Review by emilyderrenbacker -- The Light of the Dying
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emilyderrenbacker
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Review by emilyderrenbacker -- The Light of the Dying
[Following is a volunteer review of "The Light of the Dying" by Michelle Reynoso.]
The Light of the Dying is the second book of The Girl, The Pendant, and the Portal Series by Michelle Reynoso. The story starts off with main character Faith McDaniels waking up in the hospital where she was left injured after being found at the scene of a house burning down along with her brother and boyfriend. Once the police become involved and question her, Faith takes a chance and escapes the hospital to meet up with her friends and pursue the location of the box she was able to trap Him in. Haunted by the voice of Him and His power to control people, Faith struggles to gain control of the Enlitra, at times putting her own friends at risk. Faith and her friends attempt to outrun both the police and Him while she discovers that her powers are desperately needed to save humanity and the people of Enlitra.
I really enjoyed the descriptions of the Enlitra and how Faith sees it, feels it, and moves it. Some of my favorite scenes from the book were when Faith uses energy. These scenes include a lot of explanation into how the energy works: to heal her brother, she needed to have knowledge of the human body. I love when authors go in depth into how these abilities work rather than just making it instantaneous. All of the main characters felt real and showed growth throughout the book, which I really appreciated as well. Tomas was the most interesting character to me because it felt as though he had a lot left to be revealed. His interactions with Faith and the group dynamics as a whole kept the story enjoyable. Another one of my favorite parts of the book were the chapter titles! I don’t see chapter titles that often in YA books anymore, so it was refreshing to see, and they provide excitement and encouragement to keep reading.
What I disliked was that there’s a lack of explanation or reminders for the reader to remember what happened at the end of the previous book. There should be a scene where Faith tries to remember what happened which would allow the reader to recall the specifics of the previous book.
At the end of chapter two in the paragraph that starts with “thirteen days ago,” the author takes some grammatical liberties to create short sentences for emphasis, but it feels too choppy, especially with the sentences that start with “and.” Instead of being effective, it’s distracting. Other than this, there are few grammatical errors. During scenes full of dialogue, there is little variation from the words “said” and “asked” which makes it hard for the reader to determine how the characters are feeling and how they are speaking. One small thing that bothered me was that I’ve never seen the text abbreviations Kiara and Faith used in real life, so when they had conversations over text I had no idea what they were saying.
I think there could be more emotion shown from Faith as events are happening. Even if she doesn’t show emotions outwardly, describing her internal emotions would help make her more relatable and develop her character. We learn what she is like only through how she responds to events and people, but we rarely feel her internal emotions. The fast pace throughout the entire book kept me interested, especially as the plot got more serious. However, I feel conflicted about the end. The final scenes were exciting, but a lot was left unsaid about the box, Faith’s mom, and Him. How these things are all interconnected is still confusing to me after finishing the book. Because of an overall good plot, I rate this book 3 out of 4 stars.
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The Light of the Dying
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
The Light of the Dying is the second book of The Girl, The Pendant, and the Portal Series by Michelle Reynoso. The story starts off with main character Faith McDaniels waking up in the hospital where she was left injured after being found at the scene of a house burning down along with her brother and boyfriend. Once the police become involved and question her, Faith takes a chance and escapes the hospital to meet up with her friends and pursue the location of the box she was able to trap Him in. Haunted by the voice of Him and His power to control people, Faith struggles to gain control of the Enlitra, at times putting her own friends at risk. Faith and her friends attempt to outrun both the police and Him while she discovers that her powers are desperately needed to save humanity and the people of Enlitra.
I really enjoyed the descriptions of the Enlitra and how Faith sees it, feels it, and moves it. Some of my favorite scenes from the book were when Faith uses energy. These scenes include a lot of explanation into how the energy works: to heal her brother, she needed to have knowledge of the human body. I love when authors go in depth into how these abilities work rather than just making it instantaneous. All of the main characters felt real and showed growth throughout the book, which I really appreciated as well. Tomas was the most interesting character to me because it felt as though he had a lot left to be revealed. His interactions with Faith and the group dynamics as a whole kept the story enjoyable. Another one of my favorite parts of the book were the chapter titles! I don’t see chapter titles that often in YA books anymore, so it was refreshing to see, and they provide excitement and encouragement to keep reading.
What I disliked was that there’s a lack of explanation or reminders for the reader to remember what happened at the end of the previous book. There should be a scene where Faith tries to remember what happened which would allow the reader to recall the specifics of the previous book.
At the end of chapter two in the paragraph that starts with “thirteen days ago,” the author takes some grammatical liberties to create short sentences for emphasis, but it feels too choppy, especially with the sentences that start with “and.” Instead of being effective, it’s distracting. Other than this, there are few grammatical errors. During scenes full of dialogue, there is little variation from the words “said” and “asked” which makes it hard for the reader to determine how the characters are feeling and how they are speaking. One small thing that bothered me was that I’ve never seen the text abbreviations Kiara and Faith used in real life, so when they had conversations over text I had no idea what they were saying.
I think there could be more emotion shown from Faith as events are happening. Even if she doesn’t show emotions outwardly, describing her internal emotions would help make her more relatable and develop her character. We learn what she is like only through how she responds to events and people, but we rarely feel her internal emotions. The fast pace throughout the entire book kept me interested, especially as the plot got more serious. However, I feel conflicted about the end. The final scenes were exciting, but a lot was left unsaid about the box, Faith’s mom, and Him. How these things are all interconnected is still confusing to me after finishing the book. Because of an overall good plot, I rate this book 3 out of 4 stars.
******
The Light of the Dying
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Latest Review: Opaque by Calix Leigh-Reign
