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melsbells81's review
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-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? No
5.0
I was amazed by this book. The story is terrifyingly realistic. It was hard to put down, but I was also heartbroken when I finished it. I highly, highly recommend this book to anyone interested in women's rights, social policy, current events... just SO good.
lillimoore's review
3.0
In the not-so-distant future of 2024, 16-year-old Rory Miller and her best friend Feliza "Fee" Lopez are on the run evading the law. A twisted series of events leads the entire country to believe they were responsible for a bombing in their high school bathroom on the night of the "American Virtue Ball," during which they and the other girls at their private Christian school are meant to promise their chastity to their fathers until marriage. Hyperreligiosity has overtaken the nation and women's rights have been dialed way back, leading to an underground "Pink/red market," a network of underground doctors, nurses, and advocates helping girls and women to access birth control and safe abortions. The two girls are framed and accused of being deeply entrenched in this illegal activity.
While they are hiding out and running from the law, Rory, a very opinionated atheist who is unafraid to go against the grain on her blog, documents the events leading up to and immediately following the bombing. She is convinced the truth will prevail once the media circus surrounding their fugitive status dies down and more facts surrounding the crime come to the surface. Rory has been suspicious of the new girl, Jinny Hutsall, her relationship with the Christian rock superstar Jagger Jonze, and his motivations within their wealthy and tight-knit double-gated Calabasas community for quite some time, and she is determined to illuminate their role in the entire fiasco. But will her truth be enough to convince the rabid Christian crusaders that have taken over the country?
It is clear that this book was inspired by the division evident in the US during the Trump presidency and the topics of abortion and women's right that took center stage then and continue to be hotly debated presently. This topic is timely and absolutely relevant, but I think it needs to be handled with more finesse than it was in this book. Since all of the characters except Paula (10/10 we STAN Paula) are completely unbearable asswipes, it is very hard to garner sympathy towards them and their plight. I haven't finished Handmaid's Tale but I have read enough of it and understand its place in the culture well enough to say it's probably a superior choice in terms of speculative fiction regarding women's reproductive rights and its connection with hyperreligious Christians. That being said, this book is clearly more teen-friendly, and I think it's appropriate for a high school audience.
Speaking of being teen-friendly, good Lord the attempts this author makes at writing like a 16-year-old Gen Z-er are so cringey at some points. There is a lot of bad writing in this book. Teenagers are generally not this stupid or annoying in my experience. Sure, there's a handful of them, but someone who is supposed to be as smart and well-educated as Rory, the daughter of two mostly liberal immigration lawyers—not to mention a SIXTEEN YEAR OLD HUMAN BEING, a person who can legally drive, a person who has presumably been able to read for a decade at a minimum—is not seriously going to be out here talking in this horrible sentence structure: "I told Fee to take a shower, because smell." "Calabasas is pretty famous, because Kardashians." Oh my GOD the book did this so liberally and often I wanted to tear my hair out. Because this book is written in the format of a blog post on her blog that has a pretty sizable following, shouldn't we assume Rory is a better writer than this? I think it has less to do with Lori Lansens' actual skills as a writer and more with her choice to try to lean so heavily into the voice of a 16-year-old that she comes out sounding like a 12-year-old that watches way too much TikTok. And there was one line that was honestly unbelievable (and in that amazingly stupid sentence structure, because bad writing) about one of the guys that Rory's friend was crushing on being "hot but kind of spectrum-y." Can we just... not say things like spectrum-y? Ever? Thanks in advance for never saying that again.
Rory is frequently grating as a main character, so firmly fixated on having open-minded beliefs that it often times makes her closed-minded and extremely childish. She had major only child energy so I guess that was effectively conveyed. But the real most annoying character was Fee. She was incredibly ignorant, naive, and honestly rude, mean, and essentially useless to Rory while they are going through this horrible thing together. While Rory is genuinely trying to think her way out of the situation, which is arguably Fee's fault when all the facts are exposed, Fee is content to completely give up with no concern about what it would mean for her, her best friend, or anyone else that has helped them along the way. It is also indicated that the way the book ends is also Fee's selfish dumbass fault. She drove me crazy and I had no empathy for her and her delusions, which is too bad, because empathizing with Fee in particular is pretty essential to connecting to the storyline in this book. The rest of Rory and Fee's friend group, "The Hive," all felt like caricatures with no depth to them and it was honestly appalling how fast they were willing to turn on their longtime friends. It just really made no sense to me; my friends in high school and I were so tight at that time and we would never. I also hated Sherman and thought that maybe we should have been given SOMETHING to like about him. There was nothing. I really enjoy books where you're meant to dislike the main characters (think My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh, People Like Her by Ellery Lloyd or The New Me by Halle Butler), but I don't think we were supposed to dislike them in this book, so feeling that way about them detracted from my enjoyment of this story.
