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jmmd's review
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, Toxic relationship, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Alcoholism, Violence, Stalking, and War
Minor: Death, Gun violence, Homophobia, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Grief, and Death of parent
bobbi's review
dark
hopeful
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death, Homophobia, Death of parent, Murder, Lesbophobia, Alcohol, and War
Minor: Eating disorder, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Forced institutionalization
blacksphinx's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
There's just one character where every part of her, from her personality, to her actions, to the way her storyline ends, that I found extremely annoying. I also don't feel that the two major plotlines really ever came together in a way that was satisfying. Those criticisms aside, it was wonderful to read a fantasy story that was deeply steeped in Judaism, and a "found family" story that actually sells you on how the characters are a family.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Toxic relationship, Grief, Death of parent, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Genocide, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Misogyny, Antisemitism, Lesbophobia, and Classism
Minor: Eating disorder, Sexual violence, Forced institutionalization, Vomit, and Pandemic/Epidemic
TW: Eye trauma, references to the Holocaust, graphic descriptions of the effect of atomic bombs on the human body.anntharai's review against another edition
dark
hopeful
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Jfc this book is devastating. Like. If you have a button, this story pushes - and not just the big ones in big obvious ways. It's the little ways it reminds you of things, the one liners that you need to pause and think about, but for others will just pass them by. Which, is really apt considering one of the main mechanics of the story.
It's fucking terrifying, sad, hopeful. Ita about trauma and finding yourself, inevitability and searching for good.
I picked this up because it caught my eye in the new arrivals but I'm gonna be thinking about this book for years.
It's fucking terrifying, sad, hopeful. Ita about trauma and finding yourself, inevitability and searching for good.
I picked this up because it caught my eye in the new arrivals but I'm gonna be thinking about this book for years.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Body horror, Bullying, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Antisemitism, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Abandonment, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Body shaming, Gun violence, and Kidnapping
Minor: Eating disorder
gondorgirl's review
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, and War
Moderate: Alcoholism, Body shaming, Gun violence, Self harm, Antisemitism, Grief, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Eating disorder, Genocide, Hate crime, Infidelity, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, and Pandemic/Epidemic
kris386's review
emotional
sad
slow-paced
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Homophobia, Violence, Antisemitism, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Misogyny, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Stalking, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Minor: Animal death, Child death, and Eating disorder
caseythereader's review
dark
emotional
hopeful
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Thanks to Tor Books for the free copy of this book.
- THE FIRST BRIGHT THING is delicate, loving, and heartbreaking. I loved the writing in this book, beautiful without being too flowery, about time travel without feeling unmoored.
- It feels basic to describe this book as THE NIGHT CIRCUS but queer, but it is, and it's also more than that. It grapples with the lasting effects of war and lost family and has a truly horrifying bad guy.
- This book's cast is also diverse in multiple ways, and Rin's identities in particular (queer, Jewish) are central to the story, not just a label added to diversify the group.
- THE FIRST BRIGHT THING is delicate, loving, and heartbreaking. I loved the writing in this book, beautiful without being too flowery, about time travel without feeling unmoored.
- It feels basic to describe this book as THE NIGHT CIRCUS but queer, but it is, and it's also more than that. It grapples with the lasting effects of war and lost family and has a truly horrifying bad guy.
- This book's cast is also diverse in multiple ways, and Rin's identities in particular (queer, Jewish) are central to the story, not just a label added to diversify the group.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Antisemitism, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Minor: Eating disorder
beforeviolets's review
adventurous
challenging
hopeful
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Thank you to the publisher for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review!
(Also I'm v sick writing this so hopefully things make sense, but I foresee myself coming back and editing this review later. Especially because I finished this book in my sick brain fog and may need to clear up my brain a bit.)
Okay, so I know this review got attention with my anticipatory comment stating: "The Night Circus but make it sapphic, Jewish, and with time travel?????" but before I begin my actual review, I'd like to sort of ret-con that statement and say I actually disagree with the way this book is pitched. I've seen it described as "cozy" and compared to The Night Circus. I don't think that either of those things are accurate beyond the surface layer of this book. Rather, I would call this a dark, yet hopeful magical realism story for fans of Middlegame and Thistlefoot.
Centering a ringmaster caught between the fear of the past and the unknowable, terrifying uncertainty of the future, The First Bright Thing is a story set between WWI and WWII about what a small light in a sea of darkness can accomplish.
