Burst

by Mary Otis

Award-winning author Mary Otis of Yes, Yes, Cherries (“Funny, brave, and amazing” —Lorrie Moore) delivers an arresting debut novel that explores the relationship complexities between mothers and daughters, the desire to escape, and the longing to connect. Burst is a powerful story about how we become—and unbecome—our mothers, how we absorb the past, and how we burst into our own futures.


Viva has always found ways to manage her mother’s impulsive, eccentric, and addictive personality. She’s had to—for her entire life, it has always been Viva and Charlotte against the world.


After accidentally discovering an innate ability for dance, Viva chases her new passion with the same fervor with which her mother chases the bottle. Over the years, Viva’s talent becomes a ticket to a life of her own, and as she moves further away from home to pursue her dream, Charlotte struggles to make peace with her own past as a failed artist and the effects of her addiction. When tragedy strikes, Viva begins a downward spiral and must decide whether she will repeat her mother’s mistakes or finally take control of her life.


Told from interwoven perspectives with lyrical writing as deft as a choreographed dance, Burst excavates a mother-daughter relationship to reveal its gorgeous beating heart.

Genres: Fiction, Audiobook, Contemporary, Family, Book Club, Literary Fiction

278 pages, Hardcover

First published April 4, 2023

About the author

Mary Otis is author of the novel Burst, which was longlisted for the Joyce Carol Oates Prize and won the 2023 Silver Medal in Literary Fiction from the Independent Book Publisher Awards. Burst was featured on PBS NewsHour and named by Good Morning America, New York Post, and Orange County Register as a Best Book of 2023. Her stories, essays, and poems have been published in Best New American Voices, Electric Literature, McSweeney’s, Tin House, Zyzzyva, Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Review of Books, Bennington Review, and in many literary journals and anthologies. The New York Times has said of her work, “Sadness and humor sidle up to each other, evocative of the delicate balance of melancholy and wit found in Lorrie Moore’s stories.” Her story "Unstruck" was a Distinguished Story of the Year in Best American Short Stories, and her story "Pilgrim Girl" received an Honorable Mention for the Pushcart Prize. She was a Walter Dakin Fellow and received a Getty Foundation Scholarship. Mary attended Bennington College and has taught fiction at UCLA and the UC Riverside Low-Residency MFA Program where she was a founding professor in the creative writing program.

Reviews

[Bonnie Goldberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mother daughter relationships are classic fodder for fiction. But in Mary Otis’s capable hands, the story of mother daughter duo Charlotte and Viva feels fresh, while also tapping into a vein of nostalgia of decades past. Living a “peripatetic” life - Viva’s description on her college application, Otis shows us two strong but damaged women doing the hard work of growing up together in an unforgiving and difficult world. When Viva has the chance to teach young women herself, she tries hard to help them locate their anger, their sorrow, their fierceness, and to be awake to those feelings which she encourages them to use to ignite their own power, an important lesson she learned from her mother. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC and Zibby Books for the recommendation.

[Kelly Pramberger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Five stars for this amazingly written book by Otis. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC for the purpose of this review.

The cover is gorgeous and my heart did burst while reading this mom/daughter story. Addiction and poverty and madness but the ties between a girl and her mom… what a book! I desire to reread this with my mom to see what she thinks! It was written in a very lyrical way which I found matched the parts about dancing and not knowing what would come next.

Well done!

[Sheree | Keeping Up With The Penguins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Otis’s prose is intensely evocative; it’s rich and lush and makes you feel as though you’re right there in the ’70s (and then the ’80s, then the ’90s). That’s also what makes Burst such an uncomfortable read, though. Otis paints such a picture with words that the story of inherited trauma and patterns of self-abuse will feel very real.

My full review of Burst is up now on Keeping Up With The Penguins.

[Bonnie Goldberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mother daughter relationships are classic fodder for fiction. But in Mary Otis’s capable hands, the story of mother daughter duo Charlotte and Viva feels fresh, while also tapping into a vein of nostalgia of decades past. Living a “peripatetic” life - Viva’s description on her college application, Otis shows us two strong but damaged women doing the hard work of growing up together in an unforgiving and difficult world. When Viva has the chance to teach young women herself, she tries hard to help them locate their anger, their sorrow, their fierceness, and to be awake to those feelings which she encourages them to use to ignite their own power, an important lesson she learned from her mother. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC and Zibby Books for the recommendation

[Stephanie Affinito · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, this novel is aptly titled. Burst by Mary Otis literally burst off the page and into my heart. It’s a book with mother-daughter relationships at the core, as complicated and loving they might be. Charlotte and Viva are fiercely connected, but completely different. The book follows each of their stories as they weave back and forth from past to present, mother to daughter, frustration to love. Each grapple with their own identity, how intricately connected they are to each other and how to become free of what’s holding them back. I was completely invested, thoroughly taken with each of their stories and rooting for them both, helping me look at my own mother-daughter relationships with new eyes.

