This Raging Light
Estelle Laure
Lu has bills to pay, a kid to babysit and high-school to go to. Wait. Aren’t those first two supposed to be done by your parents? But Lu has noone else to turn to, and it’s up to her to keep her little family together and stop Wren going off into care.
When will I get tired of extreme-situation teenage novels? Maybe some time soon. I’m feeling an end of my sympathy for idiots that let love get in the way of all things! But real life problems? Yes, I’ll take those. This novel isn’t too far off course for things that could happen. Who knows how many people are having this problem, and it’s just not picked up?
I liked the ending of this novel, because it was ambiguous. Doesn’t sound like me, does it? But after the whole novel being so uncertain, it just felt like it was the right way to end things.
Therapy, therapy, therapy. Every other novel at the moment is promoting therapy. Guided therapy that is, not just going off for a wander (ie. Lu and Wren’s mother). I can’t agree with what Lu and Wren’s father did, but I am all about Lu kicking her father’s butt when it was required.
I received a copy of this novel at a promotion event I went to at the Victorian State Library #YAmatters. I was late, since I was coming straight from work and there weren’t actually any samples left. Instead I got this beauty, which had a cut to its dust jacket. I let it sit on my shelf for months, then I decided to make the huge decision of tossing the dust jacket. Just seeing the fresh hardback got me in to reading it! Reminds me of the Raven Boys actually.
This novel is about seeing the good in people, but also standing up for yourself. It flies firmly in the positive spectrum for me, when compared to Beautiful Liar, which I read shortly before this one. I think I actually feel strongly enough about it to give it 4 stars.
