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A review by greatlibraryofalexandra
This Little Light by Lori Lansens
2.0
Super disappointing. I had faith (ha) that this was going to be a solid 3 for most of the book (despite the more cringe/silly narrative choices) but after the last fifty pages or so, I had to convince myself not to be so harsh as to hate it.
The small things that were a bit off could have been overcome if the ending hadn’t been so cheap and lazily atrocious.
The blog format of the novel was great, but I had the wish washy complaint that Lansens didn’t commit enough to a true blog format. More than anything the book ended up just being a steak of word salad - teen bloggers don’t blog poke this. Lanaens’ attempt to talk like a teenager was freeing as well; it was unconvincing and awkward, particularly since this novel isn’t set too far in the future.
Mixing old slang with current slang and trying to project what future slang might be gave it a sloppy, irksome feel - “spoo” as a word for semen? “Plug” for tampon? Frequently using sentences such as “She was ick because daddies” or “we wore dresses because virgins” - it was just out of place and contrived. Poor choices.
Rory herself was irritating and prone to making grand assumptions and sweeping generalizations. She, and Paula, were both written as if Lansens had no idea what children of certain ages act like - wildly mature at some moments, wildly off putting at others. Also, the hero worship references to the Kardashians was consistent weird.
I think this book would have seriously benefited from reformatting and from a more in depth attention paid to some of the characters, but it got truly stupid when the barely-known Chase Mason shows up, professes his love for Rory, and the book turns into some wayward romance. That was a truly appalling choice for a story that has the potential to have so much feminist grit, and truly had so much else going on.
In the end, a lot of the cringe things I wanted to overlook because I liked the concept and was rooting for the story (and if Trumpers had stayed in power, I don’t think our future would have looked different than this) and it’s characters could not be looked ofer because the evolution of the story and lack of attention to some key archetypal characters was so brutally neglected. Some very, very serious issues seemed to have been thrown in for shock factor, and no attention to the devastating trauma they would have produced was given.
It’s unfortunate that this book didn’t hit its mark, because the concept had so much potential. What it ended up being is a bandwagon novel that tries to capitalize on things like “The Handmaid’s Tale” and fails to deliver.
The small things that were a bit off could have been overcome if the ending hadn’t been so cheap and lazily atrocious.
The blog format of the novel was great, but I had the wish washy complaint that Lansens didn’t commit enough to a true blog format. More than anything the book ended up just being a steak of word salad - teen bloggers don’t blog poke this. Lanaens’ attempt to talk like a teenager was freeing as well; it was unconvincing and awkward, particularly since this novel isn’t set too far in the future.
Mixing old slang with current slang and trying to project what future slang might be gave it a sloppy, irksome feel - “spoo” as a word for semen? “Plug” for tampon? Frequently using sentences such as “She was ick because daddies” or “we wore dresses because virgins” - it was just out of place and contrived. Poor choices.
Rory herself was irritating and prone to making grand assumptions and sweeping generalizations. She, and Paula, were both written as if Lansens had no idea what children of certain ages act like - wildly mature at some moments, wildly off putting at others. Also, the hero worship references to the Kardashians was consistent weird.
I think this book would have seriously benefited from reformatting and from a more in depth attention paid to some of the characters, but it got truly stupid when the barely-known Chase Mason shows up, professes his love for Rory, and the book turns into some wayward romance. That was a truly appalling choice for a story that has the potential to have so much feminist grit, and truly had so much else going on.
In the end, a lot of the cringe things I wanted to overlook because I liked the concept and was rooting for the story (and if Trumpers had stayed in power, I don’t think our future would have looked different than this) and it’s characters could not be looked ofer because the evolution of the story and lack of attention to some key archetypal characters was so brutally neglected. Some very, very serious issues seemed to have been thrown in for shock factor, and no attention to the devastating trauma they would have produced was given.
It’s unfortunate that this book didn’t hit its mark, because the concept had so much potential. What it ended up being is a bandwagon novel that tries to capitalize on things like “The Handmaid’s Tale” and fails to deliver.