In The Wild Light

I’m in awe! This book is like a love song so mesmerizing, you put it on repeat again and again. Like a poem so vivid, it’s etched into your mind forever. Like prose so tangible, it touches your whole being. And it’s YA, y’all!!

‘When you grow up with ugliness and corruption, you surrender to beauty ... You let it save you, if only for the time it takes a snowflake to melt on your tongue, or for the sun to sink below the horizon in a wildfire of clouds.’

I loved The Serpent King, a beautiful story! An easy five star read. And this? I’d like to give it a million stars. It’s a gem! It could easily be a literary masterpiece! Jeff Zentner juggles with words and puts them together in a hypnotizing way. It left me longing and breathless and smiling and silent and crying and so much more. How can someone make me feel so many emotions just by putting words together?

‘Sometimes a clear day will cloud up without your noticing, until a gust of rain-scented wind nearly steals your balance. That’s how the homesickness hits my center of gravity.’

And then the story itself. Don’t read it because you want to read a book with a major plot. This is a character driven story and quite simple, but when Jeff Zentner uses his magic, even the simplest things become magnificent. Let this story take your breath away. Let the writing flood you, just feel the warmth, hear the cicadas, smell the grass. Feel Cash’s doubts, endure his homesickness, feel his love for the people around him.

‘In the dim of the porch light I see his eyes, ardent with furious love. It burns through the darkness in me. It pulls me from the maelstrom and drops me, dripping and shivering on the shore.’

Lastly that cover and title! Like the story they’re simple, and so breathtaking at the same time! It fits Cash and the writing perfectly. And ... I strongly believe this story should not only be pitched as a YA. Like I said above, this could easily be a literary masterpiece!

‘There are days when your heart is so filled with this world’s beauty, it feels like holding too much of something in your hand. Days that taste like wild honey.’

Thank you so much Jeff Zentner for writing this gorgeous story!! I’m still in awe... And everyone reading this review, even if you normally don’t read YA: please read this brilliant gem of a book!

‘Life often won’t freely give you moments of joy. Sometimes you have to wrench them away and cup them in your hands, to protect them from the wind and rain. Art is a pair of cupped hands. Poetry is a pair of cupped hands.’

In The Wild Light is such a wonderful and heartbreaking novel
With some amazing characters that I fell in love with (Delaney is my favourite)
A brilliant book that I was very lucky to be able to read before publication thank you so much Jeff Zentner for writing it ❤️
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Nobody writes coming of age stories like Jeff Zentner! Packed with raw emotion and gorgeous prose this was every bit as memorable as his debut (which I sobbed through).