We Are the Light

Really this should be zero stars. DNF. The constant references to phallic energy and all of the mansplaining put me over the edge.

CW: The “recent tragedy” referred to in the book description was a mass shooting at a movie theater, where 18 people (including the shooter) died. There is also reference to the MC discovering the body of a person who has died by suicide.

2.5 stars, rounded up only because Quick is so open about his own struggles with mental illness, which I admire. Unfortunately, by using Jungian analysis and archetypes to process his protagonist's grief, the author swings a little too close to misogyny. I'm all in favor of countering toxic masculinity, but in the process of modeling healthy male relationships, Quick reduces the female characters to clichés (they are all one dimensionally angelic, evil, mercenary, or nurturing).

I applaud a novel that shows men relating on an honest, emotional level, such as Lucas's relationships with his best friend Isaiah and the troubled teen who pitches his tent in Lucas's backyard. But Quick's reliance on antiquated female archetypes raised my hackles and prevented me from engaging fully in Lucas's journey beyond grief and trauma.

I wasn't sure what to expect going into this. I loved the notion of a book that included the presence of guardian angels, so I took the chance.

After a tragic incident in town, Lucas is grieving the death of his wife and battling the survivor's guilt that goes along with it. The way he copes is by writing a series of letters to his former analyst. These letters go unreplied, but he persists. In the meantime, he befriends Eli, a young man Lucas finds camping in his yard. They forge a friendship and begin a project together that further helps the healing process.

I enjoyed the structure of the book as well as the psychology involved. It was also an interesting interpretation of angels and how so often when we lose someone close to us there's a part of them that we hang on to. It manifests itself in different ways for each of us. As for the story itself, something was lacking for me. I didn't remain invested all the way through. Still, I enjoyed it perhaps more than I thought I would. 

This book was really good, about how we go through grief and heal at our own pace. I really liked the epistolary format here, and Luke Kirby should narrate most things.This one definitely reminded me of Silver Lining Playbook in vibe and writing style. I did call almost the whole ending really early on, which for something playing information so close to the chest, I wish was more of a surprise. Still a really good novel.

My full review is posted at https://literaryquicksand.com/2022/10/review-we-are-the-light-by-matthew-quick/

This book made me remember being in college in my English classes, talking about unreliable narrators. Lucas Goodgame really came off as an unreliable narrator, and he has a really good excuse: trauma.

The community of Majestic has experienced a tragedy, and the whole town is affected – especially the people with loved ones who perished in the tragedy.

In short, there's been a shooting in a movie theater, and Lucas's wife was shot and killed. The whole book is told in letters after the tragedy that Lucas writes to his therapist, who doesn't answer any of the letters. So, it's a narrative from a man in a deep depression who's seeing his wife appearing to him as an angel.

The best part of this book is Lucas's relationship with Eli. They're two people who clearly need camaraderie and somewhere to put their weird grief energy (which really is a real grief thing).

The grief and mental health stuff in this book was really well done, which I definitely expected from the author of The Silver Linings Playbook. Quick has a way of getting so deeply into the minds of his characters, and somehow conveying the complexity of their emotion to the reader.