Scan barcode
A review by tashrow
Absolute Brightness by Celeste Lecesne
5.0
15-year-old Phoebe lives with her mother and older sister Deirdre in a house attached to her mother's beauty salon. Leonard, their uncle's stepson comes to live with them and neither of the girls is ready to give him even the slightest chance. It doesn't help that Leonard is unusual. He doesn't seem to care that his behavior may get him beat up or at the very least ignored by everyone. He goes ahead and wears the clothing he wants to, which include platform sneakers that he made himself. Leonard quickly makes a place for himself, catering to the ladies who come to the salon, much to Phoebe's relief and dismay. When Leonard disappears, he leaves behind a huge hole in everyone's lives, Phoebe's most of all.
The writing here is nearly incandescent with beauty. It is writing that makes one pause, sometimes gasp, reread and then think for awhile. It is writing one reads aloud to another person just to hear the words spoken. It is the writing that makes this book so exceptional and such a gem of a novel. Here's just one passage amongst so many that shine:
I had suddenly realized that I didn't have the slightest idea who Travis was. For the past month, I'd been making up a picture of Travis in my head, and in the process I had refused any information about him that came to me from the real world. If it didn't fit with the picture of Travis that I already had in mind, I had no use for it. Travis Lembeck was my creation, my Frankenstein. Even the very real business of kissing him, smelling him, being pressed up against him in the dark couldn't disturb my fine-tuned, half-baked fantasy. Now with the revelation that he was going to join the service, that he blew up cyberpeople and destroyed cybervillages just for fun, the Travis I'd been cherishing in my heart suddenly seemed trumped-up. Like those life-size, cardboard cutouts of presidents and movie stars that you can stand beside and have your picture taken with so you can give everyone the impression that you hobnobbed with the genuine article.
Lecesne crafts realizations and sudden insights with such care. The novel is filled with corners that you round just to come upon a moment like this. It is appropriate that a novel that starts as a character study becomes a mystery and then a court drama. As Lecesne leads us through these conventional novel settings, he continues to write a book that surprises, quite an accomplishment. His characters are unconventional, interesting and thoroughly complex. They act like real humans, people you would know, and the joy is that you get to experience things through their eyes.
Highly recommended for teens ages 14-17, this novel is piercingly intelligent and will reflect your own life and choices back on you.
The writing here is nearly incandescent with beauty. It is writing that makes one pause, sometimes gasp, reread and then think for awhile. It is writing one reads aloud to another person just to hear the words spoken. It is the writing that makes this book so exceptional and such a gem of a novel. Here's just one passage amongst so many that shine:
I had suddenly realized that I didn't have the slightest idea who Travis was. For the past month, I'd been making up a picture of Travis in my head, and in the process I had refused any information about him that came to me from the real world. If it didn't fit with the picture of Travis that I already had in mind, I had no use for it. Travis Lembeck was my creation, my Frankenstein. Even the very real business of kissing him, smelling him, being pressed up against him in the dark couldn't disturb my fine-tuned, half-baked fantasy. Now with the revelation that he was going to join the service, that he blew up cyberpeople and destroyed cybervillages just for fun, the Travis I'd been cherishing in my heart suddenly seemed trumped-up. Like those life-size, cardboard cutouts of presidents and movie stars that you can stand beside and have your picture taken with so you can give everyone the impression that you hobnobbed with the genuine article.
Lecesne crafts realizations and sudden insights with such care. The novel is filled with corners that you round just to come upon a moment like this. It is appropriate that a novel that starts as a character study becomes a mystery and then a court drama. As Lecesne leads us through these conventional novel settings, he continues to write a book that surprises, quite an accomplishment. His characters are unconventional, interesting and thoroughly complex. They act like real humans, people you would know, and the joy is that you get to experience things through their eyes.
Highly recommended for teens ages 14-17, this novel is piercingly intelligent and will reflect your own life and choices back on you.