[Kristens.reading.nook · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

I am always in for a mother/daughter story. And like most mother/daughter relationships, this one is complicated, and yet the bond they shared kept pulling them back together no matter how far one of them tried to stay away. I, personally, struggle with reading about alcoholism and neglect, which is why my rating is 3.5 stars, but the writing was masterful at evoking emotion.

Read if you like:
Family sagas covering a whole lifetime
Mother/daughter relationships
Dance stories

Thank you to Zibby Books for a digital ARC through NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

[Lisa Manhart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to Net Galley for a copy of this book. Mary Otis does a great job of creating her characters of Charlotte and Viva, a mother-daughter duo who stick with each other through a life of very little money and addiction. The author's writing style grabs you and pulls you in, compelling you to read more about their chaotic life together. Though each character is flawed, you can't help but empathize with them, and this is due primarily Mary Otis' skillful writing style. I recommend the book.

[Leah M · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to libro.fm for providing me with an ALC of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

Rounded to 3.5 stars.

This one took me by surprise with how much I enjoyed it and became involved in it, especially from the middle onward.

I was immediately pulled into the story, with the incredibly complex characters and exploration of the multilayered relationship between them, although the pacing didn't quite pick up until the second half of the story.

Charlotte isn't exactly the ideal mother - she's never told Viva the identity of her father, and in fact, she never even told the father that she was pregnant either. She raised Viva all on her own and as a single parent with no outside help, didn't always have a lot of money. Charlotte was an alcoholic, which further shifted the roles in the family, with Viva taking on the role of parenting her parent, even as she pursued her own goal of being a dancer. No matter what, Charlotte made sure that she could pay for Viva's dance classes.

As Viva got older, her skill in dance became her ticket out. She moved further away in an effort to find herself, but continued to maintain a close relationship with her mother. They became a team of two against the world, and whenever anything went wrong or needed celebrating, it's like they had each other to turn to. I had high hopes for Viva to break the cycle, but when a tragic event occurs, Viva starts to spiral and follow in her mother's footsteps. I just wanted to reach into the book and shake her, even though I know that she was in the grips of a disease that was beyond her. But it didn't make it any less painful to watch her spiral down.

Ultimately, this turned out to be a beautiful exploration of the connection between mothers and daughters, which can be hurtful, messy, painful, loving, and bittersweet. Although the beginning moved a little slowly, the end more than made up for it.

[Staci Greason · Rating 5 out of 5]

Burst explores with tenderness, depth, and vivid imagery the interwoven effects of addiction, mental illness, love, and loss in the relationship between a mother and daughter. Reminiscent of other favorite mother-daughter novels, Anywhere But Here and White Oleander, author Mary Otis has created a fully-developed dance between two messy, completely believable, vulnerable, and complicated women. It's a beautiful coming-of-age story about the hard truth of what it takes to break free from history into possibility.

I've been a fan of Mary Otis's writing for quite some time. A truly compelling read!

[Melissa Boles · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book thanks to a PDF ARC from the publisher.

This one was hard for me due to the mother-daughter relationship, but I really loved how the characters were written and the overall storyline.

[Molly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautiful prose, but this one wasn't for me. Perhaps I simply wasn't in the right "mood".

[Ellyn Lem · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not sure when or where I heard of this book. . . it seemed to magically appear in my library requested items without my remembering how that happened. At first, I was reluctant to immersing myself in the novel due to the central character of Charlotte, a wild, free-spirited alcoholic raising a young daughter on her own, felt too problematic. First, there are quite a few novels that have mined this territory (and non-fictional works as well), but the one that came to mind often was Mona Simposon's "Anywhere But Here." Also, this may be petty, but I am tired of encountering literary drunks, especially women! "Woman in the Window," "Girl on the Train," and so many others feature unreliable female characters deeply engaged in substance abuse. It is not that I don't believe that women don't imbibe as often as these imaginative creations seem to reveal (drinking rates for women are going way up), but I don't really appreciate seeing characters whose actions and dialogue seem so reliant on being intoxicated. However, this book won me over. Charlotte's daughter Viva grows up at first adoring her mother, then, needing to individuate, and finally perhaps understanding her. It was interesting to see how Viva's discovery of dance allows her to have a realm all of her own that she needs to separate from her entanglement with Charlotte. There is a lot of beautiful writing in the novel and believable characters. Some came in the form of original description; others were powerful statements ("there are things we must fail to consider if we want to get along in life"). Despite the difficult relationships and sadness at the heart of the book, I found something hopeful in it as well--the lesson, for example, from Charlotte that "there was so much to see if" one "could just keep looking."

