She Treads Softly: The Burning Side

Thursday, April 30, 2026

The Burning Side

The Burning Side by Sarah Damoff
5/19/26; 336 pages
Simon & Schuster

The Burning Side by Sarah Damoff is a very highly recommended domestic drama that explores a relationship on the verge of collapse.

The night Leo says he wants a divorce is the same night the home of Leo and April Torres burns down. The couple have two young children and manage to get out of the burning house safely with both children. They end up at April's parents house in Dallas. Deb and Billy Russo, as expected, warmly welcome them into their home, but they also have a secret they have been keeping from their three children April, Josie, and Cameron. What emerges is a family saga about the aftermath of the fire, but more importantly focuses on the numerous complications, secrets, joys, struggles, misunderstanding, support, and love found in family relationships.

The narrative is told through the point-of-view of April, Leo, and Deb. Additionally, the story alternates between telling the stories of their relationships in the present and past. We see the events and mistake that preceded Leo's desire for a divorce, but we know that Leo and April's expectations were worlds apart and that neither one had any idea of how hard things were for the other one. Deb and Billy's story adds additional depth based on their experiences. Currently, they have been hiding Billy's Alzheimer's diagnosis from their children, but April notices it.

Throughout the exceptionally intuitive, well-written narrative April and Leo are forced to decide what is worth saving, what is important, a question Deb and Billy confronted years earlier in their relationship. Deb presents a strong example of prioritizing what is important - love, acceptance, family, forgiveness, and perseverance. Leo had a troubled childhood without a strong support system, so the Russo's are the only real family Leo has ever had.

Leo, April, and Deb are all developed as fully realized characters with both strengths and weaknesses. While April and Leo face the devastation of the fire, their crumbling marriage, and inability to view events through the eyes of the other, Deb must face a decision about Billy's deteriorating memory and what their next move needs to be as a couple based on the care he needs. The ending elevated the novel's rating.

The Burning Side is an excellent choice for everyone who enjoys literary domestic dramas that explores relationships going through difficulties. Thanks to Simon & Schuster for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.