mzdeb's review against another edition
4.0
"Under The Light" depicts the aftermath from "A Certain Slant of Light," that is, the "hosts," Jenny and Billy, dealing with the consequences of ghosts Helen and James previously possessing their bodies in order to be together. As the two grapple with filling in details of the past few weeks, the grip of Jenny's fundamentalist Christian parents grows tighter, while prison hangs over Billy's head for actions he can't remember taking part in. Helen, Jenny's ghost, stays to try and make things right, communicating through touch and random phrases in books, but sometimes does more harm than good. I could relate to Jenny's pain, remembering my own teenage years, and burned with indignation at her parents strict ways--I will never understand people like that! After a steady even pace--sometimes too even--of piecing things together, the ending has a satisfying conclusion, before the VERY ending gunks things up, having left me confused as to what Helen can see happening in the land of the living, past, present, and future. I think it's a foregone conclusion that, if you loved "A Certain Slant of Life," you're going to read this book and be fond of it as well.
samiism's review against another edition
2.0
When someone asks me to recommend a book for them to read, I will always say "A Certain Slant of Light". That is how much I loved the book. When I found out that it has a sequel, I was ecstatic!
Then I read Under the Light, and I was...dejected. It didn't live up to the beauty and sadness of ACSoL. I found it a bit hard to follow. Jenny was jumping all over the world, and I wasn't feeling up to traipsing around with her.
This isn't to say I will never read this book again. I will try some other day. Perhaps my mood affected how I saw the book, so I will give Under the Light the benefit of the doubt. But as of now, I give it 2 stars. It was okay. Just okay.
Then I read Under the Light, and I was...dejected. It didn't live up to the beauty and sadness of ACSoL. I found it a bit hard to follow. Jenny was jumping all over the world, and I wasn't feeling up to traipsing around with her.
This isn't to say I will never read this book again. I will try some other day. Perhaps my mood affected how I saw the book, so I will give Under the Light the benefit of the doubt. But as of now, I give it 2 stars. It was okay. Just okay.
mokey81's review against another edition
3.0
This was definitely a dim shadow compared to Certain Slant of Light. If I hadn't loved that book so much, I might have liked this one more. But, the author could have achieved the same effect with an online short story.
If you are dying for a completely spelled out ending for the characters you liked in the first book, this is a decent read. But don't expect the beauty of the first.
If you are dying for a completely spelled out ending for the characters you liked in the first book, this is a decent read. But don't expect the beauty of the first.
itstiffani's review against another edition
4.0
I enjoyed this second book almost as much as the first book. It gives you a look at what happens on Jenny and Billy's side of the story as well.
snowbenton's review against another edition
2.0
The first book didn't need a sequel, but Whitcomb's writing is lovely so I read this anyway.
It was boring. There was none of the tension or passion from the first book. And the turnaround of Billy to a sweetheart just to further the plot and make Helen feel better was pretty nauseating. None of the unanswered questions from the first book (did Jenny get an STD from Billy because of Helen and James, for example) get answered in this one, so most of it is a lot of navel-gazing.
Whitcomb is still a lovely writer. This just felt forced.
It was boring. There was none of the tension or passion from the first book. And the turnaround of Billy to a sweetheart just to further the plot and make Helen feel better was pretty nauseating. None of the unanswered questions from the first book (did Jenny get an STD from Billy because of Helen and James, for example) get answered in this one, so most of it is a lot of navel-gazing.
Whitcomb is still a lovely writer. This just felt forced.
lostingothicmusic's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
johei's review against another edition
4.0
I had no idea there was even a second book to A Certain Slant of Light, but I’m glad there is. It answers all the questions I had about what happened to Jenny and Billy after Helen and James left their bodies. I thought it was a really interesting read. It did leave me with a few more questions at the end, some interpretation was needed for the ending. But overall the story was great.
booksfitforadreamer's review against another edition
3.0
I remember liking, but not loving, A Certain Slant of Light. As I didn't reread the previous installment prior to jumping into this one, I was confused from the start about what was happening. (I mean, eight years between books? Eight years?)
I'll need to think on this more. Right now, my thoughts are that I really liked the beginning and ending (and I mean literally the last two pages), but parts in the middle alternately bored/angered/confused/disturbed me. But the writing style was pretty?
--
My review:
As I started reading this book, I realized perhaps ACSoL wasn't as conclusive as I had remembered. As I kept reading, I grew to love the premise behind this book, because it asked the important question, what happened to Jenny? Poor Jenny, who had been abused by her parents, then used by Helen, and ultimately left to pick up the tatters of her life--with only the barest hint of an optimistic future at the end of the last book.