I also think the discussion of Christianity in this book was too skewed in the "against" direction. I no longer consider myself a Christian but I was raised in both Catholic and more non-denominational churches and most of my family remains Christian, and while I understand that Rory's age and perspective are going to affect her views on the religion, I think that the small attempts to paint some Christians as good people should have gone a little further. Not every Christian is a fundamentalist. Many do adhere to the "do good" part of the religion and the other moral standards that make up the great parts of Christianity.
I was totally caught off guard by the ending of this book and can't decide if I like or hate the way that it ended. Without giving anything away I just want to say justice for Paula, the only character I cared about in this whole book. I suppose it probably was the most realistic ending but in a book that wholly challenges reality we didn't really need a realistic ending. I think I would have preferred to see the aftermath and get more answers than have such an abrupt ending, but I understand why the author chose to end this book the way that she did.
For all its problems, I was absolutely riveted by this book and couldn't put it down. I had to know what happened. I had to get the tea, sis! I looked forward to picking it up each time I had the chance to listen and enjoyed the narration by Nora Hunter. So I can't say that I don't recommend it, because it was well-paced with a really interesting premise that kept me hooked looking for answers. If it sounds interesting to you definitely give it a go! Particularly if you enjoy speculative fiction about women's rights or you liked The Divines by Ellie Eaton or The Book of Essie by Meghan MacLean Weir. Thanks to libro.fm's ALC program for a free copy of this audio!
While they are hiding out and running from the law, Rory, a very opinionated atheist who is unafraid to go against the grain on her blog, documents the events leading up to and immediately following the bombing. She is convinced the truth will prevail once the media circus surrounding their fugitive status dies down and more facts surrounding the crime come to the surface. Rory has been suspicious of the new girl, Jinny Hutsall, her relationship with the Christian rock superstar Jagger Jonze, and his motivations within their wealthy and tight-knit double-gated Calabasas community for quite some time, and she is determined to illuminate their role in the entire fiasco. But will her truth be enough to convince the rabid Christian crusaders that have taken over the country?
It is clear that this book was inspired by the division evident in the US during the Trump presidency and the topics of abortion and women's right that took center stage then and continue to be hotly debated presently. This topic is timely and absolutely relevant, but I think it needs to be handled with more finesse than it was in this book. Since all of the characters except Paula (10/10 we STAN Paula) are completely unbearable asswipes, it is very hard to garner sympathy towards them and their plight. I haven't finished Handmaid's Tale but I have read enough of it and understand its place in the culture well enough to say it's probably a superior choice in terms of speculative fiction regarding women's reproductive rights and its connection with hyperreligious Christians. That being said, this book is clearly more teen-friendly, and I think it's appropriate for a high school audience.
Speaking of being teen-friendly, good Lord the attempts this author makes at writing like a 16-year-old Gen Z-er are so cringey at some points. There is a lot of bad writing in this book. Teenagers are generally not this stupid or annoying in my experience. Sure, there's a handful of them, but someone who is supposed to be as smart and well-educated as Rory, the daughter of two mostly liberal immigration lawyers—not to mention a SIXTEEN YEAR OLD HUMAN BEING, a person who can legally drive, a person who has presumably been able to read for a decade at a minimum—is not seriously going to be out here talking in this horrible sentence structure: "I told Fee to take a shower, because smell." "Calabasas is pretty famous, because Kardashians." Oh my GOD the book did this so liberally and often I wanted to tear my hair out. Because this book is written in the format of a blog post on her blog that has a pretty sizable following, shouldn't we assume Rory is a better writer than this? I think it has less to do with Lori Lansens' actual skills as a writer and more with her choice to try to lean so heavily into the voice of a 16-year-old that she comes out sounding like a 12-year-old that watches way too much TikTok. And there was one line that was honestly unbelievable (and in that amazingly stupid sentence structure, because bad writing) about one of the guys that Rory's friend was crushing on being "hot but kind of spectrum-y." Can we just... not say things like spectrum-y? Ever? Thanks in advance for never saying that again.
