2025 Book Review #38: Burning Air

 

Just discovered this author at the town library a week ago. Most excellent and very moving.  I would give it a perfect 10 if there weren't so many F words with this one character.  The beginning of the book started out great....no vulgar, crass language. 

STORY SUMMARY

The MacBrides of England, are an upper class family who have a cozy life of privilege, good looks (for the most part) and a beautiful home. The children (Sophia, Tara and Felix) enjoy a tuition-free education at the very prestigious private school known as "The Cath" in Saxby due to their father, Rowan MacBride being the headmaster. They also all have a kind of "altruistic righteousness" that they inherited from their mother, Lydia who is a magistrate. 

But.  When Rowan and his 3 children and their spouses, children, significant others, gather at the family weekend home (known as Far Barn), a few months after Lydia's funeral, years of secrets begin to surface. Their weekend home is a restored barn in the English countryside and its' very secluded. 

It is there, that the MacBride family discover that there's a stranger...or two..in their midst. A stranger who is obsessed with Lydia and is convinced that she was a murderer. 

This stranger has been exacting revenge on the family for many years with out them even knowing about it. The stranger has been plotting a very sinister revenge and it's one that will threaten the very existance of the newest family member, baby Edie to whom Sophia gave birth to on the night of Lydia's passing. This revenge will also shatter the family's memory of their mom and their entire world. 

Will the stranger succeed in this plot of revenge??

MY THOUGHTS

This is a book with a  well developed story, setting and characters. The story opens in 2013 when Lydia is writing in her diary. 

The book has various sections all told in one of the family members' voices.  The first one is Lydia and then her daughter Sophia. There's also a section for a character named Darcy, and one for Rowan as well as Kerry, another character who is introduced towards the last half of the book.  Each chapter is either set in the present (2013) or goes back in time to the late 1990s.  The author includes the character name as well as the setting for each chapter so it's not confusing at all. 

I don't want to reveal exactly who the Darcy character is, but let's just say there is an intention by the author of being similar to the Darcy character in Pride and Prejudice.  It's brilliant.  It's a good look at how a traumatic and socially isolated upbringing by a dysfunctional mother affects a child. 

There are a couple of twists in this book that I honestly wasn't expecting and that made for a page turner and a quick read. 

Themes in this story are:  social isolation/homeschooling; the role of motherhood (with Sophia, Tara, Lydia and Heather (Darcy's mother); postpartum depression is mentioned; bullying; betrayal/hurt; death of a parent; dishonesty; revenge, guilt, jealousy. 

There was a quote that jumped out at me that I really liked:

"Promises leave the lips like breath when there is no question of their being kept." pg 158 Burning Air by Erin Kelly c.2013

This author is an excellent writer!  I found no editing errors, either in this book. 

I plan on reading more of her books. 

In my opinion, this book is appropriate for ages 17 and older (due to some mature content)

On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest, I rate this a 9.