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juushikaTitle: A Certain Slant of Light
Author: Laura Whitcomb
Published: Boston: Hughton Mifflin Company, 2005
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 282
Total Page Count: 44,171
Text Number: 128
Read For: personal enjoyment, checked out from the library
Short review: Helen is a ghost: for the last 130 years, she has haunted a series of hosts, following their lives until death, seeing everything without ever being seen. But one day, in the class room of her current host, a high school English teacher, someone—a young man—sees Helen for the first time. Although scared, Helen is also intrigued, and the two become friends, starting them on an unusual journey as they struggle to find a way to be together and to come to terms with their pasts and the lives of the young people that they come to possess. A Certain Slant of Light is a well-conceived take of life after death, an honest and often harsh assessment of human life and relationships, and a very strange take on the usual coming of age story. The book's originality is its chief strength, as neither the writing nor the characters and character growth are exceptional. An unique, readable, but ultimately forgettable text that does not seem to be geared towards young adults.
Despite the apparently innocuous setting and many of the characters—a modern American high school, peopled by the usual disparate selection of students and middle-aged teachers—this is a far cry from your average young adult novel. The protagonist is a long-dead ghost, and the couple that makes up the primary storyline is a pair of adult ghosts occupying the bodies of teenagers. This originality and break from convention is the book's greatest strength. Whitcomb's conception of this version of life after death is detailed and delicate, granted an ethereal aspect by the writing style. As a result, the otherwise unexciting stories of self-discovery and star-crossed love become unusual and all the more interesting, with a great part of that interest invested in discovering why the ghosts exist and what abilities and influence they have. The ghosts also bring to life the only YA-related portion of the book: the troubled and repressed lives of the young adults whose bodies they possess. Their mature and removed insight makes these stories poignant and points out how things go wrong—and how no one intends for them to do so. For all of these reasons and more, the ghosts are the highlight of the novel, defining plot and style and proving to be the most important and meaningful aspect.
Unfortunately, in all other respects this book is not exceptional, meaningful, or particularly interesting. Both the romance and the coming of age stories that fill the pages of the book are, in all ways excluding the ghost aspect, nothing new. The lovers have to fight through social conventions and their personal histories in order to feed their passionate new love; the characters must come to terms with what they have done, putting aside their long-held shame and fears to reevaluate their lives and learn to forgive themselves. Even the YA-aspect is nothing new: the children must stand up to the status quo of trouble and repression in order to resolve personal and family issues and reclaim their own lives. The conclusions to all of these threads are predictable, and the last chapter of the book is a simplistic, perfect ending. The writing style, again excluding the ghosts (upon which Whitcomb writes with delicate grace) is similarly unimpressive: well-structured, but alternately dry and maudlin, and without a distinctive style. A Certain Slant of Light is by no means a bad book—the characters are realistically conceived, the narrative voice approachable, the plot and writing both swiftly readable—but it is not astounding, distinct, or in any way remarkable.
I admire this book for Whitcomb's ghosts—their conception, and the style in which she writes about their lives from their point of view. It is a promising concept, entirely unique with a distinctive ethereal air that makes many moments in the text delicate and poignant. On the whole, however, I found this novel to be something of a disappointment. None of the plotlines live up to the potential of the ghosts themselves, and the conclusions are trite and so simple that they undercut the complexity of the story and interpersonal relationships within it. I also want to note that I don't consider this book to be a YA novel, and I don't recommend it to YA readers. The bodies that the ghosts possess are young adults, and the plot lines that revolve around those assumed identities are applicable to young adults, but on the whole this is an adult novel that incidentally includes some teenagers—as evidenced by the mature relationship between the lovers, by the sex scenes, by the age of the ghosts before their death, and by the "coming of age" which is more of a discovery of identity than a creation of identity. I recommend A Certain Slant of Light to readers who are interested in a detailed conception of ghosts as characters and are interested in an alternative take on many standard storytelling cliches, and the book is swiftly, sometimes compulsively readable. However, I do not strongly recommend it, I do not recommend it specifically to a YA audience (although, even with the sex scenes, it is appropriate for YA readers), and I don't recommend purchasing it. This is a fast, innovative, but ultimately disappointing book, and probably it will not hold up well to rereads.
