A review by pages_oflau
Invisible In A Bright Light by Sally Gardner

3.0

Thank you so much to Zephyr Books for sending me a gorgeous hardback edition of this book for review.

From the very first chapter in this book, I was completely hooked. The writing and the content of Invisible In A Bright Light is so gripping that it just draws you in and keeps you reading for hours on end - and that’s exactly what I did today.

Invisible In A Bright light features a young girl called Celeste who, in the very first chapter, is playing a game with a strange man in an emerald suit. Celeste doesn’t know the rules of this game or even how to play it but she is told that if she wins and completes The Reckoning then the sleepers will be saved. (What sleepers you may ask, and I may tell you, I have no idea, that’s just what they are called and I don’t even know what they are!) It appears that the first chapter must of been a dream because soon Celeste wakes up and finds herself in a Royal Opera House where everyone there thinks she is someone else, but Celeste is Celeste, she knows she is Celeste, but everyone else doesn’t believe her. She can remember a time, a different time, where she had a happy life and she remembers certain things.
Anyway - the whole point of the game is to pass the man in the emerald suit’s Reckoning and save the sleepers for if Celeste loses, then they all lose.

I loved the story to this book, it felt magical and gave me a couple of Alice In Wonderland Vibes. I will admit I was a tad confused in places with some things but I don’t know if that was intended or if it was just me. I didn’t particularly like any of the characters but the one I did like the most had to be Hildegard. Her story was so heartbreaking yet beautifully executed in a way that I couldn’t help care for her and wish her story ended differently. I found this book to feel like a bit of a dark fairytale but not too dark for younger readers.

Overall, it was a joy to read and I recommend this to anyone who needs a little bit of magic and mystery in their reading.