Nowhere Burning by Catriona Ward

Nowhere Burning is the third novel I have read by Catriona Ward. I also read The Last House on Needless Street and Looking Glass Sound, both which blew me away. She is an incredibly talented horror writer, and in my opinion, there’s no one quite like her writing right now which makes her books really special. They are emotional, poetically beautiful books and I just am in awe of her.

Nowhere Burning is not for the faint of heart. It is a retelling of Peter Pan, though much more dark and dangerous. It starts off with Riley taking care of her younger brother Oliver as they live with Cousin. Cousin is the relative who took them in when their mother died. And Cousin is cruel. Cousin taught them that there is a demon inside of them and only if they listen to him will the demon come out. Right from the beginning, we see Riley want to do everything she can to save her brother from the cards that fate has dealt them.

One night, when a young child follows her home and knocks on Riley’s window, they tell Riley of another place – Nowhere. A place up high in the mountains where only children live. No adults. It sounds too good to be true, but anything has to be better than living here. So Riley sneaks her brother out of the house and leads him to Nowhere.

Their journey is dangerous and their arrival makes Riley realize how tenuous life can be.

Alongside Riley’s story, the reader gets a few others. We see the original owner of Nowhere, Leaf Winham, a serial killer, trap his last victim. We see Marc and his partner investigating Nowhere and all the legends surrounding it. Every time you think you know where the story is going, Catriona Ward spins it and weaves it into something else. The nods to the Peter Pan story were incredible as well. This book was not an easy read, I would definitely recommend checking out the content warnings before going in, but it is an incredible story, and I am looking forward to reading more of Catriona Ward in the future.