Stars: ★★★/5
In the class of the high school English teacher she has been haunting, Helen feels them: for the first time in 130 years, human eyes are looking at her. They belong to a boy, a boy who has not seemed remarkable until now. And Helen--terrified, but intrigued--is drawn to him. The fact that he is in a body and she is not presents this unlikely couple with their first challenge. But as the lovers struggle to find a way to be together, they begin to discover the secrets of their former lives and of the young people they come to possess.
I warmed up to A Certain Slant of Light because, even though it's shelved as YA paranormal romance, it has a very adult feel to it. It has less to do with teenage puppy love and more to do with deep, real, long-lasting love – in that it is experienced by two adults for whom this love means their existence, and for who I believed could not truly live without it. It's whole and consuming and gave the entire book a decidedly serious mood.
That said, I wasn't wholly satisfied with the development of the relationship between Helen and her romantic interest, James. There were some pacing problems that, though they didn't ruin the authenticity of their romance, left me a little underwhelmed.
For the most part, however, I believe more forgiving readers will really enjoy A Certain Slant of Light. As I said, it's a very touching read and so beautifully conceived. I found Helen’s fears and her resignation to her long, lonely fate, complex and moving and oddly relatable. There are moments when she is thankful just for the silent companionship of her hosts, and others where she hungers for more. Her relationships with her previous hosts, her devotion and affection for them, were some of the most sincerely rendered portions of A Certain Slant of Light. It was here that I found Helen, and the story, most captivating. But when A Certain Slant of Light transitioned more into the ground of her host body Jenny's life and once her physical relationship with James began, I found my interest waning. I was definitely more interested in the first half of the book than the second.
I appreciate how Helen and James felt about one another, I do, but I wasn't as interested in their relationship once they interacted with one another in a physical environment. The second half of their romance lacked the pacing and heart of the first, and my reading experience suffered because of that. Afterwards, I was far more interested in the other details of A Certain Slant of Light – Jenny, Billy, Jenny’s family and Helen's hosts. Still, Helen and James worked for me overall. I felt their relationship became a bit too ill handled mid story and in need of some substance, but there was still something tender about their needs and wants in each other. Even when I wasn't really invested in their relationship, I still believed in it.
While it ended up falling a little flat for me (with some redemption in the end), I do believe that most readers will be engaged by Helen, James and their mutual need to find somebody in a great, big, empty world.
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