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A review by starringsteph
The Brilliant Light of Amber Sunrise by Matthew Crow
3.0
Amber Sunrise is an absolutely brilliant, funny, and wonderful girl, but this book was, unfortunately, not up to par for me. This novel follows the stereotypical plot of a cancer ridden teen (aka a similar plot to what most people would know as The Fault in Our Stars). However, don't get me wrong I actually do love a good stereotypical YA novel! I just didn't find this novel to grab my interest as well as others do.
After reading so many novels, most readers have that same sense as to when you watch a scary movie and you just want to scream, "DON'T OPEN THE DOOR!", but with romance and life issues instead of bloody murderers delivering pizza. In a sense everything felt too predictable for me.
My favorite part of the novel is mainly the character development. Francis is definitely a brave soul, and after facing cancer it's clear he can handle a lot (like his dad!). It is strange however, that even in a first person narrative of Francis I feel like I almost understand Amber better. Amber is a great inspiration for people to have and she just always seems to have this spunk and eternal optimism to her. Francis's family is also such a great group of people. I found it so kind of them to be there for him so much, especially his mother who really worked so hard for him that her own life had to be put on pause until he got better.
One more thing I wish was expanded on more was the cancer itself. There was a lot of mentioning of days in bed, but it almost seemed to completely push away the pain of cancer to the side. It was strange to read this novel seeming as if cancer is just a lack of hair and going to the restroom at night to puke. Yes, this is just a YA novel so clearly all the details won't be found in the book, but it was just something I thought could be portrayed more accurately.
I could almost see this becoming a better movie than it is a book. The scenes that float in my mind seem to wish to see more detail of what's actually going on than just the words that are in the book. (this is just my opinion however.)
After reading so many novels, most readers have that same sense as to when you watch a scary movie and you just want to scream, "DON'T OPEN THE DOOR!", but with romance and life issues instead of bloody murderers delivering pizza. In a sense everything felt too predictable for me.
My favorite part of the novel is mainly the character development. Francis is definitely a brave soul, and after facing cancer it's clear he can handle a lot (like his dad!). It is strange however, that even in a first person narrative of Francis I feel like I almost understand Amber better. Amber is a great inspiration for people to have and she just always seems to have this spunk and eternal optimism to her. Francis's family is also such a great group of people. I found it so kind of them to be there for him so much, especially his mother who really worked so hard for him that her own life had to be put on pause until he got better.
One more thing I wish was expanded on more was the cancer itself. There was a lot of mentioning of days in bed, but it almost seemed to completely push away the pain of cancer to the side. It was strange to read this novel seeming as if cancer is just a lack of hair and going to the restroom at night to puke. Yes, this is just a YA novel so clearly all the details won't be found in the book, but it was just something I thought could be portrayed more accurately.
I could almost see this becoming a better movie than it is a book. The scenes that float in my mind seem to wish to see more detail of what's actually going on than just the words that are in the book. (this is just my opinion however.)