This Raging Light - Estelle Laure

I happen to have reviewed several novels for Cuckoo which are aimed at people younger than me. I don’t mind this at all; I’ve discovered some great books. But it meant that when reviewing This Raging Light, a young adult novel, I had to come at it with a different approach. Instead of thinking “would kids like this and is it appropriate for kids”, I simply had to ask myself “do I like this book?” And answering that question isn’t as easy as you might expect.

The story tells of Lucille, a 17-year-old who has to look after her little sister Wren after their mother abandons them. She is also falling passionately and hopelessly in love with Digby, her best friend’s twin. The plot is fairly simple and covers a relatively short period of time, meaning everything is rather intense with huge helpings of description, metaphor and fancy prose.

One of the complicating factors for me reviewing This Raging Light is that it treads very similar ground to two of my all-time favourite books: Katherine Paterson’s The Same Stuff as Stars and Jenny Valentine’s Broken Soup. All three deal with a girl having to take sole care of a younger sibling and hide from the authorities. I feel This Raging Light handles this idea less convincingly than the others: Lucille and Wren let so much slip to the other characters that I find it hard to believe they get away with their situation for so long.

It also isn’t clear to me why they are so desperate to avoid the care system. Lucille stresses that their New Jersey town is safe and pleasant, to the point where she feels able to leave their door unlocked, so surely the social services there can’t be so awful. They also count the days to Lucille turning 18 as if then everything will magically fall into place. Why? Will she become her sister’s legal guardian? Some explanation would have been helpful.

I didn’t really buy the romance. Digby cheats on his girlfriend and confuses and upsets the already-stressed Lucille. I got sick of him pretty quickly. Eden, his twin and Lucille’s supposed best friend, is horrible throughout the book and Lucille’s loving descriptions of her just don’t match with what we actually see. The only relationship I believed in was Lucille and Wren’s sisterly bond – the best parts of the novel are them just living their lives. When, towards the end of the book, Wren is in a mildly worrying situation and one of the twins is in a terrible one, I was way more concerned about Wren.

Overall, I found this novel interesting but not as incandescent as it seems from the title and cover. There are some powerful moments and some gorgeous – if over-the-top – prose. While I find the romance a bit off, I do recommend This Raging Light if you want to read about brave and feisty sisters surviving against the odds.


*This review was originally written for Cuckoo Review (New Writing North) and is reprinted with permission*