The Burn Line
Jonathan Sims || Publication Date - 25.08.2026
London's biggest heatwave on record, and a terror stalking under its streets...
Horror | Mystery
Something is stirring on the London Underground, five travelers witnessed an unimaginable horror, to which they don't remember save for random unexplainable events plaguing their consciousness while going about their lives.
They're bound to work together to figure out exactly what happened that day, what it is, and how to stop it from dragging others down with it.
The Review (may contain spoilers)
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me early access to this eARC for an honest review!
I have no idea what could be more terrifying than some entity which is unknown, stalking people within a confined space underground. Yet 'The Burn Line' brings this deeply unsettling scenario to my imagination. I live in Australia, particularly South Australia, where the public transport via train is all primarily overground. I've experienced the subterranean rail in Sydney, and I hated being confined in a train God knows how far underground. Add in the possibility of something skulking around hell bent on creeping the shit out of ,and, possibly killing people? Absolutely no thank you.
The setup of this novel has made this incredibly easy to read. It's divided up into parts, which are then divided up further by chapters experienced by each individuals point of view. Books written this way seem to fly by for me and I'm unsure if this is the same for others, but it makes them significantly more interesting. Unfortunately I didn't find each character unique. I appreciate that they are, and descriptions give them their own qualities which would make them superficially identifiable. The diabetic, the rail employee, the unhoused man, the trans person, the rich guy and the office worker. However, other than this, that would be about the extent that I would be able to identify each person based on their name. Whether this was intentional I am unable to confirm, but it did put a dampener on being able to connect with the characters to truly immerse myself in the book.
Unfortunately, the 'twist' kind of ruined this book for me. Not necessarily in a negative way, and some may find it thoroughly entertaining, however I was expecting... more? But then again I was also thinking I was getting an entirely different kind of monster than what was actually revealed. I did feel that almost 400 pages was a bit long, and the last 20% dragged a lot more than I would have liked. The split chapters could have been a lot shorter since a lot of it was information which was already mentioned in other characters chapters. I'm not particularly fond of reiteration simply for adding to word counts, which is what this ended up feeling like to me.
Overall Thoughts
Do you like one shot monster thrillers which feature urban settings? Do you enjoy superficially diverse characters who work together to a common goal? Do you like split POV chapters which detail a narrative from multiple perspectives? If you answered yes to any of those questions then I would say give the book a go. It was well written and despite the big bad not being my particular cup of tea, it wasn't a novel without merits.
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