazy golf, a row of Border Defense huts. She hasn't worked in a while (she hasn't been very well). But maybe you recognize her from that television drama that ran and ran?

She is about to star in her final movie in her head. But is it a farce, a comedy, a tragedy - or just her life? Knowing Lynette, she won't go gently into that good night.

'Burn and Rave swerves around the bends of the human heart, and then miraculously delivers you home. It left me inspired, consoled, and thankful.' Samantha Harvey

Genres: Fiction, Literature

224 pages, Hardcover

Expected publication February 11, 2027

About the author

Max Porter’s first novel, Grief Is the Thing with Feathers won the Sunday Times/Peter, Fraser + Dunlop Young Writer of the Year, the International Dylan Thomas Prize, the Europese Literatuurprijs and the BAMB Readers’ Award and was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award and the Goldsmiths Prize. It has been sold in twenty-nine territories. Complicité and Wayward’s production of Grief Is the Thing with Feathers directed by Enda Walsh and starring Cillian Murphy opened in Dublin in March 2018. Max lives in Bath with his family.

Reviews

[Stephen the Bookworm · Rating 4 out of 5]

' ENTER LYNETTE: Everyone flinches and worries she's noticed.
' EXIT LYNETTE: Everyone breathes and checks for injuries.

To enter the world Max Porter and his writing is to a take journey (or is that a rollercoaster) in to the minds and lives of his principal characters regardless of the internal traumas, joys and desires.

This is the story of Lynette; a well-known actress. Well, she was in the past but life hasn't taken her on the paths she hoped. In fact life has never been easy for her or for those around her.

Burn and Rave takes place over one day in Lynette's life and she's not well. We are taken through her day which is not always a comfortable read - she awakes hungover and the day doesn't really improve- and she' finds herself in a grey and festering seaside town.

But like previous Max Porter books, the narrative is never 'predictable". The book is told as though it is a script - could this be her final performance? Interwoven are thoughts of her childhood; her siblings; the effects of a tragedy and her family's reactions whilst the plot is interspersed with reminiscences of a previous acting role.

The dialogue is direct; actions are those of a woman who is deeply traumatised ; events are candid and bluntly told. But beneath the narrative is the story of a woman trying to make sense of her life - resolve a deeply held family time - and find peace as her life reaches a final conclusion.

This is a novel that will appeal to Max Porter aficionados but also those who want literature that is unique and raw but full of heart and love for its main character then Burn and Rave is perfect.

It's worthy of a second read to fully enter Lynette's world

Thank you to Faber & Faber and Netgalley for the advance copy in return for an honest review

[jeremy · Rating 5 out of 5]

lynette, who would drive her citroën into the sun and blow up the universe just for a sincere round of applause.

max porter may well be at his boisterous best with burn and rave. the british writer continues his masterly streak of inventive, wildly imaginative novels, this time with the tale of lynette, a charming if deeply cantankerous, suffers-no-fools sexagenarian actress beyond her prime, beyond reproach, and quite nearly beyond reach. creatively told in the format of a television script, burn and rave is mordantly funny, though tempered by porter’s empathetic portrayal. lynette may be drunk, disorderly, and often cruel, but beyond her entitled, misanthropic façade is a human being with decades of accumulated hurt and grief desperately yearning for the temporary respite that comes with accolades and adulation (and a watermelon vape).

burn and rave is sensational and max porter remains a must-read.

sometimes when you finish a shoot there’s a week or two of existential bleakness, the character’s gone, the set’s been pulled apart, the adrenaline, schedules, busyness and runners’ hard work that has kept you together disappears and there’s just you, a plain paper doll with no costume, no hands to animate you, no scene, no direction. this is like that, but the job was my whole life.

[Caroline · Rating 5 out of 5]

5⭐

Thank you to Faber & Faber and NetGalley for an ARC of this novel. It’s due for publication in the UK on 11th February 2027.

I am a huge Max Porter fan and I inhaled Burn and Rave in a single sitting. I couldn’t put it down.

It’s fast, darkly funny, moving and formally inventive: the whole novel is written in the form of a pitch for a TV series and the screenplay for that series. It’s about one day in the life of Lynette, a 63 year old actress and erstwhile star of some long running TV series who is past her prime and is a complete force of nature. I think the less you know about the story before you read this book the better, so I will leave it at that.

It’s laugh out loud funny and the opening scene is the best and most forensically written description of someone waking up with a colossal hangover that I have ever read.