Another high point of the book from the very start is the writing. Those who have read ACSoL will probably remember with fondness, as I do, the absolute brilliance of Laura Whitcomb's descriptions. This woman can breathe beauty into the most mundane of descriptions. Everything--characters, suburban lawns, ash-stained ceilings of former prayer corners--takes on an ethereal quality. Several scenes made me pause, rereading and reliving the most gorgeously crafted lines. I promise that if you love the style of this book's predecessor, you will not be disappointed by the writing in this one.
So, why three stars? I grappled with the rating for this one for a long time. First, I'll talk about my more general issues of the book, then some more specific problems.
First, Helen. Oh, Helen. To be honest, I can't quite remember my feelings about her as a character from the first book; I certainly don't remember disliking her. But there's a certain forgiveness attached to reading a book from first-person; we understood her motives, her sad history, and the path that took her to taking Jenny's body. In the first book, Jenny was a character we got to know through Helen's assumption of her life; we learned her secrets and story through the breadcrumbs her absentee spirit left behind.
Usually, I resist a change of narrator for a series. Why invest in a new character after already becoming attached to the first? In this case, however, Jenny was the perfect person to tell this story. The telling is split into two points-of-view: for the first chunk, told during Jenny's departure from her physical self, Jenny is the narrator. For the remaining parts, the chapters alternate between Jenny and Helen.
Helen returns out of a desire to make amends. After using Jenny's body and leaving her in the chaos wrought by Helen's actions, Helen descends from her blissful stay in heaven to "help" (and appease her growing sense of guilt). And throughout the book, the main relationship seems to be between Jenny and Helen as Jenny tries to find out what has happened in the eventful days she left her body. I found this difficult to swallow. It is stressed throughout that Helen feels motherly affection for Jenny--actually, it's stated outright several times. (Subtle, this book is not.)
To be honest, my main wish for this story is that Helen hadn't been a central part of it. I don't say this because I disliked Helen's story in ACSoL--quite the opposite. But from the beginning, it is clear that this is going to be Jenny's story. There were several parts in which Helen's voice felt intrusive, overly judgmental, and falsely noble to me. It's not the way I wanted to remember her character or ACSoL, and it ultimately tainted the rest of the story for me.
Much of Helen's commentary in the beginning centers on judging Jenny's mother, OVER AND OVER. I don't know that I've ever felt so browbeaten to accept the inadequacy of a character. Yes, Jenny's mother is often cold and spineless in her care of Jenny--but I got this before Helen started ranting at me. The parents (in particular the father) are already so exaggeratedly bad that Helen's preachy ranting felt tiresome and way over-the-top. (Not to mention a bit hypocritical, considering what she herself did to Jenny, but I won't go there.)
**SPOILERS FOLLOW**
Honestly, not all that much that happens in the book is too surprising, but if you dislike spoilers, please don't read further.
I can't say that I regret reading Under the Light, for the writing if nothing else. Although Helen played a big part of the story, and her relationship with Jenny was growing on me towards the end, I can't help but think this would have been a stronger story--Jenny's story--if she had been left out of it. I think a large part of Under the Light was Jenny coming into her own, and taking back her life after so many people had tried to control and manipulate her into becoming someone she wasn't. Although I really enjoyed the last two pages of the book--you'll understand what I mean if you read them--I don't feel that the alternating points-of-view lent to Jenny's growth as a character. I think I'll remember this book for the beauty of the first part, and try to separate the Helen of this story from the Helen of ACSoL.
I'll need to think on this more. Right now, my thoughts are that I really liked the beginning and ending (and I mean literally the last two pages), but parts in the middle alternately bored/angered/confused/disturbed me. But the writing style was pretty?
--
My review:
As I started reading this book, I realized perhaps ACSoL wasn't as conclusive as I had remembered. As I kept reading, I grew to love the premise behind this book, because it asked the important question, what happened to Jenny? Poor Jenny, who had been abused by her parents, then used by Helen, and ultimately left to pick up the tatters of her life--with only the barest hint of an optimistic future at the end of the last book.
Another high point of the book from the very start is the writing. Those who have read ACSoL will probably remember with fondness, as I do, the absolute brilliance of Laura Whitcomb's descriptions. This woman can breathe beauty into the most mundane of descriptions. Everything--characters, suburban lawns, ash-stained ceilings of former prayer corners--takes on an ethereal quality. Several scenes made me pause, rereading and reliving the most gorgeously crafted lines. I promise that if you love the style of this book's predecessor, you will not be disappointed by the writing in this one.
So, why three stars? I grappled with the rating for this one for a long time. First, I'll talk about my more general issues of the book, then some more specific problems.
