Status Updates From Sunburn

This book is so full of descriptions of nature. But not in a boring 19th-century classics way. In a beautiful, slow, grounding way.

“She is looking at me with bad eyes, her hair is fire against the foxgloves, and the last of the summer sunlight is sacrificing itself to fall on her. The wind slows till it is less than a breath.”

“Soon, the dawn will be gone. We must go to bed now, or I will stand here all day, watching as the sun changes on her blessed face. There is no need to talk, the birdsong fills the silence.”

“The last of the dark is slowly burnt up by the dawn as we walk away from the field. It is so good to see the orange glow of a sunrise coming to us. The night and all its nonsense can be dismissed soon.”

“They all look at me, and I know by their eyes that I must look pretty. It makes me feel pretty”

I am only 5 chapters in and it’s breaking my gay heart I feel like I’m 15 again honestly might have to dnf lol

“The sky ahead of us is peach, bruising where it is nearest to Heaven, and behind us, black.”

I don’t know if summer usually has a capital letter in books, but it feels unnatural, as if it were a literary decision rather than merely grammatically correct (although I could be wrong). Capitalising Summer every time it’s mentioned, it’s like it’s its own entity, a force, containing so much.

“I am not afraid of the nuns anymore. I have been in Eden all Summer long, I know divinity better than they ever will.”

“This confusion is torture, the unknowing is a hand on my throat, tightening. Lethal, glorious, inviting Hell. I want this Hell to last.
And it does, all Summer long. I watch helplessly, hopelessly, dying as the hue of her goes from sunrise to sunset, and I fall deeper with each new shade.”

“She makes me feel molten”

Heat/sun again

“ “Go on, so, Martin or Thomas?” I can’t think about the banality of this question, let alone an answer. All I can think of is bright blue on sunburnt skin. There is nothing else.”

[L’s friend saying a boy was looking at her]
“The dog loudens, my heart follows, and so do Susannah’s shoes, and a heat comes to the back of my neck.”

Obvs a continuation of the quote from previous page. Overwhelm and rush of sounds and feelings.
Heat on back of neck ref to susannah’s “[burning]” eyes (sun) but also could refer to embarrassment, a blush rising.

“I try to focus on [other things going on around them], rather than the clacking of her school shoes behind me, the burn of her eyes on my back.”

“burn” -> sun

L = unreliable narrator?
L describes S as some entity that draws in everyone’s attentions and that what L feels for her is equal to what others in school feel. Paints S as untouchable & wouldn’t feel back & their relationship as not special.
L describes her touch as intrusive when putting ice to S’s back, when it’s acc prob welcomed.
Just look at the way S writes to L in her letters. She loves/wants her too.

“I begin to panic…I get hot, and my mind races, my heart pounds. And then I get to look at her, and it doesn’t matter…It just doesn’t matter. The panic goes.”