[Christine M in Texas (stamperlady50) · Rating 3 out of 5]

A complicated story about mothers and daughter. Explosive, powerful and the dynamics change over time.

I had a hard time connecting with this one. With that said, I know a lot of others loved this one. Perhaps I will re-read again later. I had the book and audio, so I tried a couple of times.

[Rhonda Talbot · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mary Otis delivers a superb story that captures the complex nature of mother/daughters and eclipses their relationship using thematic tentacles reaching into every aspect of life. I was completely pulled into both Charlotte and Viva's parallel journies and completely emotionally invested. There is always this sense that at any moment, as they both dance on an icy cliff, the danger of falling into the abyss lurks.

The writing is gorgeous and tabbed entire sentences--- their ability to capture a situation, moment, or future dilemma that cuts sharp. I became so invested in Charlotte that, at some point, I wanted to call Viva and make sure she was okay -- that is how real these characters felt to me. I loved a book where I disappear, forget time, and am on an authentic human adventure. Mary Otis pulls this off with such finesse that one forgets how difficult it is to accomplish this, like a great dancer whose pained feet we never see—just the perfect dancing.

Such a talent. Thank you, Mary, for the laughs, the tear, and the cathartic experience. I highly recommend for readers that enjoy great writing, strong stories and stronger women.

[J.C. White · Rating 4 out of 5]

“There are things we must fail to consider if we want to get along in life.”

Every now and then, a novel slips quietly into your hands and surprises you, not with fireworks or plot twists, but with the slow, luminous ache of recognition. Mary Otis’s Burst is that kind of novel: a beautifully wrought exploration of the fragile, combustible bond between mother and daughter, the inheritance of wounds, and the uneasy choreography of love and addiction.

At its center are Charlotte, a mercurial, free-spirited alcoholic, and her daughter Viva, a gifted dancer whose body becomes both escape and expression. Otis captures their relationship in constant motion, sometimes graceful, sometimes chaotic, always pulsing with emotion. It’s not the first time we’ve met a literary drunk or a daughter trying to break the cycle, but Burst feels distinct because of its quiet precision. The writing is sharp without cruelty, lyrical without indulgence.

Charlotte is at once maddening and magnetic. She fails often, loves fiercely, and is never simple to judge. Viva’s coming-of-age is written with tenderness and frustration in equal measure; she longs for freedom yet remains tethered by her mother’s shadow. When tragedy strikes, Viva’s descent feels almost preordained, and the reader watches helplessly as she stumbles toward the same precipice Charlotte once danced upon.

Otis excels at showing how love can both wound and redeem. Her sentences are graceful, often undercut by a truth so keen it draws blood. There’s humor here, too, small, human flickers that keep the novel from sinking under its own weight. By the midpoint, the narrative deepens, and what begins as a familiar domestic story transforms into something larger: a meditation on resilience, artistry, and the ways in which we both inherit and defy our parents’ mistakes.

If the pacing falters in the first half, it’s only because Otis is setting her stage with care. Once the rhythm takes hold, Burst becomes exactly what its title suggests, a sudden flare of light, grief, and grace.

It’s not a perfect novel, but it’s a profoundly human one. The characters linger long after the final page, like music you can still feel in your bones.

Four stars; gorgeous, aching, and unforgettable.

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

The stars of "Burst" are so fully realized that they stayed with me long after I turned the last page. Otis conveys her characters' complicated, often fraught, mother-daughter dance with great empathy and clarity. If "Burst" takes a place on the shelf next to "White Oleander" (another cherished favorite), it is very much its own story, and Otis very much her own storyteller. Highly recommended.

[Tristen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short synopsis: A story of mother daughter relationships told through the years, and the lengths taken to, or to not repeat a mothers mistakes.

