Not only was Laura Whitcomb’s A CERTAIN SLANT OF LIGHT chosen as one of the American Library Association’s Best Books for Young Adults, but it also received a “Cuffie” from Publishers Weekly.
Every year, PW asks children’s booksellers to name their favorite books in a variety of categories, and they named CERTAIN SLANT “Best Novel for Teens That Adults Would Love if They Knew About It.”
Congratulations, Laura! You rock.
Laura Whitcomb’s A CERTAIN SLANT OF LIGHT received a wonderful review in the Washington Post’s Book World:
Whitcomb juggles numerous narrative and thematic devices with astonishing skill, all the more remarkable in a first-time novelist: first love and grown-up grief; the stirrings of sexual passion after an incalculable loss; blame, betrayal and forgiveness; the power of art to redeem even those who seem irrevocably damaged.
A Certain Slant of Light is marketed as a young adult novel, but its themes and its language are unapologetically grown-up. By the end of the book, Whitcomb’s star-crossed lovers are confronting the moral repercussions of their passion. Can James and Helen restore Billy and Jenny to their rightful bodies, giving them each another chance at life, while retaining their own abiding love for each other? I held my breath, hoping that this wonderful new novelist could pull it off. She did, which only made me want to read this haunting book all over again to see exactly how.
To read the entire review, click here.
The Horn Book Magazine, essential reading for anyone working with children’s and young adult literature, calls Laura Whitcomb’s novel A CERTAIN SLANT OF LIGHT “original, opinionated, sexy, and romantic.” The reviewer praises Whitcomb for being “unfailingly insightful,” concluding with more commendations:
Having sailed through establishing her original premise, Whitcomb successfully navigates a complex plot that after many dramatic turns is resolved both cleverly (in the case of providing Billy and Jenny with a continuing relationship after they each return to their bodies) and happily. “Just walk up to your hell and give it a push,” James tells Helen, and together they find their own heaven.
The School Library Journal has some very nice things to say in its recent review of Laura Whitcomb’s A CERTAIN SLANT OF LIGHT:
Whitcomb writes with a grace that befits Helen’s more modulated world while depicting contemporary society with sharp insight. In the subgenre of dead-narrator tales, this book shows the engaging possibilities of immortality — complete with a twist at the end that wholly satisfies.
The book is in bookstores now, so go get a copy for your favorite young adult!
Barnes & Noble has selected Laura Whitcomb’s first novel, A Certain Slant of Light, to be featured in its Discover Great New Writers program from November this year to January 2006. The B&N Discover editors read and review select young adult submissions each season, but not every list of chosen books contains a teen title. Laura’s book, which Houghton Mifflin will publish in September, will be featured in the Discover bay of every Barnes & Noble store in the country with the 15 other Discover titles (all adult) throughout the winter holiday season, as well as in the teen section.
For more on the career-changing Discover program, click here.
YA and kids’ books king-maker, Richie of Richie’s Picks, has told his readers that Laura Whitcomb’s novel A CERTAIN SLANT OF LIGHT should be crowned:
Alternating between sensual, gritty, dark, delightful, and frightening; between atmospheric fantasy and down-and dirty contemporary YA realism, A CERTAIN SLANT OF LIGHT is absolutely awash in literary quality and an award winner waiting to happen.
Thanks, Richie! And congrats, Laura!
