Reviews - Brightly Shining

557 reviews for:

Brightly Shining

Ingvild H. Rishøi

4.0 AVERAGE

stephregnier8's review

4.0

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

sausome's review against another edition

4.5

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

4/5 stars -- This was a sad, Dickensian little book with a strange kind of ending where we don't quite know what happens (it feels like a dark end to me). However, amidst the sadness, the illness, the loneliness, the unrealized dreams, are these little glimmers of kindness, of thought, of warmth, of sibling relationship, of memory, and I think these little moments build a realistic snapshot of this little family of 2 sisters and their father struggling with their father's alcoholism at Christmas.

Content Warnings

johnbittles's review against another edition

2.5

emotional reflective relaxing sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

This was a book completely spoilt by its ending! It's the story of two sisters. It's coming up to Christmas but their mum is gone and their dad is a alcoholic. When he defaults on a job after getting an advance the older sister takes over selling Christmas trees. After a while the younger sister helps too. She's a natural even though she's only 10. Having a job gives her life meaning and offers an escape from her father and his loser friends. It's a nice story. One you can read in half a day. There are moments that make you smile and warm your heart. The end though! Seriously bad.