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emma_reards's review
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
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? It's complicated
3.0
This book had a really slow start and I had to force myself to continue picking it up. I did enjoy last 100 pages significantly more than the rest of the book and was happy with how everything wrapped up.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Gun violence, Mental illness, Violence, and Murder
kelly_e's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Title: We Are the Light
Author: Matthew Quick
Genre: Magical Realism
Rating: 4.00
Pub Date: November 1, 2022
T H R E E • W O R D S
Powerful • Challenging • Haunting
📖 S Y N O P S I S
Lucas Goodgame lives in Majestic, Pennsylvania, a quaint suburb that has been torn apart by a recent tragedy. Everyone in Majestic sees Lucas as a hero—everyone, that is, except Lucas himself. Insisting that his deceased wife, Darcy, visits him every night in the form of an angel, Lucas spends his time writing letters to his former Jungian analyst, Karl. It is only when Eli, an eighteen-year-old young man whom the community has ostracized, begins camping out in Lucas’s backyard that an unlikely alliance takes shape and the two embark on a journey to heal their neighbors and, most importantly, themselves.
💭 T H O U G H T S
The premise, including themes of grief and the magical realism aspects, were what drew me to pick up We Are the Light. I also never realized it was written by the same author as The Silver Linings Playbook until I was finished.
Told through a series of letters from the main character to his therapist, Matthew Quick employs a clever writing style to explore grief, mental health, tragedy and the trauma that follows, community and hope. The letters are at times endearing, other times comical, and often sad. Lucas' character is easy to connect and relate to - some of his inner thoughts and dialogue were all too real, especially the idea of survivour's guilt.
What I appreciated most is the open dialogue on therapy and struggle in the face of the unthinkable. The narrative took me on an emotional roller coaster. While there was room for more depth and the epistolary style could be confusing to come readers, it is the ending alone that made this a 4-star read. It is an ending for the age, the type that makes you believe in humanity and tears were shed.
We Are the Light certainly treads into heavy content, but more specifically the aftermath of an unthinkable tragedy and coming out the other side as best you can. It does a fantastic job presenting human fragility, yet I was left feeling hopeful when I turned the final page. I will definitely be reading more from Matthew Quick.
📚 R E A D • I F • Y O U • L I K E
• unlikely friendships
• mental illness representation
• epistolary novels
⚠️ CW: death, partner death, gun violence, murder, mass/school shooting, suicide, suicidal thoughts, grief, mental illness, depression, panic attacks/disorders, self harm, child abuse
🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S
"And there is perhaps no greater pain than the suffering that comes from speaking plainly but failing to make any sort of meaningful connection with the people who care about you."
Author: Matthew Quick
Genre: Magical Realism
Rating: 4.00
Pub Date: November 1, 2022
T H R E E • W O R D S
Powerful • Challenging • Haunting
📖 S Y N O P S I S
Lucas Goodgame lives in Majestic, Pennsylvania, a quaint suburb that has been torn apart by a recent tragedy. Everyone in Majestic sees Lucas as a hero—everyone, that is, except Lucas himself. Insisting that his deceased wife, Darcy, visits him every night in the form of an angel, Lucas spends his time writing letters to his former Jungian analyst, Karl. It is only when Eli, an eighteen-year-old young man whom the community has ostracized, begins camping out in Lucas’s backyard that an unlikely alliance takes shape and the two embark on a journey to heal their neighbors and, most importantly, themselves.
💭 T H O U G H T S
The premise, including themes of grief and the magical realism aspects, were what drew me to pick up We Are the Light. I also never realized it was written by the same author as The Silver Linings Playbook until I was finished.
Told through a series of letters from the main character to his therapist, Matthew Quick employs a clever writing style to explore grief, mental health, tragedy and the trauma that follows, community and hope. The letters are at times endearing, other times comical, and often sad. Lucas' character is easy to connect and relate to - some of his inner thoughts and dialogue were all too real, especially the idea of survivour's guilt.
What I appreciated most is the open dialogue on therapy and struggle in the face of the unthinkable. The narrative took me on an emotional roller coaster. While there was room for more depth and the epistolary style could be confusing to come readers, it is the ending alone that made this a 4-star read. It is an ending for the age, the type that makes you believe in humanity and tears were shed.
We Are the Light certainly treads into heavy content, but more specifically the aftermath of an unthinkable tragedy and coming out the other side as best you can. It does a fantastic job presenting human fragility, yet I was left feeling hopeful when I turned the final page. I will definitely be reading more from Matthew Quick.
📚 R E A D • I F • Y O U • L I K E
• unlikely friendships
• mental illness representation
• epistolary novels
⚠️ CW: death, partner death, gun violence, murder, mass/school shooting, suicide, suicidal thoughts, grief, mental illness, depression, panic attacks/disorders, self harm, child abuse
🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S
"And there is perhaps no greater pain than the suffering that comes from speaking plainly but failing to make any sort of meaningful connection with the people who care about you."
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Mental illness, Suicide, Violence, Grief, and Mass/school shootings
Moderate: Child abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, and Suicidal thoughts
partner death, depressionlivlosiewicz's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Pros:
•the book tackles important topics (massacre, trauma) and generates interesting discussion
•I thought the ending was well-done and provides a nice perspective on trauma and its impact
•It’s short, pretty interesting, and doesn’t have a lot of dead space
Cons:
•the ending does provide context that helps this, BUT the premise of this book is that the main character is stalking his former analyst (apparently this is different from a therapist). The cops have told him to stay away. It was really hard for me to root for Lucas even if I empathized with him. Could Lucas have just written the letters and not sent them??
