Press for Burr

Reviews:

“In a charming and appealingly atmospheric debut novel, Toronto’s Brooke Lockyer looks back a few decades and travels about three hours southwest… Shadowy, enchanted, and a touch feral, the city highlights Lockyer’s humour and gift for mirthful set pieces.”

— Brett Josef Grubisic, Toronto Star

“What happens when we die? What haunts us after death? Brooke Lockyer explores these universal questions with brilliant capability in her promising debut novel Burr. Expertly told…”

— Lori Green, The Miramichi Reader

“Burr falls squarely in the tradition of The Southern Ontario Gothic, mining the unsettling territory where our wilder, more honest selves rub up against the veneer of suburban respectability that blankets us.”

— Kate Jenks Landry, The Needle and the Knife

“Burr is a tense, nuanced portrayal of grief through the lens of adolescence and a fine addition to Southern Ontario Gothic literature. This very strong debut novel is subtly haunting yet thoroughly enjoyable.”

— Jeffrey Dupuis, The Quarantine Review

“The shifts in narrative perspective, coupled with the casual, conversational prose, give Burr a simultaneous sense of intimacy and social connectivity, and the move to full-fledged supernaturalism toward the end of the novel surprisingly but aptly serves both of these impulses.”

— Jade Wallace, CAROUSEL Magazine

“This haunting, ethereal debut examines grief’s many manifestations… a creeping, achingly descriptive gothic tale…”

— Mariko Hewer, Washington Independent Review of Books

“Death hovers over Burr, becoming its fulcrum and its laser focus, but more than simply exploring the empty space, the novel asks us to ponder how we live with that space and what we do to fill it, to keep it from devouring us. Creating a tapestry of imagery and emotions, Lockyer’s novel captures crucially and profoundly how normal restraints loosen when your heart breaks…Pairing sensitive and imaginative writing, Burr is a novel with a unique physical and emotional presence…Lockyer isn’t afraid to push the limits with sensuous language, and the intimacy she achieves with each character’s perspective is compelling.”

— Cindy Maguire, White Wall Review

“This book is an exploration, a love letter to finding magic in the mundane. We are asked to set aside our understandings and experience rather than rationalize. With Lockyer’s vivid writing, it feels possible to do so.”

— Eliot Gilbert, The Malahat Review

“The author explores the transcendental world of death with a yearning physicality and infuses her characters with an unexpectedly beautiful zest for life, full of haunting, fantasy, and wilderness.”

— Isabella Pechaty, Barnard Magazine

“Full of hauntings, seances, beautiful imagery, and spooky houses, Burr is as fun to read as it is moving.”

– Jess Taylor, 49th Shelf

“Burr is something resembling a lyrical fairytale with everyday characters encountering otherworldly situations…What stands out in this book is that the death part of the story, the main attraction, is told in a way that is very real, without platitudes, and utterly fathomable. Burr is a novel of fantasy staked to the rough worn bark of a tree in a forest growing next to a carefully made bed, holding the clothes of your dead loved-one. In other words, utterly transmutable in its telling.”

— Gerilee McBride, subTerrain Magazine

Buzz:

“10 Books Where the Imaginary Threatens the Real.” 49th Shelf.

“Brooke Lockyer: The WWR Interview.” White Wall Review.

“Summertime Hotlist.” The Quarantine Review.

“Hot New Reads by Toronto Authors.” Toronto International Festival of Authors Blog.

“Words Worth Books’ Diverse Summer Reading List.” The Community Edition.

“Pick Up a Book: Spring Reads to Put on Your Radar.” 49th Shelf.

“Spring Awakening: The Best Books to Read in April.” Nathalie Atkinson. Everything Zoomer.

“Spring 2023 is BLOOMING.” Kerry Clare. 49th Shelf.

“Off Kilter’s Most Anticipated Reads: Spring 2023.” All Lit Up.

“32 Canadian Books to Read in Spring 2023.” CBC.