YA Review: Songlight

Title: Songlight
Author: Moira Buffini
Edition:
Kindle ARC
Rating:
5/5

Songlight by Moira Buffini

What an absolutely gorgeous book!

The story follows three women with a form of telepathy called songlight, which they can use to find other telepaths, or ‘Torches’, and communicate in images and words. In the world of the book, two countries are at war. One values songlight, and gives their Torches important places in society, while the other fears their ability to manipulate the minds of others, and routinely sends them to be lobotomised and used as mindless servants.

Elsa cannot afford to tell anyone she has songlight – she knows she will be taken away from her family and operated on to destroy her ability. When someone close to her is imprisoned and taken away for having songlight, her distress draws another telepath to communicate with her, and they begin a long-distance friendship that must remain secret to protect them both.

Meanwhile, in the capital city, another telepath is keeping her abilities hidden as she lives and works at the top of government. As tensions rise between the warring parties, these three women find themselves at the heart of the negotiations – and risking discovery and betrayal to influence the course of the conflict.

While the narrative switches between various characters who find themselves caught up in the war, these three women are the focus of the story. Elsa is a strong protagonist – an outsider in her community, and resentful of the rules that dictate her life and her future. A strong sense of justice and fairness drives her story, and she finds her assumptions and beliefs challenged as she makes contact with telepaths across the two countries at war.

The other women face their own challenges, and as they become aware of each other, the danger of discovery increases.

My only disappointment with this book is that I didn’t know it was the start of a trilogy until I reached the end. I will be waiting very impatiently for the next instalment to find out what happens next! I can’t wait to meet these characters again.

Have you read Songlight? What did you think of the setting and the story? Click through to the full blog to access the comments section, and share your thoughts! No spoilers, though – you can post those on GoodReads!

YA review: Songlight cross-posted to GoodReads.


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YA Review: After the Fire

Title: After the Fire
Author: Will Hill
Edition:
Paperback
Rating:
5/5

After the Fire – cover graphic

Wow. This absolute page-turner is both heartbreaking and life-affirming, as the fifteen-year-old narrator tells the story of her life in a strict religious cult, and what happens when a government raid on their fortified compound brings everything she knows to an end.

Moonbeam has lived in the The Holy Church of the Lord’s Legion compound for as long as she can remember. Her father died when she was young, and she remembers the day her mother was banished from the cult and sent to live in the outside world, full of danger and unbelievers and government agents who want to capture and torture the followers of the True Path (according to their leader, Father John). Moonbeam stayed, and learned to fit in without her mother’s protection. She knows how to hide her doubts, protect her friends, and defend the community against outsiders.

When the government storms the compound, everything burns. The cult members use their guns and training, but they can’t fight soldiers and tanks. Moonbeam is appalled at the loss of life and the destruction of her home as she makes her way through the fighting to save the children she cares about.

In the outside world, Moonbeam joins the few survivors in hospital, and begins to tell her story to the psychiatrist in charge of her case. In as series of flashbacks and conversations, we learn about her experiences – about Father John’s absolute power within the cult, about daily life in the compound, and about her relationship with Nate, a newcomer to the community. We also discover the questions she won’t answer – what she was doing throughout the raid, what she knows about Father John, and why her mother made sure she was promised to the cult leader as a wife, even when she was trying to get them both out of the compound.

The answers come slowly, alongside Moonbeam’s interactions with the other child survivors – some of whom are angry that they weren’t taken to heaven with the cult members who died.

This is an absolutely gripping story, inspired by the disastrous 1993 government raid on the Branch Davidian cult in Waco, Texas. It is a human story with an extremely sympathetic and inspiringly strong narrator, and I never stopped cheering for her – even when some of her secrets are revealed.

I can’t recommend this book enough!

Have you read After the Fire? What did you think of Moonbeam’s story? Click through to the full blog to access the comments section, and share your thoughts! No spoilers, though – you can post those on GoodReads!

YA review: After the Fire cross-posted to GoodReads.


Please keep your comments YA appropriate. Be patient! We want to hear from you, but comments are moderated, and may take some time to appear. The comment section will close after five days.