My thoughts: Parts of this story were definitely hard to read. Charlotte’s alcohol addiction and the sometimes terrible mistakes she made because of her addiction. And Viva as she started walking the same path to addiction.

This is told over a number of years, and each character faced some immense growth through the story. I loved how Viva found a passion for dancing, and worked so hard to cultivate that passion.

I think ultimately even though it was difficult for her, charlotte really wanted to be a good mother. To provide a good life for her daughter. It really made me stop and take a look at my own relationship with my mom, and how I’m raising my children.

Read if you love:
- Mother Daughter relationships
- Story told through the years
- Dance and painting
- character growth

[Steven Robman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been waiting, and hoping, for a Mary Otis novel since reading her wonderful story collection, YES, YES, CHERRIES. Well, the wait was worth it. Her new novel, BURST, is terrific. A touching mother-daughter story, elegantly told in vivid colors and with great compassion. The relationship between Charlotte and Viva is complex in the best possible way: textured, full of laugh-out-loud humor and cringing despair. Such lovely turns of phrase: "the water felt like a thick blanket" "something silent...whipped around the room like an invisible electric snake," and (my personal favorite) "Luka's eyes were dark gray, like the underside of a rock." I hope someday Mary Otis will teach Simile 101 and we all can enroll in the class. Meanwhile, read this book!

Steve Robman

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully lyrically written. Amazing details. Every line was bursting with meaning. Each character was complicated in their own unique way. It all came together to create a beautiful complex story about a mother and a daughter simultaneously becoming and unbecoming.

[Rena · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully written story about a tumultuous relationship between a mother and daughter. I love the cover which originally drew me to the book. Otis has a knack for writing great literary fiction.


Some favorite sentences from the book:

Viva was tired of her mother dining out on the story, embellishing the details—in one version she was a burgeoning master of dressage, and another she barely cling to life.

Cruelty was a lozenge permanently, lodged beneath their tongues, savored, but never swallowed.

[Ally Tuttelman · Rating 4 out of 5]

a beautifully haunting story about how we all become what we fear the most. had such strong story telling to allow you to emote with all characters of a tale of abuse and alcoholism.

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

Spontaneous library grab that grabbed me back. A short but thoughtful read about the relationship over a lifetime between a complicated, seemingly un-tie-downable, mostly high-functioning alcoholic single mom and her daughter, whose father's identity is kept from her. Both pursue art and love but never quite break into either, and each deals with her pursuits and failures in distinct yet overlapping ways, always entangled, always vaguely mirrored, mother clinging to child and child needing yet resisting.

I am always attuned to descriptions of psychosomatic feelings that are hard to describe, like drunkenness, ego erasure or dissociation, uncanniness (one of the greats in this regard is Elena Ferrante, with Lina's repeating sense of border dissolution in the Neapolitan quartet), and Mary Otis is another master. I want to check out her short stories Yes, Yes, Cherries, and look forward to her next novel or memoir.

[Rhonda Lomazow · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gorgeous writing a raw look at mother daughter relationships told over many years. I was so involved by Viva the mother and Charolette her daughter was so real so vivid I could not stop turning the pages.A book that will delight readers.#netgalley #zibbybooks

[Kylee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mary Otis’s Burst checks all the boxes of a won’t-be-forgotten read: compelling characters, a driving narrative and the kind of visual imagery that only a master of words can deliver. The relationship between Charlotte and Viva beautifully exemplifies the complex nuances between a mother and daughter; one that is continuously evolving as they each move through their parallel lives and the branches of their relationship grow further from the roots they share—growing from the same ground but searching for the light in different directions. I will remember this one for a while, and look forward to whatever Otis creates next.

[Jenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I stumbled upon Mary Otis’ Yes, Yes, Cherries at The Last Bookstore a few years back. Something about the cover spoke to me. This time, judging a book by its cover paid off. Though at the time not a short story fan (Otis helped convert me), I was enthralled by her characters and found them oddly relatable and oddly and thoroughly enjoyable

The same holds true in her first novel, Burst. Both mom Charlotte and daughter Viva had me intrigued at the first chapter, and enthralled by chapter two. I rooted for the duo, yelled at them, laughed with them, and hoped happiness was part of their survival story. We’re careening down a highway, bursting across a stage, running across a roof, falling into another glass of wine. Otis seamlessly transports us through decades (late-60s to mid-90s) – creating vignettes that build and shape each character independently and together – staying just long enough in each period to further the story and their complexities of their relationship. (Love a novel that can flip flop in time in such a way that I know when, where and why I am there, and I’m happy to be in that moment.)