First, Helen. Oh, Helen. To be honest, I can't quite remember my feelings about her as a character from the first book; I certainly don't remember disliking her. But there's a certain forgiveness attached to reading a book from first-person; we understood her motives, her sad history, and the path that took her to taking Jenny's body. In the first book, Jenny was a character we got to know through Helen's assumption of her life; we learned her secrets and story through the breadcrumbs her absentee spirit left behind.
Usually, I resist a change of narrator for a series. Why invest in a new character after already becoming attached to the first? In this case, however, Jenny was the perfect person to tell this story. The telling is split into two points-of-view: for the first chunk, told during Jenny's departure from her physical self, Jenny is the narrator. For the remaining parts, the chapters alternate between Jenny and Helen.
Helen returns out of a desire to make amends. After using Jenny's body and leaving her in the chaos wrought by Helen's actions, Helen descends from her blissful stay in heaven to "help" (and appease her growing sense of guilt). And throughout the book, the main relationship seems to be between Jenny and Helen as Jenny tries to find out what has happened in the eventful days she left her body. I found this difficult to swallow. It is stressed throughout that Helen feels motherly affection for Jenny--actually, it's stated outright several times. (Subtle, this book is not.)
To be honest, my main wish for this story is that Helen hadn't been a central part of it. I don't say this because I disliked Helen's story in ACSoL--quite the opposite. But from the beginning, it is clear that this is going to be Jenny's story. There were several parts in which Helen's voice felt intrusive, overly judgmental, and falsely noble to me. It's not the way I wanted to remember her character or ACSoL, and it ultimately tainted the rest of the story for me.
Much of Helen's commentary in the beginning centers on judging Jenny's mother, OVER AND OVER. I don't know that I've ever felt so browbeaten to accept the inadequacy of a character. Yes, Jenny's mother is often cold and spineless in her care of Jenny--but I got this before Helen started ranting at me. The parents (in particular the father) are already so exaggeratedly bad that Helen's preachy ranting felt tiresome and way over-the-top. (Not to mention a bit hypocritical, considering what she herself did to Jenny, but I won't go there.)
**SPOILERS FOLLOW**
Honestly, not all that much that happens in the book is too surprising, but if you dislike spoilers, please don't read further.
Spoiler
There's a scene with Helen and Jenny that broke any simulated mother-daughter connection. Helen is trying to communicate with Jenny to some success while in church, and at one point, she manages to connect with her on a level that Jenny begins to experience Helen's death--drowning while holding a baby. Jenny, who doesn't know what is happening, is panicking and screaming, unable to tell that she is, in fact, safe in a church closet. But Helen, watching her growing panic, feels "thrilled" and "vindicated"--at last, she is able to communicate with the girl she has been haunting! At that point, I could see Helen as nothing but immature and selfish. Perhaps I misread the scene, but as it was, it destroyed any credibility of Helen as a mother figure to Jenny after that.Spoiler
Another part of the story that bothered me was Billy. It doesn't come as much of a surprise that Billy is the boy from the meadow. But ultimately, for me, they never became the same person. They just seemed so very different--the boy from the meadow was full of life, cocky and angry but also eloquent and sure of himself. Billy in real life was never that person for me. He was sullen, awkward, and his intelligence was insulted at several points. I think this last point was to make sure we know, for sure, that Billy is not James. At one point, James, as Billy, wrote a poem about Helen, and, to make it more credible that he was Billy, he misspelled a single word ("sacrid" for "sacred"). To which Jenny comments, "'Smart boy.'" Not what I would have gone for, but okay. I didn't have a problem with real-life Billy, but I never really got a feel for any growth of his character. Which is a shame, considering how much I was growing to like him as a spirit.I can't say that I regret reading Under the Light, for the writing if nothing else. Although Helen played a big part of the story, and her relationship with Jenny was growing on me towards the end, I can't help but think this would have been a stronger story--Jenny's story--if she had been left out of it. I think a large part of Under the Light was Jenny coming into her own, and taking back her life after so many people had tried to control and manipulate her into becoming someone she wasn't. Although I really enjoyed the last two pages of the book--you'll understand what I mean if you read them--I don't feel that the alternating points-of-view lent to Jenny's growth as a character. I think I'll remember this book for the beauty of the first part, and try to separate the Helen of this story from the Helen of ACSoL.
nursepersephone's review against another edition
4.0
Exactly what I wanted and needed. Laura Whitcomb again uses very nimble and clear writing to present a very fragile picture, as I find she does often, and it allows her to tell a very unique story. Whereas "A Certain Slant of Light" is about Helen learning to die, "Under the Light" details Jenny's journey back to life. Perhaps it's a little cheesy, but I absolutely love that Jenny and Billy's souls had met when detached from their bodies, and had cared for each other even then. I find Laura Whitcomb one of the most underrated authors currently writing, and this book settles comfortably into that.