It's rare to find a true magical realism book these days. People often throw it around as a synonym of low fantasy, but it truly is its own category, and one that has a history of roots in Latin American literature and Jewish literature (and frankly, is a genre that should mostly be ascribed to books about resistance to systemic oppression). They require loose magic systems that function primarily as metaphor, and should have conversations about oppression. In the words of Anna Marie-McLemore, a current author who is famous for writing in this genre: "Magical realism isn’t just about seeing the extraordinary in the ordinary. In a culture of oppression, seeing the magical in the midst of the tragic, the unjust, the heartbreaking is a way of survival, for people, for communities, for cultures. We must find our magic where it lives, or we will lose it. Our spirits depend on not overlooking that which might be dismissed or ignored." I've only read a few books in the past few years that truly embody the language of magical realism (Thistlefoot being one of them, hence my comparison), so it's always truly exciting when I come across a book that does fit into that category. The magical realism was handled profoundly and beautifully in this story, with a magic system meant to emphasize survival mechanisms, and many conversations around what the control of that magic can be used for.
I'm always a sucker for stories that display art as a tool of power, an agent of change, and I loved the way that Dawson dealt with both sides of that double-edged sword throughout the difference perspectives in this book. Art is something that we often view as pure and hopeful and uplifting, but those of us that have been in the art world know that there are people that use their storytelling power to spread hurt, to control people for their own benefit, and to uphold harmful systems of oppression. This book emphasizes the weight of storytelling, and how those who weave narratives have the ability to cause serious harm through the perspectives they carry and impose upon others. Anything that can be used for good can be used for bad, and vice versa.
And this conversation expands further into a larger picture, about what we do with the life we've been given and the tools we've been to navigate it. Whether we allow the bad things that happened to us to become all-consuming, or if we find light in spite of them. The First Bright Things shows us that being good is a choice that we have to make every day. That everything in this world is just... potential. Like ℵ: a sound waiting to be molded by its vowels, we are just a shape waiting to be molded by our choices and our actions. We all have the potential to use our lives and our strengths to cause chaos and lash out. But we also have the potential to love and to heal. It is not what has happened to us, or what we are capable of doing, but what we actually choose to be, that defines who we are.
Most importantly, this is a book built upon Jewish values. Mainly, and more specifically: mitzvah. “A mitzvah is the work we are responsible for, as long as we are part of the living world… We are here to bring light to the dark. And it’s not a charity, it’s not a special congratulations. It’s just the right thing to do.” The First Bright Thing centers community. It centers family. What we owe to ourselves and what we owe to each other in order to make the world a better place. I think right now, at times we feel as these characters feel, like sitting ducks waiting for the other shoe to drop. And mitzvah is something that reminds us all that the little actions that we take can make a world of difference. We can make the world better not by trying to fix the past or trying to solve the problems of the future, but by being our best selves in every present moment.
This book is also very much a Yom Kippur book, and I would love to reread this during the high holidays one year, because of how much it talks about teshuvah and holds so many themes that we reflect upon during Yom Kippur. The idea of staying true to oneself and atoning by returning home to our hearts is one of the largest elements of this story, and I feel that this would really hit hard during the high holidays.
Now, I did struggle with the book's pacing a bit. Like I mentioned earlier, this book is a lot darker than the "cozy fantasy" it was pitched as, and I don't think that the pacing of this book was built to carry the heaviness of the story. I often struggled to find breathing room between the highs and lows, or to find places to pause in the story. The intensity of the content made me need to consume the book in smaller bites, but it moved so seamlessly between chapters that it was difficult to find a place to set it down. I just felt with a book that had this many hard hitting topics and moments, that it should’ve been built in a way that offered more room for his readers to take breaks. Especially by the end of this book, I felt like I had been weighed down by so much, and without the breathing room, I was losing stamina and was struggling to feel the catharsis of the climax. I do think that part of this could be due to how unprepared I was for the content by the pitch. It definitely made it more difficult for me to process the material at my highest capacity, and I honestly hope to reread it with a different mindset, because I think I could enjoy this more than I did.
And one last little nitpick, because I think its important to mention: this story did use the word "bohemian" a few times, and as a word that has a harmful etymology and background, it didn't feel necessary. I wish I had read this ARC earlier so I could've messaged the publisher to take it out.
Overall: I do recommend this book. It has a gorgeous (loose, because its magical realism) magic system based on trauma responses, a lovely found family element, incredible character growth, and gorgeous imagery and writing. I also definitely caution its readers that though it is about hope, it's also about the pain you have to fight through to find it.
CW: war (graphic), mind control/manipulation, abusive relationship, parental death, grief, character death, ptsd, holocaust, alcoholism, violence, gun violence, body horror, blood & gore, antisemitism, homophobia, homophobic slur, suicidal thoughts, emesis, attempted forced institutionalization, pandemic (mention)
(Also I'm v sick writing this so hopefully things make sense, but I foresee myself coming back and editing this review later. Especially because I finished this book in my sick brain fog and may need to clear up my brain a bit.)
