A Hidden Gift. A Deadly Hunt. An Unbreakable Bond.
Northaven may look idyllic, but those with songlight—a rare telepathic power—are ruthlessly hunted. Lark (Elsa) has spent her life in hiding, until a mysterious young woman (Kaira/Nightingale) from a distant city changes everything. Together, they must fight to survive in a world where fear rules and power is worth killing for. This story was nominated for a Carnegie Medal, and won The Bookseller’s YA Book Prize. So what did our group think about this dystopian tale with its cliffhanger ending?
Although this month’s book wasn’t necessarily something that some of the group would have chosen (one reader said they ‘wouldn’t have touched it with a bargepole from choice’), everyone who read Songlight liked it. As a YA novel, it was easy to read and had engaging and likeable characters, with one reader commenting how the story ‘really took me away from day to day life and into the the eyes of Lark and Nightingale’.
There were various comments about other YA and dystopian novels, such as Hunger Games, the Handmaid’s Tale, as well as books by Philip Pullman, but we felt that this novel stood up well in comparison. One group member felt that people with special powers being persecuted was a cliché, but this view wasn’t generally shared, with most enjoying the telepathy/songlight and describing it as ‘a new idea which isn’t easy in fantasy books’.
We found the novel very visual – probably because the author is also a screenwriter and the book apparently began life as a screenplay. The town of Northaven itself seemed very realistic, although two of our group saw it as different places (Stonehaven in Scotland, and Craster in Northumberland).
The characters of Elsa, Rye, Kaira, Piper, and Kingfisher, were particularly well written, with plenty of room for further development in the next book. We could definitely see this as a TV series and briefly discussed who would play which character.
All the events, from the ongoing war between the Aylish and the Brethren, the forced marriage of choirmaidens to veterans, Elsa and Rye’s forbidden songlight relationship, Nightingale hiding her songlight from her inquisitor father, the brutal punishment of Rye, the treatment of the chrysalids, and the attempted peace treaty were all described extremely vividly, and led to more than one reader staying up to find out what happened…
We did find the ending slightly unsatisfying, but this is the first book of a trilogy, so some loose ends were to be expected. Several of the group mentioned that they planned to read the sequel (Torchfire, which came out this summer) with comments like ‘I am now keen to read the second part’, ‘I want to read the next one’, and ‘I cannot wait to see how the characters develop over the remaining novels in the series and how they reshape their world’.
Our verdict? We scored Songlight 4/5
Christmas is coming!
Why not join our staff Wellbeing Reading Group on 6th January at 1230pm, when we’ll be discussing what we’ve been reading over the Christmas period? Old favourites, new recommendations – or that longed-for present that wasn’t what you’d been hoping… all welcome!