Like the title, Otis’ writing bursts from the page. Viva’s voice is the driving drum beat akin to Tool’s “Sober.” I could see the perspiration on Viva and smell the sticky alcohol and sex of the basement club where she worked. Charlotte’s voice is the cool jazz of Brubeck’s “Take Five” piano. I could feel the ache in Charlotte’s bones and heart and loins as she stood naked against the bedroom wall waiting for Wilson. Otis’ lyrical phrases like “careful to step over and around things coughed up by the ocean” are appropriately reminiscent of mid-nineties grunge (not the pop wave that hit five years later). I was on Charlotte’s and Viva’s see-saw, their rollercoaster, and their destructive car, picnic bench, convenience store runs.

Give me your imperfect mother/daughter and mother/son relationships (most especially a single mother). Show me the dynamics and challenges of keeping it together for themselves and their offspring/parent. And do it in an original way, bringing your own voice and experiences to draw me in, and I’m ready to devour. That’s E. Strout, M. Simpson, K Christenson, and of course, J.C. Oates. And yes, most definitely, that’s Mary Otis bursting forth with this knock-out debut I ate up like the lovely and much-needed late-night meal at a late night coffeeshop.

Feeling blessed to have received an advanced copy.

[Heidi]

Burst
Mary Otis

To say Viva’s relationship with her mother was complicated is an understatement. The only daughter of a single mother, most of her childhood spent was in a chaotic, nomadic existence, moving on from one place to another as her alcoholic mother burned the bridges of one relationship after another. Despite Viva’s deep desire to know who her father was, her mother keeps this secret her whole life. Viva becomes a professional dancer and leaves as soon as she is able to.
The pace of this book was pretty slow and much time was spent developing the characters. At time, I had a hard time figuring out where the story was going. I felt like I spent quite a bit of the book waiting for something to happen.
Thanks to Zibby books for the ARC! It’s always fun to check out a new writer.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stunning writing with intense, honest, complicated characters – this deep, beautiful story will stay with me.

[Tracey Buchanan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book Review of Burst

I love this title. The verb vibrates throughout the book—the characters burst through doors, across a stage, into laughter, into freedom. As author Mary Otis explores the visceral relationship between a mother and daughter who are both sensitive artists in her novel Burst, the characters themselves burst into life.

The mother Charlotte, an alcoholic painter, and her daughter Viva, a dancer, are brilliantly written. Their individual characters, personalities, relationships, and personal journeys are realistically drawn with beautiful, straightforward language.

The twosome evolves from their beginnings—Viva as a little girl learning to adapt to ever-changing homes—to living separate lives as Viva reaches for her dream of being a professional dancer.

This book richly paints a psychological portrait of strong women who battle seemingly insurmountable problems. You root for them while dreading what seems to be inevitable.

The emotional tie that exists between every mother and daughter is always fascinating as it’s unlike any other relationship in life. When you add alcoholism and single parenting to the equation, tension flares—bursts from both women with intensity.

Even if you have the best relationship with your mother or daughter, you’ll find ways to relate to Charlotte and Viva. No matter how close or distant we are from each other in these roles, we’ll always be connected. And we’ll never fully know what the other person struggles to overcome.

Burst is a lyrical, honest, heartbreaking story that ultimately leaves you with hope.

[Carol Orange · Rating 5 out of 5]

BURST, an exquisitely-written novel by Mary Otis, won my heart. Charlotte, a single mother, is devoted to Viva, her super-talented daughter. Yet Charlotte’s increasing addiction to alcohol interferes with Viva’s success. The story’s told from both Charlotte and Viva’s perspectives, enabling a deeper understanding of their complex relationship. As I followed their peripatetic journey, I experienced Viva’s joy at going away to college and Charlotte’s mourning her loss. Otis captures Viva’s passion for dance choreography. “The dance is an abstraction about what endures and what disappears,” she writes.

What makes this mother-daughter story exceptional are Otis’s narrative twists and lyrical prose.
“The crickets were back and the news was bad. The first thing seemed to signal the other if one were to look for signs. Earlier that morning the sun lay on the horizon like an egg that didn’t break right, and all day it had threatened to rain.”

Viva and Charlotte are unforgettable.

[Charles Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic read, so well-written, I enjoyed it immensely.