Okay, so I know this review got attention with my anticipatory comment stating: "The Night Circus but make it sapphic, Jewish, and with time travel?????" but before I begin my actual review, I'd like to sort of ret-con that statement and say I actually disagree with the way this book is pitched. I've seen it described as "cozy" and compared to The Night Circus. I don't think that either of those things are accurate beyond the surface layer of this book. Rather, I would call this a dark, yet hopeful magical realism story for fans of Middlegame and Thistlefoot.
Centering a ringmaster caught between the fear of the past and the unknowable, terrifying uncertainty of the future, The First Bright Thing is a story set between WWI and WWII about what a small light in a sea of darkness can accomplish.
It's rare to find a true magical realism book these days. People often throw it around as a synonym of low fantasy, but it truly is its own category, and one that has a history of roots in Latin American literature and Jewish literature (and frankly, is a genre that should mostly be ascribed to books about resistance to systemic oppression). They require loose magic systems that function primarily as metaphor, and should have conversations about oppression. In the words of Anna Marie-McLemore, a current author who is famous for writing in this genre: "Magical realism isn’t just about seeing the extraordinary in the ordinary. In a culture of oppression, seeing the magical in the midst of the tragic, the unjust, the heartbreaking is a way of survival, for people, for communities, for cultures. We must find our magic where it lives, or we will lose it. Our spirits depend on not overlooking that which might be dismissed or ignored." I've only read a few books in the past few years that truly embody the language of magical realism (Thistlefoot being one of them, hence my comparison), so it's always truly exciting when I come across a book that does fit into that category. The magical realism was handled profoundly and beautifully in this story, with a magic system meant to emphasize survival mechanisms, and many conversations around what the control of that magic can be used for.
I'm always a sucker for stories that display art as a tool of power, an agent of change, and I loved the way that Dawson dealt with both sides of that double-edged sword throughout the difference perspectives in this book. Art is something that we often view as pure and hopeful and uplifting, but those of us that have been in the art world know that there are people that use their storytelling power to spread hurt, to control people for their own benefit, and to uphold harmful systems of oppression. This book emphasizes the weight of storytelling, and how those who weave narratives have the ability to cause serious harm through the perspectives they carry and impose upon others. Anything that can be used for good can be used for bad, and vice versa.
And this conversation expands further into a larger picture, about what we do with the life we've been given and the tools we've been to navigate it. Whether we allow the bad things that happened to us to become all-consuming, or if we find light in spite of them. The First Bright Things shows us that being good is a choice that we have to make every day. That everything in this world is just... potential. Like ℵ: a sound waiting to be molded by its vowels, we are just a shape waiting to be molded by our choices and our actions. We all have the potential to use our lives and our strengths to cause chaos and lash out. But we also have the potential to love and to heal. It is not what has happened to us, or what we are capable of doing, but what we actually choose to be, that defines who we are.
Most importantly, this is a book built upon Jewish values. Mainly, and more specifically: mitzvah. “A mitzvah is the work we are responsible for, as long as we are part of the living world… We are here to bring light to the dark. And it’s not a charity, it’s not a special congratulations. It’s just the right thing to do.” The First Bright Thing centers community. It centers family. What we owe to ourselves and what we owe to each other in order to make the world a better place. I think right now, at times we feel as these characters feel, like sitting ducks waiting for the other shoe to drop. And mitzvah is something that reminds us all that the little actions that we take can make a world of difference. We can make the world better not by trying to fix the past or trying to solve the problems of the future, but by being our best selves in every present moment.
This book is also very much a Yom Kippur book, and I would love to reread this during the high holidays one year, because of how much it talks about teshuvah and holds so many themes that we reflect upon during Yom Kippur. The idea of staying true to oneself and atoning by returning home to our hearts is one of the largest elements of this story, and I feel that this would really hit hard during the high holidays.
Now, I did struggle with the book's pacing a bit. Like I mentioned earlier, this book is a lot darker than the "cozy fantasy" it was pitched as, and I don't think that the pacing of this book was built to carry the heaviness of the story. I often struggled to find breathing room between the highs and lows, or to find places to pause in the story. The intensity of the content made me need to consume the book in smaller bites, but it moved so seamlessly between chapters that it was difficult to find a place to set it down. I just felt with a book that had this many hard hitting topics and moments, that it should’ve been built in a way that offered more room for his readers to take breaks. Especially by the end of this book, I felt like I had been weighed down by so much, and without the breathing room, I was losing stamina and was struggling to feel the catharsis of the climax. I do think that part of this could be due to how unprepared I was for the content by the pitch. It definitely made it more difficult for me to process the material at my highest capacity, and I honestly hope to reread it with a different mindset, because I think I could enjoy this more than I did.
And one last little nitpick, because I think its important to mention: this story did use the word "bohemian" a few times, and as a word that has a harmful etymology and background, it didn't feel necessary. I wish I had read this ARC earlier so I could've messaged the publisher to take it out.
