A review by cozylittlebrownhouse
A Certain Slant of Light by Laura Whitcomb
4.0
I first learned about this book in the "Have You Read?" section of Bookmarks magazine where readers send in a list of their favorite books. It so happens that there are two very different books of the same title and the reader that submitted the recommendation accidentally read this one before reading the one she intended to. Both have been on my TBR shelf.
Anyway, I found the story wildly imaginative and captivating, the writing beautiful, and the love story interesting and romantic without being sickeningly sweet.
I go into some plot details, but no real spoilers. If you like to be completely surprised in a book, stop here. ;)
A young woman, who is "Light" (a ghost basically), is in limbo for some reason (unknown) and is forced to haunt different people who are still "Quick" (alive). One day, while haunting her current host - an English teacher named Mr. Brown - she discovers that one of his students can see her. This is where the story really takes off, because she finds out that the spirit of a 27 yr old man is inhabiting a student's body because his soul left. He convinces Helen, the main character, to find a body to inhabit so they can be together (not weird because they were both the same age when they died). Their story unfolds, they begin remembering their original lives, etc. This was a real surprise and a great page-turner.
Anyway, I found the story wildly imaginative and captivating, the writing beautiful, and the love story interesting and romantic without being sickeningly sweet.
I go into some plot details, but no real spoilers. If you like to be completely surprised in a book, stop here. ;)
A young woman, who is "Light" (a ghost basically), is in limbo for some reason (unknown) and is forced to haunt different people who are still "Quick" (alive). One day, while haunting her current host - an English teacher named Mr. Brown - she discovers that one of his students can see her. This is where the story really takes off, because she finds out that the spirit of a 27 yr old man is inhabiting a student's body because his soul left. He convinces Helen, the main character, to find a body to inhabit so they can be together (not weird because they were both the same age when they died). Their story unfolds, they begin remembering their original lives, etc. This was a real surprise and a great page-turner.