Rory is frequently grating as a main character, so firmly fixated on having open-minded beliefs that it often times makes her closed-minded and extremely childish. She had major only child energy so I guess that was effectively conveyed. But the real most annoying character was Fee. She was incredibly ignorant, naive, and honestly rude, mean, and essentially useless to Rory while they are going through this horrible thing together. While Rory is genuinely trying to think her way out of the situation, which is arguably Fee's fault when all the facts are exposed, Fee is content to completely give up with no concern about what it would mean for her, her best friend, or anyone else that has helped them along the way. It is also indicated that the way the book ends is also Fee's selfish dumbass fault. She drove me crazy and I had no empathy for her and her delusions, which is too bad, because empathizing with Fee in particular is pretty essential to connecting to the storyline in this book. The rest of Rory and Fee's friend group, "The Hive," all felt like caricatures with no depth to them and it was honestly appalling how fast they were willing to turn on their longtime friends. It just really made no sense to me; my friends in high school and I were so tight at that time and we would never. I also hated Sherman and thought that maybe we should have been given SOMETHING to like about him. There was nothing. I really enjoy books where you're meant to dislike the main characters (think My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh, People Like Her by Ellery Lloyd or The New Me by Halle Butler), but I don't think we were supposed to dislike them in this book, so feeling that way about them detracted from my enjoyment of this story.
I also think the discussion of Christianity in this book was too skewed in the "against" direction. I no longer consider myself a Christian but I was raised in both Catholic and more non-denominational churches and most of my family remains Christian, and while I understand that Rory's age and perspective are going to affect her views on the religion, I think that the small attempts to paint some Christians as good people should have gone a little further. Not every Christian is a fundamentalist. Many do adhere to the "do good" part of the religion and the other moral standards that make up the great parts of Christianity.
I was totally caught off guard by the ending of this book and can't decide if I like or hate the way that it ended. Without giving anything away I just want to say justice for Paula, the only character I cared about in this whole book. I suppose it probably was the most realistic ending but in a book that wholly challenges reality we didn't really need a realistic ending. I think I would have preferred to see the aftermath and get more answers than have such an abrupt ending, but I understand why the author chose to end this book the way that she did.
For all its problems, I was absolutely riveted by this book and couldn't put it down. I had to know what happened. I had to get the tea, sis! I looked forward to picking it up each time I had the chance to listen and enjoyed the narration by Nora Hunter. So I can't say that I don't recommend it, because it was well-paced with a really interesting premise that kept me hooked looking for answers. If it sounds interesting to you definitely give it a go! Particularly if you enjoy speculative fiction about women's rights or you liked The Divines by Ellie Eaton or The Book of Essie by Meghan MacLean Weir. Thanks to libro.fm's ALC program for a free copy of this audio!
smalltownbookmom's review against another edition
4.0
Some really great moments and insights in this book (especially from a teen narrator). Lori Lansens writes so beautifully. This was a different style for her but she carried it off really well. Would recommend.
A couple favourite insightful quotes:
“Is it okay to describe a person’s skin color in any way, shape or form when you yourself are not a person of color? Or is it better not to mention a person’s skin color so as to make it irrelevant, even though we all know it’s totally relevant, in hopes that society will eventually become truly color-blind?”
“The thing is, I don’t want to be a dick. The racism thing? The white privilege thing? The white feminist thing? I want to understand it all, and acknowledge it beyond the obvious, and I actually want to get this shit right. Feels like there’s a wide margin of error though.”
A couple favourite insightful quotes:
“Is it okay to describe a person’s skin color in any way, shape or form when you yourself are not a person of color? Or is it better not to mention a person’s skin color so as to make it irrelevant, even though we all know it’s totally relevant, in hopes that society will eventually become truly color-blind?”
“The thing is, I don’t want to be a dick. The racism thing? The white privilege thing? The white feminist thing? I want to understand it all, and acknowledge it beyond the obvious, and I actually want to get this shit right. Feels like there’s a wide margin of error though.”
maralyons's review against another edition
4.0
‘This Little Light’ by Lori Lansens is a fascinating dystopian YA novel set in 2024, where the Christian far right has gained much more power and influence and abortion has been banned. The story is told in a rambling blog format over 48 hours, written by Rory, while she and a friend are on the run accused of bombing their Christian school. 16 year old Rory and her friends are wealthy and live in Calabassas, California, near Los Angeles and famously home to the Kardashian family. The format was pretty interesting but didn’t always work for me as some parts seem a bit long-winded and some parts didn’t seem realistic. (How was the battery of an old laptop so endless?) Nevertheless, Lansens is a talented writer and kept me hooked. I was so curious to learn the background as to what lead Rory and Fee to being on the run from Christian zealots. The story was fascinating and I liked that Rory’s voice was that of an “outsider” perspective, her being a liberal Jewish atheist in a now extremist Christian country.
