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A review by lillimoore
This Little Light by Lori Lansens
3.0
In the not-so-distant future of 2024, 16-year-old Rory Miller and her best friend Feliza "Fee" Lopez are on the run evading the law. A twisted series of events leads the entire country to believe they were responsible for a bombing in their high school bathroom on the night of the "American Virtue Ball," during which they and the other girls at their private Christian school are meant to promise their chastity to their fathers until marriage. Hyperreligiosity has overtaken the nation and women's rights have been dialed way back, leading to an underground "Pink/red market," a network of underground doctors, nurses, and advocates helping girls and women to access birth control and safe abortions. The two girls are framed and accused of being deeply entrenched in this illegal activity.
While they are hiding out and running from the law, Rory, a very opinionated atheist who is unafraid to go against the grain on her blog, documents the events leading up to and immediately following the bombing. She is convinced the truth will prevail once the media circus surrounding their fugitive status dies down and more facts surrounding the crime come to the surface. Rory has been suspicious of the new girl, Jinny Hutsall, her relationship with the Christian rock superstar Jagger Jonze, and his motivations within their wealthy and tight-knit double-gated Calabasas community for quite some time, and she is determined to illuminate their role in the entire fiasco. But will her truth be enough to convince the rabid Christian crusaders that have taken over the country?
It is clear that this book was inspired by the division evident in the US during the Trump presidency and the topics of abortion and women's right that took center stage then and continue to be hotly debated presently. This topic is timely and absolutely relevant, but I think it needs to be handled with more finesse than it was in this book. Since all of the characters except Paula (10/10 we STAN Paula) are completely unbearable asswipes, it is very hard to garner sympathy towards them and their plight. I haven't finished Handmaid's Tale but I have read enough of it and understand its place in the culture well enough to say it's probably a superior choice in terms of speculative fiction regarding women's reproductive rights and its connection with hyperreligious Christians. That being said, this book is clearly more teen-friendly, and I think it's appropriate for a high school audience.
Speaking of being teen-friendly, good Lord the attempts this author makes at writing like a 16-year-old Gen Z-er are so cringey at some points. There is a lot of bad writing in this book. Teenagers are generally not this stupid or annoying in my experience. Sure, there's a handful of them, but someone who is supposed to be as smart and well-educated as Rory, the daughter of two mostly liberal immigration lawyers—not to mention a SIXTEEN YEAR OLD HUMAN BEING, a person who can legally drive, a person who has presumably been able to read for a decade at a minimum—is not seriously going to be out here talking in this horrible sentence structure: "I told Fee to take a shower, because smell." "Calabasas is pretty famous, because Kardashians." Oh my GOD the book did this so liberally and often I wanted to tear my hair out. Because this book is written in the format of a blog post on her blog that has a pretty sizable following, shouldn't we assume Rory is a better writer than this? I think it has less to do with Lori Lansens' actual skills as a writer and more with her choice to try to lean so heavily into the voice of a 16-year-old that she comes out sounding like a 12-year-old that watches way too much TikTok. And there was one line that was honestly unbelievable (and in that amazingly stupid sentence structure, because bad writing) about one of the guys that Rory's friend was crushing on being "hot but kind of spectrum-y." Can we just... not say things like spectrum-y? Ever? Thanks in advance for never saying that again.
Rory is frequently grating as a main character, so firmly fixated on having open-minded beliefs that it often times makes her closed-minded and extremely childish. She had major only child energy so I guess that was effectively conveyed. But the real most annoying character was Fee. She was incredibly ignorant, naive, and honestly rude, mean, and essentially useless to Rory while they are going through this horrible thing together. While Rory is genuinely trying to think her way out of the situation, which is arguably Fee's fault when all the facts are exposed, Fee is content to completely give up with no concern about what it would mean for her, her best friend, or anyone else that has helped them along the way. It is also indicated that the way the book ends is also Fee's selfish dumbass fault. She drove me crazy and I had no empathy for her and her delusions, which is too bad, because empathizing with Fee in particular is pretty essential to connecting to the storyline in this book. The rest of Rory and Fee's friend group, "The Hive," all felt like caricatures with no depth to them and it was honestly appalling how fast they were willing to turn on their longtime friends. It just really made no sense to me; my friends in high school and I were so tight at that time and we would never. I also hated Sherman and thought that maybe we should have been given SOMETHING to like about him. There was nothing. I really enjoy books where you're meant to dislike the main characters (think My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh, People Like Her by Ellery Lloyd or The New Me by Halle Butler), but I don't think we were supposed to dislike them in this book, so feeling that way about them detracted from my enjoyment of this story.
I also think the discussion of Christianity in this book was too skewed in the "against" direction. I no longer consider myself a Christian but I was raised in both Catholic and more non-denominational churches and most of my family remains Christian, and while I understand that Rory's age and perspective are going to affect her views on the religion, I think that the small attempts to paint some Christians as good people should have gone a little further. Not every Christian is a fundamentalist. Many do adhere to the "do good" part of the religion and the other moral standards that make up the great parts of Christianity.
I was totally caught off guard by the ending of this book and can't decide if I like or hate the way that it ended. Without giving anything away I just want to say justice for Paula, the only character I cared about in this whole book. I suppose it probably was the most realistic ending but in a book that wholly challenges reality we didn't really need a realistic ending. I think I would have preferred to see the aftermath and get more answers than have such an abrupt ending, but I understand why the author chose to end this book the way that she did.
