Review: The Light Fantastic

The Light Fantastic
by Sarah Combs

Rating: 3/5 stars
Recommend: No

I liked the idea of The Light Fantastic but didn't necessarily enjoy the execution. Set four days after the Boston Marathon bombing and skipping between narrators, Combs explores gun violence and what may lead teens to those dark feelings.

The wide range of narrators was not executed as well as it could have been. I would have appreciated it if it was either from the perspective of those connected to April or the Assassins, not a few of each. Some of the kids had only a few chapters and that was adequate for their stories. Others characters were kind of floating stories with no, or little to no, connection with everyone else, which confused me a little.

April was by far the most developed narrator. With a photographic memory, April gives glimpses of not only her life but her classmates growing up. It is a good exploration into how others view you when contrasted with narration of these classmates themselves. Those that are suffering deep down may seem fine to everyone else.

Other narrators are strangely underused and not explained. The teacher, for example, didn't really seem to ever establish a purpose for being in the story. At the end of the book, I wasn't quite sure what she had to do with the overarching plot with Lincoln. It seemed like an effort to add an adult to the narrative, but the book would have been stronger, in my opinion, told just by the teens.

I really did want to like this book, it was a great, relevant, topic, but it was not my favorite.

Thanks NetGalley a copy to review!