Thank you NetGalley and Abrams / The Overlook Press for providing this ARC.
Thank you NetGalley and Abrams / The Overlook Press for providing this ARC.
popthebutterfly's review against another edition
3.0
Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. Thanks! All opinions are my own.
Book: This Little Light
Author: Lori Lansens
Book Series: Standalone
Rating: 3/5
Recommended For...: dystopian, feminist, cults, like The Handmaid’s Tale
Publication Date: January 1, 2019
Genre: YA Dystopian/Feminist
Recommended Age: 16+ (rape TW, sexual content, sexism, violence, gore)
Publisher: Random House Canada
Pages: 257
Synopsis: Taking place over 48 hours in the year 2023, this is the story of Rory Ann Miller, on the run with her best friend because they are accused of bombing their posh Californian high school during an American Virtue Ball. There's a bounty on their heads, and a social media storm of trolls flying around them, not to mention a posse of law enforcement, attack helicopters and drones trying to track them down. Rory's mom, a social activist and lawyer, has been arrested and implicated in her daughter's "crimes" whereas her dad (who betrayed his wife and daughter in a nasty divorce) is cooperating with the authorities. The story exists in a universe of gated communities, born-again Christians, Probationary Citizens (once known as "Dreamers"), re-criminalized abortion and birth control, teenage virginity oaths and something called the Red Market, which is either a Conservative bogey-man created to further polarize the "base" or a criminal network making money from selling unwanted babies to whomever wants them and fetal tissue to cosmetics and drug companies.
Rory is cynical and scared, furious and scathing, betrayed and looking for something or someone to trust. What she has to say about the dads and bosses and politicians lining up to keep women in their place, and about the ways women collaborate in their own undermining, is fierce, and funny, and sad, and true.
Review: For the most part this was a good book. I liked the dystopian vibes and I liked how the book took inspiration from The Handmaid’s Tale. The book did well to talk about feminism, sexism, cults, and rape culture. The book was written well for the most part and the book kept me intrigued from beginning to end.
However, the book rambles on and on so much. It suffers a little from what I dubbed Stephen King syndrome (where you get stuck on a topic for a few pages). The book is very hard to make your way through it when the “rambles” happen and while it’s a great book with an interesting story, I wish that the rambles had been edited down a bit. It distracts from the rest of the story in my opinion, BUT it is very true to the voice of the character.
Verdict: It’s a good book, just a bit rambly.
Book: This Little Light
Author: Lori Lansens
Book Series: Standalone
Rating: 3/5
Recommended For...: dystopian, feminist, cults, like The Handmaid’s Tale
Publication Date: January 1, 2019
Genre: YA Dystopian/Feminist
Recommended Age: 16+ (rape TW, sexual content, sexism, violence, gore)
Publisher: Random House Canada
Pages: 257
Synopsis: Taking place over 48 hours in the year 2023, this is the story of Rory Ann Miller, on the run with her best friend because they are accused of bombing their posh Californian high school during an American Virtue Ball. There's a bounty on their heads, and a social media storm of trolls flying around them, not to mention a posse of law enforcement, attack helicopters and drones trying to track them down. Rory's mom, a social activist and lawyer, has been arrested and implicated in her daughter's "crimes" whereas her dad (who betrayed his wife and daughter in a nasty divorce) is cooperating with the authorities. The story exists in a universe of gated communities, born-again Christians, Probationary Citizens (once known as "Dreamers"), re-criminalized abortion and birth control, teenage virginity oaths and something called the Red Market, which is either a Conservative bogey-man created to further polarize the "base" or a criminal network making money from selling unwanted babies to whomever wants them and fetal tissue to cosmetics and drug companies.
Rory is cynical and scared, furious and scathing, betrayed and looking for something or someone to trust. What she has to say about the dads and bosses and politicians lining up to keep women in their place, and about the ways women collaborate in their own undermining, is fierce, and funny, and sad, and true.
Review: For the most part this was a good book. I liked the dystopian vibes and I liked how the book took inspiration from The Handmaid’s Tale. The book did well to talk about feminism, sexism, cults, and rape culture. The book was written well for the most part and the book kept me intrigued from beginning to end.
