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3.86 AVERAGE
3.86 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
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:
Yes
4.5/5. This book is a wildly ambitious, beautifully literary, and refreshingly original story for YA lit. Arthur’s journey to better understand family, faith, and mortality is bittersweet in that way that makes you feel like you both lost and gained something truly special by the end.
Arthur’s narration feels so old-soul, and paired with the frequent disconnect between his thoughts and his ability to express himself eloquently makes him a super sympathetic and relatable character to me (and I think to many young people), even when I didn’t necessarily agree with exactly what he was saying or thinking. I loved the integration of things like journal entries, Pullman’s poetry, and train conductor announcements between longer narrative chapters. It made the book very readable even if certain sections felt a tad long. The plot is pretty unpredictable, which for me is hard to come by in contemporary YA, and I really enjoyed that, despite some plot points stretching my ability to suspend my disbelief.
It’s not perfect, but I do think that it achieved a near perfect emotional response in me. I was moved, definitely. I feel like I learned something - though I’m still working to pinpoint what that is. I really did love it.
Arthur’s narration feels so old-soul, and paired with the frequent disconnect between his thoughts and his ability to express himself eloquently makes him a super sympathetic and relatable character to me (and I think to many young people), even when I didn’t necessarily agree with exactly what he was saying or thinking. I loved the integration of things like journal entries, Pullman’s poetry, and train conductor announcements between longer narrative chapters. It made the book very readable even if certain sections felt a tad long. The plot is pretty unpredictable, which for me is hard to come by in contemporary YA, and I really enjoyed that, despite some plot points stretching my ability to suspend my disbelief.
It’s not perfect, but I do think that it achieved a near perfect emotional response in me. I was moved, definitely. I feel like I learned something - though I’m still working to pinpoint what that is. I really did love it.
Even after a few weeks of finishing this book, I still haven’t unpacked all of my thoughts about this book. But here’s a few of them:
1. I picked up A Lite Too Bright because I love Sam Miller’s words. His poetical lyrics are what brought me to Paradise Fears and kept me there. I was hopeful that this would translate into his debut novel and he 100% delivered. This book is poetic and gorgeous.
2. Part of the poetic nature of this book also makes it very literary. This is a book that you pick up for book club or as a buddy read or in English class. Good lord please substitute some of those outdated coming of age stories and add stories like this.
3. The transition to adulthood is strange. It’s arbitrary. The clock flips from 11:59pm to 12:00am and suddenly your whole life changes. A Lite Too Bright is Arthur Louis Pullman the Third’s exploration of that weirdness combined with wanting answers to questions that maybe we should have left alone and the complexity of our idols.
4. That said, I was really invested in figuring out what the heck happened in the weeks after Arthur’s infamous author grandfather (who had Alzheimer’s) disappears. I was going to really mad if the story didn’t pay off…oh, but it did.
If you like journeys in contemporary, complex characters, and coming of age stories coupled with gorgeous writing, A Lite Too Bright is worth your listen or read!
1. I picked up A Lite Too Bright because I love Sam Miller’s words. His poetical lyrics are what brought me to Paradise Fears and kept me there. I was hopeful that this would translate into his debut novel and he 100% delivered. This book is poetic and gorgeous.
2. Part of the poetic nature of this book also makes it very literary. This is a book that you pick up for book club or as a buddy read or in English class. Good lord please substitute some of those outdated coming of age stories and add stories like this.
3. The transition to adulthood is strange. It’s arbitrary. The clock flips from 11:59pm to 12:00am and suddenly your whole life changes. A Lite Too Bright is Arthur Louis Pullman the Third’s exploration of that weirdness combined with wanting answers to questions that maybe we should have left alone and the complexity of our idols.
4. That said, I was really invested in figuring out what the heck happened in the weeks after Arthur’s infamous author grandfather (who had Alzheimer’s) disappears. I was going to really mad if the story didn’t pay off…oh, but it did.
If you like journeys in contemporary, complex characters, and coming of age stories coupled with gorgeous writing, A Lite Too Bright is worth your listen or read!
adventurous
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
I had looked forward to Sam Miller's debut novel A Lite Too Bright because I have admired his writing for years through his lyrics for Paradise Fears and his blog writings. I did not know how blown away I would be by this book.
What I knew about this book through the jacket copy and what Sam said at his signing combined with what I knew of Sam's methods and experiences of writing the book, I thought it would be a simple story of a young man going on a journey and trying to find a connection to his deceased grandfather while learning life lessons from people he met along the way. It is all of that, but - holy - is it so much more. There are twists and turns I couldn't even begin to imagine. Reading this, you can FEEL everything that went into writing it.
Every word of this is beautiful. So many parts (especially the ending) are absolutely breathtaking. I thought I loved Sam's writing before, but this just increased it tenfold.
I really appreciated little bits and pieces that would only be noticed by people who know Sam's background. These things are nothing that you would need to know to understand the story, but instead were just nice little "I see hat you did there" moments that made me smile, even at times when the story made me cry.
I am going to be thinking about this book FOR DAYS.
What I knew about this book through the jacket copy and what Sam said at his signing combined with what I knew of Sam's methods and experiences of writing the book, I thought it would be a simple story of a young man going on a journey and trying to find a connection to his deceased grandfather while learning life lessons from people he met along the way. It is all of that, but - holy - is it so much more. There are twists and turns I couldn't even begin to imagine. Reading this, you can FEEL everything that went into writing it.
Every word of this is beautiful. So many parts (especially the ending) are absolutely breathtaking. I thought I loved Sam's writing before, but this just increased it tenfold.
I really appreciated little bits and pieces that would only be noticed by people who know Sam's background. These things are nothing that you would need to know to understand the story, but instead were just nice little "I see hat you did there" moments that made me smile, even at times when the story made me cry.
I am going to be thinking about this book FOR DAYS.
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
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:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide attempt
Moderate: Drug use
A mix of pretentious, ambitious, clever, absurd, literary, and fun. Overall, it wasn't quite the wonder it could have been (IMO), but it was a decent read.