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by TJ Klune
A heart-wrenching standalone novel by #1 New York Times bestselling author TJ Klune, We Burned So Bright follows an older queer couple on an end-of-the-world road-trip.
The road stretched out before them. No other cars, just the headlights on the blacktop. Above, the cracked moon in a kaleidoscope sky….
Husbands Don and Rodney have lived a good long life. Together they've experienced the highest highs of love and family, and lows so low that they felt like the end of the world.
Now, the world is ending for real. A rogue black hole is coming for Earth and in a month everything and everyone they've ever known will be gone.
Suddenly, after 40 years together, Don and Rodney are out of time. They're in a race against the clock to make it from Maine to Washington State to take care of some unfinished business before it's all over.
On the road they meet those who refuse to believe death is coming and those who rush to meet it. But there are also people living their final days as best they know how―impromptu weddings, bright burning bonfires, shared meals, and new friends.
And as the black hole draws near, among ball lightning and under a cracked moon in a kaleidoscope sky, Don and Rodney will look back on their lives and ask if their best was good enough.
Is it enough to burn bright if nothing comes from the ashes?
What’s the last book you read that would qualify as a beach read? Is there one you can name that you’d heartily recommend?
Currently into Elin Hilderbrand's "28 Summers." Getting the feeling it is a "Same Time Next Year, one of my favorite flicks, theme. Feeling like I needed a "beach read" after having read Klune's "We Burned So Bright" which I thoroughly enjoyed but needs to be considered as a heavy read. I like to...
-Carol_N
What are you reading this week? And what did you think of last week’s books? (6/18/2026)
Loved "Mad Mabel", loved the characters and storyline. Best book I read this year. Found myself drawn to Mabel and seven-year-old Persephone, the relentless little chatterbox who lived across the road. . However, this evening I read TJ Klune's "We Burned So Bright" Certainly a book one needs to r...
-Carol_N
"Klune's heart-wrenching plot and emotional prose are on full display in this wonderful queer apocalyptic story." —Library Journal (starred review)
"This is classic Klune, a warm and cozy story even in the face of overwhelming grief, with complex family dynamics at the heart of it...readers can't get enough of Klune's brand of emotionally satisfying storytelling." —Booklist
"When the motive for their road trip is finally revealed in a bit of tragic backstory, the novel only gets heavier and more poignant. It's both beautiful and bittersweet." —Publishers Weekly
"An existential crisis that steps on its own final moments." —Kirkus Reviews
This information about We Burned So Bright was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
TJ Klune is the #1 New York Times and #1 USA Today bestselling, Lambda Literary Award-winning author of The House in the Cerulean Sea, Under the Whispering Door, In the Lives of Puppets, the Green Creek Series for adults, the Extraordinaries Series for teens, and more. Being queer himself, Klune believes it's important―now more than ever―to have accurate, positive queer representation in stories.
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