Abby’s Reviews > Sunburn > Status Update

After all these years, S is still the sun, light source. She is “a flame in the doorway”. “I have to squint to see her.”Their love has not dimmed. It’s blazing bright. But it’s also so soft- the letter “falls on the carpet” (gentle), “the door opens” (inviting, and no mention of agency, it just happened, it is nature), S speaks “softly”, their first words simple: ‘Lucy’ ‘You’re back’

“I am on my own path”
“Standing at her door, I don’t feel the way that I used to. There is no guilt, no fear. I don’t care if anybody sees me here, looking for the love of my life. I want to be seen here. I want the world to see me with her. I want them all to see me setting myself free.”

Lucy has grown so much. She has purpose, she knows what she herself wants, she’s willing to show the world her love

cont from prev points:
Lucy finding acceptance, ready to move on from the things holding her back:
“I’ll tell her everything. And if she wants me to go, I will go back to the city. And if she wants me to stay, I will stay a while. I will be okay either way. If this is my last breath of Crossmore air I ever get, I will be okay. If I have to say goodbye to the village, I will be okay eventually.”

“I want to feel blessed by the serenity of the wasteland again…My sweet wasteland, all you ever really did was hold me back.”

Her village, still a natural, idyllic, homely image, but not the be all and end all. Lucy is ready to give it up, to be herself.

“Now every day I am closer to being that girl again [the true version of herself, perfect when she was born]. I want to be that girl here. I want the full version of myself to exist under the pale skies of Crossmore.”

Growth from the middle of the book where Lucy wanted to be the version of herself that could love Martin and publicly reject the part of herself that could love Susannah.

Lucy has finally gained a sense of self, and she is finally able to put things into definitive words.
“I just want [Susannah] to know all those things that I couldn’t tell her before. If she knows them, I might know some peace.”
She wants to tell her mother that “Martin and I are finished…That I am gay.”
Finally, on the penultimate page of the book, “gay” has been used; Lucy is not afraid of herself

“When was the last time I said her name out loud? Those blessed syllables, do I dare?”

cont from prev quote
“…or we could go to the Otherworld or to Hell, or we could go home, to Crossmore, where I left my heart…Susannah, you are Heaven made flesh, you have been the greatest fire of my life…for every time I made you feel inadequate, I have died a hundred deaths. I’ll love you until the earth finishes. Just tell me, yes or no.
Yours forever,
Lucy”

“I have not grown since I left you. Please, I think I need you to grow.”

Again like S is the sun, required as energy for plants to grow

Raised so religious, yet it is clear that, for many, religion is just something they have to do, part of the family’s and community’s tradition.
But L, S, and even M, denounce religion in several ways.
L always wishes to stay home from church.
S knocks over L’s religious figures in her wardrobe.
Once moved away from home, L and M don’t attend Mass anymore.
S does denounce God during her S.America travels.
Etc