Nowhere Burning

I was never a big Peter Pan fan; I could never really understand the desire not to grow up; that’s all I ever wanted. But the homage to the Peter Pan story in Catriona Ward’s Nowhere Burning is effective and evocative, as we are introduced to Riley and her little brother Oliver, who are wards of a relative they call Cousin. He forces them to live a meager existence, under feeding them and enforcing punishment on them lest they should succumb to demons. 

They are rescued by a Peter Pan-like figure called Noon, who appears outside Riley’s window with talk of a place called Nowhere and gives Riley complex directions of how to reach the burned-out ranch deep in a Rocky Mountain valley where she and other children and teenagers have fled to escape traumatic homes.

In other story threads, we learn more about the previous owners of Nowhere, most recently movie star Leaf Winham, who died in a fire that mostly destroyed the main structure as well as Marc and Kimble, documentarians filming a story about Nowhere. 

Catriona Ward is a master at introducing multiple threads and just when we think it won’t happen, weaving them into a perfect tapestry so that by the end, it makes perfect sense where those threads come together.

She also creates compelling characters that we care about. There were moments in Nowhere Burning that stressed me out so much, I had to increase the listening speed on the audiobook to find out how that scene resolved the character’s immediate situation.

Speaking of the audiobook, it was extremely well produced by Macmillan Audio, and the performances by Christopher Ragland and Katherine Fenton brought the characters to life and made it easier to track the multiple narrative arcs. 

Nowhere Burning leans more on the thriller side though there are definitely horrific moments, but this is definitely a must-read for Catriona Ward fans, filled with her signature literary prose, strong characterizations, and thoughtful, complex storytelling.
Also - like any self-respecting Peter Pan reference - there is a crocodile.

Thank you to NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for the advance copy for my unbiased review. Pub. Date: 2/24/26