The title is from Dylan Thomas’ poem ‘Do Not Go Gentle Into that Good Night’

“Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”

And this novel and the wonderfully drawn central character burns and raves so brightly that I will be hugely disappointed if this doesn’t scoop some literary prizes next year.

#maxporter #burnandrave #faberandfaber #literaryfiction

[Rachel Louise Atkin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Shy had a LOT to live up to. I liked this book but I felt a lot more detached from it - perhaps because the narrator is very much detached from her reality in this novel. I loved the little clues through the book telling you something is really amiss and the last 20 pages or so are brilliant. Whilst I appreciate the form (as Max Porter is always a great experimenter of form) I do believe this is what made Lynette - the narrator - harder to empathise with. Don’t expect the complete wonder of Lanny or Shy but do expect a great Porter-esque experience.

[Steve · Rating 4.5 out of 5]

My thanks to NetGalley and Riverhead publishers for an eARC of this novel, to be published February 23, 2027. Yeah, I submitted a request one day, got it approved the next, and started reading it that night. I kind of love Max Porter.
OTOH, I was disappointed in his last novel. And when I read that the main character here was an aging actress, Lynette, spiraling out of control, I have to admit that I did not have high hopes for this one either!
Luckily, I was way wrong.
Written in the style of a Max Porter book. Short, short paragraphs with some white space between them, an occasional long paragraph. Shifting perspectives.
We are in a Britain where immigrants have to wear wrist bands, and the highways have multiple security checks along them - manned by young people brought in by a universal draft. And wingnut groups of the elderly scan the coastline for those attempting to come in from outside.
The novel is presented as a TV film vehicle by, and for, Tiffany. Completely. Writing, producing, starring, written by, all the roles played by. A TV series in her mind (it was TV series that she was most successful at - including playi8ng Mrs. Gladstone). There is her dog, parents, dead siblings, daughter and recent ex-husband in here as well. One sibling, a brother, died at birth. Much to her parents' concern, she continues to play with him as if he were there. Her parents take her to a priest who "separates" the two. She never really forgives any of them for doing so.
Oh, she is also dying from breast cancer, which she refuses to fight by all means necessary.
AND she is a raging alcoholic.
In about 200 pages, and one day filled with flashbacks, we see and experience her complete life. Get some insightful comments on being an actor. Family stories and relationships - both growing up, and as a married couple and as an actress/mother.
And then a coda at the end, of about 3 pages, brings it all together.
Porter gives a nod to his real-life dog in the Acknowledgements - and Patrick (as in Swayze!) is a great character in here.
Loved it. 4.5 out of 5.

[Cindy (leavemetomybooks) · Rating 5 out of 5]

* thanks to Riverhead Books for the NetGalley review copy (pub date: Feb 23, 2027)

I haven't read any of Max Porter's previous books, but I'm adding them to my list because I loved this so much and will definitely be rereading it closer to the pub date. Loved the clever structure and loved messy Lynette.

This had some Proof of Progress and
Up to No Good: The Complete Elderly Lady Stories vibes for me.

[Nikki B · Rating 5 out of 5]

How does Max Porter do this? How does he know these things? How am I laughing and then literally snot-bawling within paragraphs (or scenes, in this case)? I am baffled by this man’s ridiculous genius. Might be because I’ve just finished it and my heart is the bin, but I’m in no doubt this is his best work.

[Kena · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’d not read any books by Max Porter before, so wasn’t sure what to expect. I found Burn and Rave by Max Porter an interesting read and unlike anything I’d read before.

The book centres on Lynette, an actress, who in her heyday was best known for playing Mrs Gladstone in a long-running historical TV drama. She hasn’t worked professionally in a while and is pitching a film about her life. Is she delusional in thinking that this would be a relevant film? Is it exercising in remembering her life?

The book takes the form of a pitch. Life events are chronicled, but maybe misremembered, glossed over and ultimately reviewed in a filmic visual sense. Her childhood, family, marriage, daughter, career highlights feature segueing into a stream of consciousness.

The book really does read like Lynette’s innermost thoughts and memories, someone taking stock of her life. `At the end of the day, memories are all we have.

Huge thanks to NetGalley and the publisher, Faber and Faber, for making this e-ARC available to me in exchange for a fair and honest review.

[f · Rating 4.75 out of 5]

This is another stunning work from one of the most exciting writers of our time.

We meet Lynette on her birthday, waking up in a dreary seaside town. An actress past her prime and struggling with illness, we spend a weird, wonderful and deeply poignant day with her as she confronts the ghosts of her past, which continue to haunt her in the present.