Review posted here at Amazon.com.
Author: Laura Whitcomb
Published: Boston: Hughton Mifflin Company, 2005
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 282
Total Page Count: 44,171
Text Number: 128
Read For: personal enjoyment, checked out from the library
Short review: Helen is a ghost: for the last 130 years, she has haunted a series of hosts, following their lives until death, seeing everything without ever being seen. But one day, in the class room of her current host, a high school English teacher, someone—a young man—sees Helen for the first time. Although scared, Helen is also intrigued, and the two become friends, starting them on an unusual journey as they struggle to find a way to be together and to come to terms with their pasts and the lives of the young people that they come to possess. A Certain Slant of Light is a well-conceived take of life after death, an honest and often harsh assessment of human life and relationships, and a very strange take on the usual coming of age story. The book's originality is its chief strength, as neither the writing nor the characters and character growth are exceptional. An unique, readable, but ultimately forgettable text that does not seem to be geared towards young adults.
Despite the apparently innocuous setting and many of the characters—a modern American high school, peopled by the usual disparate selection of students and middle-aged teachers—this is a far cry from your average young adult novel. The protagonist is a long-dead ghost, and the couple that makes up the primary storyline is a pair of adult ghosts occupying the bodies of teenagers. This originality and break from convention is the book's greatest strength. Whitcomb's conception of this version of life after death is detailed and delicate, granted an ethereal aspect by the writing style. As a result, the otherwise unexciting stories of self-discovery and star-crossed love become unusual and all the more interesting, with a great part of that interest invested in discovering why the ghosts exist and what abilities and influence they have. The ghosts also bring to life the only YA-related portion of the book: the troubled and repressed lives of the young adults whose bodies they possess. Their mature and removed insight makes these stories poignant and points out how things go wrong—and how no one intends for them to do so. For all of these reasons and more, the ghosts are the highlight of the novel, defining plot and style and proving to be the most important and meaningful aspect.
Unfortunately, in all other respects this book is not exceptional, meaningful, or particularly interesting. Both the romance and the coming of age stories that fill the pages of the book are, in all ways excluding the ghost aspect, nothing new. The lovers have to fight through social conventions and their personal histories in order to feed their passionate new love; the characters must come to terms with what they have done, putting aside their long-held shame and fears to reevaluate their lives and learn to forgive themselves. Even the YA-aspect is nothing new: the children must stand up to the status quo of trouble and repression in order to resolve personal and family issues and reclaim their own lives. The conclusions to all of these threads are predictable, and the last chapter of the book is a simplistic, perfect ending. The writing style, again excluding the ghosts (upon which Whitcomb writes with delicate grace) is similarly unimpressive: well-structured, but alternately dry and maudlin, and without a distinctive style. A Certain Slant of Light is by no means a bad book—the characters are realistically conceived, the narrative voice approachable, the plot and writing both swiftly readable—but it is not astounding, distinct, or in any way remarkable.
I admire this book for Whitcomb's ghosts—their conception, and the style in which she writes about their lives from their point of view. It is a promising concept, entirely unique with a distinctive ethereal air that makes many moments in the text delicate and poignant. On the whole, however, I found this novel to be something of a disappointment. None of the plotlines live up to the potential of the ghosts themselves, and the conclusions are trite and so simple that they undercut the complexity of the story and interpersonal relationships within it. I also want to note that I don't consider this book to be a YA novel, and I don't recommend it to YA readers. The bodies that the ghosts possess are young adults, and the plot lines that revolve around those assumed identities are applicable to young adults, but on the whole this is an adult novel that incidentally includes some teenagers—as evidenced by the mature relationship between the lovers, by the sex scenes, by the age of the ghosts before their death, and by the "coming of age" which is more of a discovery of identity than a creation of identity. I recommend A Certain Slant of Light to readers who are interested in a detailed conception of ghosts as characters and are interested in an alternative take on many standard storytelling cliches, and the book is swiftly, sometimes compulsively readable. However, I do not strongly recommend it, I do not recommend it specifically to a YA audience (although, even with the sex scenes, it is appropriate for YA readers), and I don't recommend purchasing it. This is a fast, innovative, but ultimately disappointing book, and probably it will not hold up well to rereads.
Review posted here at Amazon.com.
