Tonight, I Burn
Katharine J. Adams
Trade Paperback
ISBN: 9780316551816
Orbit, November 2023, 480 pages

Greetings, readers, and welcome back to another book review! This month we’ll be getting lost in a lusciously dark tale of fantasy and magic filled with sorrow and hope—Tonight, I Burn by Katharine J. Adams, the first book in the Thorn Witch Trilogy.

Tonight, I Burn follows the story of Penny Albright, third granddaughter of the current Thorn Witch, one of the five covens of captured magic currently controlled in the fearsome golden grip of the Warden. Penny’s coven is responsible for keeping the veil between Life and Death safe, a task that involves a member burning themself alive every night, then using their magic to return safely home the following morning. Penny, on the eve of her twenty-first birthday, has yet to burn, but that changes when one of her sisters, Ella, doesn’t come back from her nightly patrol. What follows will test both Penny’s resolve, her relationships, as well as her very understanding of how her world works.

One of the first things that immediately captured me about Tonight, I Burn was the vivid and intricate descriptions of both the world, the characters, and the nature of magic. Adams does a superb job of blending some familiar fairy tale elements with unique touches of flair to create a style all her own, and it immediately sucked me into the book. I wouldn’t quite call it “gothic,” but there is a lingering sense of melancholy in almost every aspect of the story that does wonderful work making the reader understand that everything about the world Penny lives in used to be better, and that its breaking was the result of conscious decisions. The desolate sands didn’t always used to be that way, but somehow life finds a way to go on, always hoping for something better.

The second thing I found fascinating in this tale is that there is a lot going on underneath the surface of “young witch has coming of age story.” Themes of the oppression of patriarchy and the struggle of women not to be simply things to be used run throughout the entirety of the book, and Adams does excellent work in capturing the nuances of what she wants to convey without detracting from the characters or sledgehammering the reader in the face. There are also some more subtle representations of the perils of unrestrained capitalism and the failures to address runaway ecological disaster that I felt were extremely well done, with Adams building her message through worldbuilding and plot instead of longwinded rants in dialogue a lesser author might have used.

The third thing I really enjoyed about Tonight, I Burn is that it could have been very easy to crush the reader with a world gone wrong coupled with characters doomed to suffer in it, but Adams carefully weaves in both exceptional character growth as well as humanity’s natural urge to find happiness wherever it can. Penny (and others) are stuck in a world of monotonous grays and whites and blacks, but there is always a splash of color to be snatched for a moment or a new relationship to nurture like a kindling spark. This background level of sorrow is perfectly balanced so it’s not quite overwhelming, and it really highlights the joys and successes that Penny (and others) are able to claw back for themselves.

Finally, I want to highlight Adams’ character building. Penny and her family are complicated, messy, and feel exactly like a real family stuck in an impossible situation. There is generational trauma to be unpacked, hidden relationships that might or might not be approved, and all the tiny little flaws and foibles that make a family a family are delivered with care and grace. Penny’s relationships with other characters outside of her family also unfolds organically, with plenty of twists that will leave the reader wondering who can be trusted in a world of pain and loss, and whether love is even possible in such a place.

Overall, Tonight, I Burn is a book with layers beyond the obvious and one I greatly enjoyed reading, even if some parts made me sad. It feels like green shoots poking up after a forest fire, and I couldn’t help but want Penny and all her compatriots to find a better life in the broken world they were born into. If Adams can keep delivering on writing of this quality, then I can’t wait to see what happens next in this story, and I think you’ll feel the same.

Read if: You know a little knowledge is a dangerous thing; you’re not a fan of golden idols; you’ve ever felt the need to burn.