Overall: I do recommend this book. It has a gorgeous (loose, because its magical realism) magic system based on trauma responses, a lovely found family element, incredible character growth, and gorgeous imagery and writing. I also definitely caution its readers that though it is about hope, it's also about the pain you have to fight through to find it.
CW: war (graphic), mind control/manipulation, abusive relationship, parental death, grief, character death, ptsd, holocaust, alcoholism, violence, gun violence, body horror, blood & gore, antisemitism, homophobia, homophobic slur, suicidal thoughts, emesis, attempted forced institutionalization, pandemic (mention)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, and War
Moderate: Body horror, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, and Antisemitism
Minor: Forced institutionalization, Vomit, and Pandemic/Epidemic
loveinpanels's review
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Sapphic MC who can travel through time and space. Set in 1926 between WWI and WWII, both play a big role.
1914-18 villain POV in counter to FMC POV.
Dark fantasy in which some people have a Spark (magic ability) and are persecuted for it.
Jewish FMC with faith that is not always practiced but is an underpinning of her childhood and worldview. WWII and Nazi Germany loom large.
Overall a dark, character-driven fantasy with strong themes of chosen family and surviving abuse.
Villain has a power similar to Purple Man in Jessica Jones.
1914-18 villain POV in counter to FMC POV.
Dark fantasy in which some people have a Spark (magic ability) and are persecuted for it.
Jewish FMC with faith that is not always practiced but is an underpinning of her childhood and worldview. WWII and Nazi Germany loom large.
Overall a dark, character-driven fantasy with strong themes of chosen family and surviving abuse.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gun violence, Homophobia, Violence, Antisemitism, Stalking, Murder, and War
bittennailbooks's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
I was provided the ARC for The First Bright Thing by J.R Dawson for free in exchange for an honest review.
The First Bright Thing is JR Dawson's debut novel that promises to be for fans of the Night Circus and Addie La Rue. Ambitious claims! I was very excited to get into it.
First off, there are a lot of storylines in this book. You have the ring master Rin trying to stop World War II while dealing with the injustice of the treatment of her people as both a Spark (magical individual) and being Jewish, and a cat and mouse game with the rival circus owner who used to control her, and a parallel storyline at the same time. The parallel and eventual converging storyline is Edward who finds out that he is a Spark and uses his power of suggestion to go the evil route. Like I said, a lot going on!
What I liked: There was a lot of diversity in this book, just a heads up that this is not a "no homophobia" world and it is a CW for the book. I thought Dawson did an incredible job writing Edward's emotional manipulator personality and drive, a high note on how delightfully frustrating this character was for me. It was an easier read and I managed to read through it in a day and a half on my Kindle.
What I think could use improvement on: there is a lot going on with this book, almost too much. There is way too many storylines and plot driving that don't seem to mesh well together. If you are a fan of the Night Circus and Addie La Rue for the lyrical prose of the book, I don't think this is on par with that. The world building and descriptions are not described thoroughly. It gives more Umbrella Academy or X-Men vibes mixed with the circus.
I think this will be a good book for magical realism fans but some of the plots need to either be reduced or tightened up a bit.
The First Bright Thing is JR Dawson's debut novel that promises to be for fans of the Night Circus and Addie La Rue. Ambitious claims! I was very excited to get into it.
First off, there are a lot of storylines in this book. You have the ring master Rin trying to stop World War II while dealing with the injustice of the treatment of her people as both a Spark (magical individual) and being Jewish, and a cat and mouse game with the rival circus owner who used to control her, and a parallel storyline at the same time. The parallel and eventual converging storyline is Edward who finds out that he is a Spark and uses his power of suggestion to go the evil route. Like I said, a lot going on!
What I liked: There was a lot of diversity in this book, just a heads up that this is not a "no homophobia" world and it is a CW for the book. I thought Dawson did an incredible job writing Edward's emotional manipulator personality and drive, a high note on how delightfully frustrating this character was for me. It was an easier read and I managed to read through it in a day and a half on my Kindle.
What I think could use improvement on: there is a lot going on with this book, almost too much. There is way too many storylines and plot driving that don't seem to mesh well together. If you are a fan of the Night Circus and Addie La Rue for the lyrical prose of the book, I don't think this is on par with that. The world building and descriptions are not described thoroughly. It gives more Umbrella Academy or X-Men vibes mixed with the circus.
I think this will be a good book for magical realism fans but some of the plots need to either be reduced or tightened up a bit.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Gun violence, Sexism, and War
Moderate: Alcoholism, Death, Hate crime, Homophobia, Antisemitism, Grief, Death of parent, Lesbophobia, Alcohol, and Colonisation
Minor: Sexual violence and Suicidal thoughts