For all its problems, I was absolutely riveted by this book and couldn't put it down. I had to know what happened. I had to get the tea, sis! I looked forward to picking it up each time I had the chance to listen and enjoyed the narration by Nora Hunter. So I can't say that I don't recommend it, because it was well-paced with a really interesting premise that kept me hooked looking for answers. If it sounds interesting to you definitely give it a go! Particularly if you enjoy speculative fiction about women's rights or you liked The Divines by Ellie Eaton or The Book of Essie by Meghan MacLean Weir. Thanks to libro.fm's ALC program for a free copy of this audio!
While they are hiding out and running from the law, Rory, a very opinionated atheist who is unafraid to go against the grain on her blog, documents the events leading up to and immediately following the bombing. She is convinced the truth will prevail once the media circus surrounding their fugitive status dies down and more facts surrounding the crime come to the surface. Rory has been suspicious of the new girl, Jinny Hutsall, her relationship with the Christian rock superstar Jagger Jonze, and his motivations within their wealthy and tight-knit double-gated Calabasas community for quite some time, and she is determined to illuminate their role in the entire fiasco. But will her truth be enough to convince the rabid Christian crusaders that have taken over the country?
It is clear that this book was inspired by the division evident in the US during the Trump presidency and the topics of abortion and women's right that took center stage then and continue to be hotly debated presently. This topic is timely and absolutely relevant, but I think it needs to be handled with more finesse than it was in this book. Since all of the characters except Paula (10/10 we STAN Paula) are completely unbearable asswipes, it is very hard to garner sympathy towards them and their plight. I haven't finished Handmaid's Tale but I have read enough of it and understand its place in the culture well enough to say it's probably a superior choice in terms of speculative fiction regarding women's reproductive rights and its connection with hyperreligious Christians. That being said, this book is clearly more teen-friendly, and I think it's appropriate for a high school audience.
Speaking of being teen-friendly, good Lord the attempts this author makes at writing like a 16-year-old Gen Z-er are so cringey at some points. There is a lot of bad writing in this book. Teenagers are generally not this stupid or annoying in my experience. Sure, there's a handful of them, but someone who is supposed to be as smart and well-educated as Rory, the daughter of two mostly liberal immigration lawyers—not to mention a SIXTEEN YEAR OLD HUMAN BEING, a person who can legally drive, a person who has presumably been able to read for a decade at a minimum—is not seriously going to be out here talking in this horrible sentence structure: "I told Fee to take a shower, because smell." "Calabasas is pretty famous, because Kardashians." Oh my GOD the book did this so liberally and often I wanted to tear my hair out. Because this book is written in the format of a blog post on her blog that has a pretty sizable following, shouldn't we assume Rory is a better writer than this? I think it has less to do with Lori Lansens' actual skills as a writer and more with her choice to try to lean so heavily into the voice of a 16-year-old that she comes out sounding like a 12-year-old that watches way too much TikTok. And there was one line that was honestly unbelievable (and in that amazingly stupid sentence structure, because bad writing) about one of the guys that Rory's friend was crushing on being "hot but kind of spectrum-y." Can we just... not say things like spectrum-y? Ever? Thanks in advance for never saying that again.
Rory is frequently grating as a main character, so firmly fixated on having open-minded beliefs that it often times makes her closed-minded and extremely childish. She had major only child energy so I guess that was effectively conveyed. But the real most annoying character was Fee. She was incredibly ignorant, naive, and honestly rude, mean, and essentially useless to Rory while they are going through this horrible thing together. While Rory is genuinely trying to think her way out of the situation, which is arguably Fee's fault when all the facts are exposed, Fee is content to completely give up with no concern about what it would mean for her, her best friend, or anyone else that has helped them along the way. It is also indicated that the way the book ends is also Fee's selfish dumbass fault. She drove me crazy and I had no empathy for her and her delusions, which is too bad, because empathizing with Fee in particular is pretty essential to connecting to the storyline in this book. The rest of Rory and Fee's friend group, "The Hive," all felt like caricatures with no depth to them and it was honestly appalling how fast they were willing to turn on their longtime friends. It just really made no sense to me; my friends in high school and I were so tight at that time and we would never. I also hated Sherman and thought that maybe we should have been given SOMETHING to like about him. There was nothing. I really enjoy books where you're meant to dislike the main characters (think My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh, People Like Her by Ellery Lloyd or The New Me by Halle Butler), but I don't think we were supposed to dislike them in this book, so feeling that way about them detracted from my enjoyment of this story.
I also think the discussion of Christianity in this book was too skewed in the "against" direction. I no longer consider myself a Christian but I was raised in both Catholic and more non-denominational churches and most of my family remains Christian, and while I understand that Rory's age and perspective are going to affect her views on the religion, I think that the small attempts to paint some Christians as good people should have gone a little further. Not every Christian is a fundamentalist. Many do adhere to the "do good" part of the religion and the other moral standards that make up the great parts of Christianity.
I was totally caught off guard by the ending of this book and can't decide if I like or hate the way that it ended. Without giving anything away I just want to say justice for Paula, the only character I cared about in this whole book. I suppose it probably was the most realistic ending but in a book that wholly challenges reality we didn't really need a realistic ending. I think I would have preferred to see the aftermath and get more answers than have such an abrupt ending, but I understand why the author chose to end this book the way that she did.
For all its problems, I was absolutely riveted by this book and couldn't put it down. I had to know what happened. I had to get the tea, sis! I looked forward to picking it up each time I had the chance to listen and enjoyed the narration by Nora Hunter. So I can't say that I don't recommend it, because it was well-paced with a really interesting premise that kept me hooked looking for answers. If it sounds interesting to you definitely give it a go! Particularly if you enjoy speculative fiction about women's rights or you liked The Divines by Ellie Eaton or The Book of Essie by Meghan MacLean Weir. Thanks to libro.fm's ALC program for a free copy of this audio!