A Certain Slant of Light

A Certain Slant of Light by Laura Whitcomb
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

First thought: this book portrays love as such a tender feeling. Love, death, and forgiveness were presented in a very lovely and tender way. Death was not something daunting and straightforward like going to heaven or hell, instead, it was about ghost wandering on Earth, haunting places or people. It later dawned on me that the ultimate reason for Helen and James to stay on Earth so long was because they refused to listen to the people who loved them forgiving them. It was so sweet.

What I liked the most about this book was the twist of Death. Helen being a ghost and hunting hosts was the most fascinating part. Even more fascinating that going inside someone else's body and experiencing sensations that are common for the living. She could glide around them, watch them live and perform every day activities whereas she just looked. My favorite host of hers was Mr. Brown. He's the kind of guy I hope to date one day :D The moment Helen was Jenny, and she was reading that letter to Mr. Brown was so emotive. Whitcomb expressed Helen's feelings so well, and the writing was just wonderful and beautiful that I felt tears prickling the edges of my eyes. That is one of the two most emotive parts of this book that I found not likely to be forgotten.

At first, I was slightly annoyed and baffled when James and Helen took Billy and Jenny's bodies respectively. With James I could understand, he was saving Billy, preventing something evil from entering Billy's emptied body. However, James and Helen took Jenny's body because of the need to touch each other. That disgusted me for some time, but I came to understand and accept it later on. The changes both of them were doing in the teenagers' own respective families make the taking of the body worthwhile. It taught everybody a lesson. Both teenagers come from different background, but the situations are somewhat similar.

Then there is James. He is such a gentleman. Their love came too fast and sudden for me to complete understand and grasp, but I can buy it. It was breath-taking whenever they were together, speaking of their love to each other. Although it was creepy that both adults had practically stole teenagers' body in order to have sex. In any case, this had an ulterior motive to be, and I understood it perfectly. Both ghosts were saving these teenagers, one consumed by the drugs and another being crunched and overwhelmed by the strictness of her parents. The last I read about James/Billy was of them going to prison (with Mitch) to see Billy's father. I can imagine what happened while during the visit. Billy's ghost came back because he felt something great was going to happen, because he knew Billy's body was in danger (just like when Verna told the story about what happened to Billy's father when he got too drunk). However, Mitch was there to protect Billy now. Tender, sweet, lovely.

Speaking of saving, comes the other emotive part of the book. The part towards the end, when Helen, not alone trapped in Jenny's body, decides to face her fear and get out of Jenny's body. I gasped, I was terrified of what might happen to Jenny's body after Helen exited. Fortunately everything ended up fine, and Billy Blake came looking for Jenny. The sentence was:

I felt my heart fold out like a blossom not only because Jenny had saved herself and Billy had found her but also because I was being drawn to heaven at last."

That single sentence summarized the entire book for me: Helen and James weren't left to wander the Earth and not being admitted into Heaven. It was to save these two teenagers and have them found each other. Finally though, both of them went to Heaven where they found all their loved ones.

Okay, not the writing. Metaphors, personifications, and imagery are totally, absolutely, without a doubt, very beautiful. I could picture everything with my mind. Every emotion could be materialized and it was simply astounding and a pleasure to read.

Recommended! I feel like picking up the phone and dialing to all my friends just to recommend this book. It's been a while (and in extremely rare occasions) since the last time I opened up a romance book. Good riddance.

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