However, the book rambles on and on so much. It suffers a little from what I dubbed Stephen King syndrome (where you get stuck on a topic for a few pages). The book is very hard to make your way through it when the “rambles” happen and while it’s a great book with an interesting story, I wish that the rambles had been edited down a bit. It distracts from the rest of the story in my opinion, BUT it is very true to the voice of the character.
Verdict: It’s a good book, just a bit rambly.
emjay2021's review against another edition
3.0
The premise of this book is interesting: in a near-future dystopian United States of America, fundamentalist evangelical Christians and far-right groups are making serious headway in the government, 1) taking away women's reproductive freedom by making birth control difficult to access and criminalizing abortion, and 2) persecuting undocumented immigrants. Ahem. So anyway, our protagonist is a 16 year old daughter of secular Jewish parents who themselves immigrated from Canada to California, and she gets mixed up with a sketchy evangelical abstinence-only Svengali type preacher who organizes a purity ball at her high school. Half the book is the narrator's recollections of how the whole situation came to be, and half of it is her frantic journal of her current situation on the run from the law with her best friend. I found the narrator quite likeable, which is good, because we spend a LOT of time with her. She is fiery and principled in a fairly realistic 16 year old way, which I appreciated. Her thought processes didn't seem like those of a middle aged person transposed onto a teenaged character.
Even though the story is interesting, it is oddly structured and suffers slightly for that. Despite the "on the run" aspect of the narrative, it is quite static for some time, because the fugitives hunker down in one place for a veeeery looooong portion of the novel.
The writing is fine, but every once in a while I was like, if I read one more "__________, because _________" construction I'm going to lose it. For example: "We live in Calabasas, California, which is famous because Kardashians" or "The whole clan lives at the top of the hill now, in this massive compound because safety." Aaaaaaaghhhhhhhh. It just grated terribly after a while.
What redeemed it for me was the ending, which I cannot tell you about because that would ruin it. But suffice it to say I was thinking right up to the end, ehhh, well, I guess it's going to be a satisfying but sort of predictable ending, when suddenly OH WOW SHE WENT THERE. I had to admire the author for committing in a way that I think YA novels sometimes don't. Anyway, she definitely went there, which, props to her. That third star is for the ending.
Overall, my verdict is that it is entertaining and worth a read if you like YA and feminist dystopian literature. Content warnings:.
Even though the story is interesting, it is oddly structured and suffers slightly for that. Despite the "on the run" aspect of the narrative, it is quite static for some time, because the fugitives hunker down in one place for a veeeery looooong portion of the novel.
The writing is fine, but every once in a while I was like, if I read one more "__________, because _________" construction I'm going to lose it. For example: "We live in Calabasas, California, which is famous because Kardashians" or "The whole clan lives at the top of the hill now, in this massive compound because safety." Aaaaaaaghhhhhhhh. It just grated terribly after a while.
What redeemed it for me was the ending, which I cannot tell you about because that would ruin it. But suffice it to say I was thinking right up to the end, ehhh, well, I guess it's going to be a satisfying but sort of predictable ending, when suddenly OH WOW SHE WENT THERE. I had to admire the author for committing in a way that I think YA novels sometimes don't. Anyway, she definitely went there, which, props to her. That third star is for the ending.
Overall, my verdict is that it is entertaining and worth a read if you like YA and feminist dystopian literature. Content warnings:
Spoiler
sexual harassment and assault, statutory rape, violence, pregnancyimworthyandenough's review against another edition
4.0
Omg, this book was insane! And that ending?!?!
Am curious to dig into the authors other books!
Am curious to dig into the authors other books!
bookishlifeofbrie's review against another edition
2.0
I have read everyone of Lori Lansens’ books and am a huge fan of hers. But this book was just so different from her other book and just, weird. It was also completely lost on me that this was a “dystopian” book (and I only figured this out after reading reviews). Perhaps that’s because it’s only 4 years in the future (2024). It’s also written in blog style format in the words of teenager Rory so the flow and language is grating at times. The story is being told in “real time” as events are unfolding and Rory is attempting to write it all down. Maybe a bit of a backstory about life in 2024 or something would have helped me out? I dunno. I found it unbelievable that these two girls (Rory and Fee) were in hiding and being hunted down by “the crusaders” because they were believed to have bombed their highschool and were part of the red market (underground abortions because abortions are illegal in america). So ya, I guess if I had been smart enough to realize this was a dystopian novel I would have been more invested in the story.