2 Book Lovers Reviews

I’m writing this review right after finishing this novel, and I feel emotionally depleted. It is a thought-provoking, relevant, and moving novel. With every tragic event that inundates our newsfeeds, there was no way that this book wouldn’t hit hard. We Are the Light deals with the tragedy, grief, trauma, PTSD, and healing after a heinous act leaves eighteen people dead in small-town Pennsylvania.

While each victim and citizen handled the tragedy differently, Quick examined Lucas’s mental state and his undoing, especially after his psychoanalyst stopped taking his weekly appointments with him. His analyst had been his saving grace for a few years, helping Lucas overcome many issues in his life. Now that his life had been changed forever, Lucas felt he needed his analyst’s guidance now more than ever.

We Are the Light is written in epistolary style from Lucas to his psychoanalyst. This gave the novel a very personal feel. I felt Lucas’s pain and desperation through each letter that he penned.

While this novel is dark at times, and the subject matter disturbing, it is also filled with a great deal of hope. Hope for the survivors, hope for the community, and hope for healing. It speaks of the fragility, but also the strength and resilience of the human psyche.

Quick writes with great emotion, grace, and care regarding the topic and his characters. It is a thoughtful novel and a heartfelt portrayal of mental illness. Lucas’s pain and suffering was palpable and dripped off the pages, or maybe those were just my tears.

*4 Stars 

Please feel free to comment or share.

See more of Shelley's Contemporary Romance & Fiction