It is always a delight to read Porter's work. His playfulness with form is so exquisitely executed, and this is no exception. He takes us on an intense, heartbreaking and beautiful journey through Lynette's day, and ultimately through her life. I'll be thinking about this character, and this book, for a long time.

Thank you to Faber for the ARC!

[Jen Hassell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another immersive gem from Max Porter. Burn and Rave is the story of Lynette, a film and television star, who has chosen an uncompromising life. As a child she has inexplicable experiences with her younger brother Thomas, that her family refuses to accept. The separation that grows sets Lynette on a path in which performance, to protect herself and those around her, becomes the norm. Fame, acting, motherhood and marriage are all parts she plays, to varying degrees of success. Aging and mortality rub uncomfortably against the scripts she gives herself and Lynette has to continually re-write the scenes of her life. Also, there is Patrick Swayze.

[Santiago Nocera · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think I’ll be reeling from the rollercoaster of Burn and Rave for all of 2027, already a favorite of next year. Inventive, original, and electric, Burn and Rave is one woman’s grappling with mortality, motherhood, fame and grief, all cleverly structured as an outrageous television script. A bit of Fleabag, a bit of Birdman, meets Katie Kitamura’s Audition and Jo Hamya’s The Hypocrite. But still something all its own.

Lynette is wild, hilarious, infuriating and out of control, but so deeply human; someone I will think about for a long time. And Patrick! These two are the literary duo I didn’t know I needed.

[Lucy Ferguson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh wow did I love this book. Buy this book for your eccentric aunt! Buy it for your sister! Buy it for your friend who's into Am Dram, just buy it. You'll end up keeping it for yourself, reading it in a day and you'll feel sad and touched and heartbroken and full of love for Lynette, for her daughter, for her mum, and of course for Patrick the dog. This is a strange, funny, dark, brilliant book. If you liked Black Bag, Fruit Fly or Look What you Made Me Do, you'll love this.

I received an advance copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review, thank you to NetGalley, Faber and Faber and Max Porter. This will be released in the UK in February 2027.

[Josh Escandon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks to Riverhead and Netgalley for an eARC of Burn and Rave by Max Porter. I highly enjoyed my time reading Burn and Rave and will be thinking about it for quite some time. An absurd comedy that will also hit you directly in the feels with its somber and dreamlike narrative. I loved the unique structure of the novel, as it read like a screen play with editorial notes. Lynette is a terrific main character that is rendered with her flaws and warts on full display, which made the connection I built with her even firmer.

[Ben Dutton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Burn and Rave, the latest novel by Max Porter, continues his trend of experimentation with the form of the novel - this time he evokes the screenplay quite intentionally as his central character, Lynette, is an actress. She is entering the final stages of her professional life - and is this screenplay a formal acting out or an interior interrogation? Porter has a lot of fun with form here, and Burn and Rave is a brilliant musing on life and career, and another memorable work from one of the finest novelists working today.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC.

[Jodi Anderson · Rating 4.75 out of 5]

Lynette is about to star in the final film of her life - in her head. Farce or tragedy? Porter's answer: both.

This was both funny and devastating, and its form is like nothing I’ve ever read. I loved it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Faber and Faber for the ARC.

[Toby · Rating 5 out of 5]

spectacular

[Denton Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely stunning.

[Emma · Rating 3.75 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley for my advanced digital arc.

Lynette can do it all. She’s an actor. But she’s also the writer, the director, the showrunner, and the star of the movie. The movie in her head. The final movie. She’s lost a lot. Her husband left her for a younger woman. Her parents are dead. Her siblings are dead. Her daughter is never around. The only one she has left is a dog she absolutely hates, who is now vigilantly keeping her company in an English seaside town. Despite the raging hangover and a general rage towards life (and her dog), Lynette is on a mission to hunt down the ghosts of her past, even if she has been welcoming some ghosts all her life.

This is the second Porter book that I’ve read, and it was wildly different from the first. Whereas the other is written in prose, this was laid out as a movie script, fit for our star and showrunner. The structure was easy to read, even if it could be a bit discombobulating sometimes, but that was the mess of Lynette’s life and the mess of Lynette’s grief. Lynette is haunted, in more ways than you would expect, and Porter beautifully explored the ways she shrunk and grew with those ghosts, the heartbreak of pieces of her being cut off to excise those ghosts. This story, like Lynette, is special, and I think it’ll be worth it to reread it all when it hits the shelves.

[Charlotte · Rating 5 out of 5]

max porter at his very best, this was simply amazing.