•In addition to his stalking, Lucas was a really annoying narrator. He was childish to the point where I wondering if he had some sort of neurodevelopmental or neurocognitive disability? Did he? I don’t think so? I think this was because of the trauma, and I get that, but this combined with the stalking made it hard for me to be in Lucas’s corner
•Why did the relationship between Lucas and Jill have to be romantic? Did we need that? Whyyyy?
•It was weird how everything came together so perfectly. Wow these movie theater owners in a tiny tiny town happen to have all of these amazing film connects! Was that not a little too weird?
•Maybe this is my own fault for picking up a book that heavily features Jungian analysis, but I did not appreciate Lucas’s digs on cognitive behavioral therapy. It may not work for everyone but hi it’s the gold standard let’s not universally knock it!! That is harmful!!
Recommendation: This is an epistolary novel about a really heavy subject matter that has some nice hopeful notes as well. I recommend to people who don’t mind heavy books/appreciate reading about explorations of trauma. I thought the trauma in this book was generally purposeful, which I can appreciate. It also didn’t like, wreck my soul to read (probably because I couldn’t relate to the narrator), but you can’t pretend it’s not heavy. There’s additionally a mysterious element that I liked. My biggest issue was that I found the narrator really unlikable. This is certainly partially colored by my experience as a therapist and identifying with the analyst he is sort of stalking, so I imagine others could move past that, but at the end of the day, he was still sort of annoying. So avoid if that will bother you or if the heaviness of the subject matter will be too much!
•the book tackles important topics (massacre, trauma) and generates interesting discussion
•I thought the ending was well-done and provides a nice perspective on trauma and its impact
•It’s short, pretty interesting, and doesn’t have a lot of dead space
Cons:
•the ending does provide context that helps this, BUT the premise of this book is that the main character is stalking his former analyst (apparently this is different from a therapist). The cops have told him to stay away. It was really hard for me to root for Lucas even if I empathized with him. Could Lucas have just written the letters and not sent them??
•In addition to his stalking, Lucas was a really annoying narrator. He was childish to the point where I wondering if he had some sort of neurodevelopmental or neurocognitive disability? Did he? I don’t think so? I think this was because of the trauma, and I get that, but this combined with the stalking made it hard for me to be in Lucas’s corner
•Why did the relationship between Lucas and Jill have to be romantic? Did we need that? Whyyyy?
•It was weird how everything came together so perfectly. Wow these movie theater owners in a tiny tiny town happen to have all of these amazing film connects! Was that not a little too weird?
•Maybe this is my own fault for picking up a book that heavily features Jungian analysis, but I did not appreciate Lucas’s digs on cognitive behavioral therapy. It may not work for everyone but hi it’s the gold standard let’s not universally knock it!! That is harmful!!
Recommendation: This is an epistolary novel about a really heavy subject matter that has some nice hopeful notes as well. I recommend to people who don’t mind heavy books/appreciate reading about explorations of trauma. I thought the trauma in this book was generally purposeful, which I can appreciate. It also didn’t like, wreck my soul to read (probably because I couldn’t relate to the narrator), but you can’t pretend it’s not heavy. There’s additionally a mysterious element that I liked. My biggest issue was that I found the narrator really unlikable. This is certainly partially colored by my experience as a therapist and identifying with the analyst he is sort of stalking, so I imagine others could move past that, but at the end of the day, he was still sort of annoying. So avoid if that will bother you or if the heaviness of the subject matter will be too much!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence and Mental illness
Minor: Suicide
kimnerdybird's review against another edition
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
sad
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
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness and Grief
Moderate: Death and Mass/school shootings
olheckerd's review
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Gun violence, Mental illness, Self harm, and Suicide
czoltak's review
dark
emotional
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
5.0
“Whenever Darce and I would hear about a tragedy on the news or in conversations with others—back when she was still alive—she would grab my hand and say, "Don't die before me, Lucas, because I don't want to live without you, okay?" It was meant to be half-joke and half-declaration-of-undying-love. So I've been asking her winged grave marker why we never discussed what would happen if she died first.”
💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙
Matthew Quick is a master of taking heartbreaking topics and dark emotions and transcending them into beautiful stories. Every Exquisite Thing is one of my all time favorite novels so it shouldn’t have been a surprise that this would take up a special place in my heart as well. The way Quick is able to interweave themes of Trauma, Grief, PTSD, and Coping with an overall story of community and comfort was incredibly moving. This is definitely a difficult read but the lyrical prose and heartwarming conclusion are well worth the heart shattering storylines.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Suicide, and Mass/school shootings
Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Mental illness, and Panic attacks/disorders
cmklaft's review
dark
emotional
sad
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
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Suicide, Blood, Grief, Mass/school shootings, and Murder
nbaker83's review
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Some parts of this book were heartbreakingly beautiful and some parts were odd and dragged on. Perhaps it might have made more sense and resonated more with me if I had experience dealing with depression and severe trauma. I had high hopes for this and really wanted to love it, but at the end of the day I just thought that on balance it was ok.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Grief, Mass/school shootings, and Murder
aharv9's review
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Hard to like the main character for the first part of the book, but he becomes a more sympathetic as the book progresses. A book with heavy themes (read CW!) and a lot of discussion of a community and individual trying to heal.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Suicide, and Mass/school shootings
mxwilson's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
I love what this book was trying to do but it fell a little flat for me. That being said, Quick stuck the landing and the ending was amazing!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Mental illness, Suicide, and Suicide attempt