Graphia / Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2013
Taiwan: ThinKingdom
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Under The Light
Helen needed a body to be with her beloved and Jenny needed to escape from hers before her spirit was broken. It was wicked, borrowing it, but love drives even the gentlest soul to desperate acts.
When Jenny returns to her body, she finds that someone has been living her life while she was away. She doesn’t remember being Billy’s lover or defying her family. But now she is faced with the consequences. And Helen, who has returned to warn Jenny—to help her—finds herself trapped, haunting the girl she wished to save.
In this captivating companion novel to A Certain Slant of Light, the love story between Jenny and Billy begins out-of-body—where they can fly and move the stars--and continues into the tumultuous realm of the living, where they are torn away from each other even as they slowly remember their spirits falling in love.
Kirkus Reviews:
Teens overcome troubled lives through metaphysical and spiritual opportunities in this poetic sequel.
To chilling effect, Whitcomb skillfully incorporates the unsettling and grotesque aspects of the living teens' family lives -- Billy's abusive childhood, Jenny's fanatical parents (like characters from a Stephen King novel) -- and Helen's disastrous death and separation from her daughter. Jenny's and Helen's voices are distinct and passionate. Jenny's reconstruction of events revisits the same characters and setting as A Certain Slant of Light (2005) but offers further literary and elegiac contemplation of life, love and the afterlife.
Life proves as haunting as death in this well-crafted ghost story.
Laura Whitcomb truly delivered beyond anything I could have ever hoped for in this follow up to A Certain Slant of Light. Under the Light was a dream come true for me. The entire book was just as mesmerizing and breathtaking as its predecessor, if not more. It flowed so well and gave me the same wonderful feelings I had while reading the first book. These were my thoughts as soon as I finished: 'Wow. Could a sequel be any more perfect?'
Under the Light was a highly satisfying and emotional conclusion to the stories of Helen, Jenny, and Billy, all of which began in A Certain Slant of Light. It left me feeling happy and content, the way I love to feel when I finish a novel. I honestly wish it never had to end. Not because I thought it needed more, but because I couldn't quite bring myself to let these characters go. I hope fans of A Certain Slant of Light love Under the Light as much as I did. It's a worthy sequel and deserving of all the praise it will no doubt receive.
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Candace's Book Blog:
Laura Whitcomb has a very lyrical writing style. It's more along the literary lines of things, which I don't usually like, but quite liked in this book. The story was easy to read and once I got into the rhythm of it I didn't put it down once. I read nearly the entire thing before bed and didn't stop reading until I finished.
While this is a companion novel and you don't have to read the first book, I do encourage you to do so. You'll understand things much better and you'll enjoy it more as things regarding Helen will make much more sense. I very highly recommend this series to fans of YA books with ghosts (not scary) and contemporary since the contemporary theme was very important in this one.
Rating: four stars