In the Wild Light

This book is like two different novels that have been shoe-horned together. It started well but as soon as our protagonist and his girl bestie arrive at boarding school, it became a cliché fish-out-of-water tale that has been done to death. But then the story goes back to Kentucky (or wherever it was) and its engaging again. The real story, the good parts, are all about Cash's sad small town life and his dying Papaw and its very beautifully wrought. But the novel is ruined by this boarding school weirdness that feels like it was written by another author. I'm so annoyed.

I received a free copy of this book for review from the publisher.

This was a beautiful book! Zentner does a great job of capturing rural, small town life and the mix of culture shock and homesickness that happens when you leave. I loved the inclusion of poetry and what a revelation that can be as well as some great teen friendships. Cash and Alex's friendship was so beautiful and sweet. It's always nice to read a nontoxic, supportive male friendship in a teen book!

Finally: I was told I would cry and I did.

aaaaaaaaI loved Jeff Zentner's first book [b:The Serpent King 22752127 The Serpent King Jeff Zentner https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1435673762l/22752127.SY75.jpg 42298618], but then his 2nd book [b:Goodbye Days 30649795 Goodbye Days Jeff Zentner https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1476384938l/30649795.SY75.jpg 51192309] really didn't do it for me so I didn't pick up his 3rd book. But then I heard some raves about this one (his 4th) and saw it on NetGalley and decided to give it a chance and whew......the emotional devastation.....this book is so beautiful. I kept trying to read it on my lunch break at work and I'd get teary-eyed at every chapter–not even because it was explicitly sad always but it was just so poignant and moving. Anyway I read the final 30% at home instead of work and I was just MESSY CRYING oh heck my emotions!!! PS I was talking about this with a friend and she was like “I read that the one girl gets a scholarship to boarding school and asks for one for her best friend and they just give him one, is that a thing?” and I was like “ok.......in the specific context of the book it does seem plausible but I have no idea if it would ever happen like that in real life.” So if you, too, are struggling with that premise I think that since Delaney is presented as such a genius student who's made this big discovery so schools are fighting over her, and she's making the case that if she's changing schools junior year and she won't know anyone there, and that Cash helped with her discovery and also has good grades, and also her specific scholarship is being funded by 1 specific donor who really wants her to go to that specific boarding school....like, sure, 2 scholarships, why not? Get over the logistics and get into your box of Kleenex.