In The Wild Light

This title was previously available on NetGalley and is now archived.
Buy on Amazon Buy on Waterstones.com
*This page contains affiliate links, so we may earn a small commission when you make a purchase through links on our site at no additional cost to you.
Send NetGalley books directly to your Kindle or Kindle app

1
To read on a Kindle or Kindle app, please add kindle@netgalley.com as an approved email address to receive files in your Amazon account. Click here for step-by-step instructions.
2
Also find your Kindle email address within your Amazon account, and enter it here.
Pub Date 5 Aug 2021 | Archive Date 31 Jul 2021

Talking about this book? Use #InTheWildLight #NetGalley. More hashtag tips!


Description

Life in a small Tennessee town is not easy. Cash lost his mother to an opioid addiction and his Papaw is dying slowly from emphysema. Dodging drug dealers and watching out for his smart but troubled best friend, Delaney, is second nature to Cash.

But when Delaney manages to secure both of them full scholarships to an elite school in Connecticut, Cash will have to grapple with his need to protect and love Delaney, and his fears about abandoning his old life.

From the award-winning author of The Serpent King comes a beautiful story of grief, found family, and young love.

Life in a small Tennessee town is not easy. Cash lost his mother to an opioid addiction and his Papaw is dying slowly from emphysema. Dodging drug dealers and watching out for his smart but...


Advance Praise

'This book is a deeply felt exploration into how friendships are sustained and fought for. In a way, it vitally redefines friendship as a privilege beyond convenient pleasure and excitement, but something more potent and true: that it must be protected, sacrificed for, and tended to with wisdom, patience, and love – and, to our luck, rendered in Zentner’s ever dependable, gem-like sentences' - Ocean Vuong

One of BuzzFeed’s 2021 YA Books to Look Forward To

'This book is a deeply felt exploration into how friendships are sustained and fought for. In a way, it vitally redefines friendship as a privilege beyond convenient pleasure and excitement, but...


Available Editions

EDITION Paperback
ISBN 9781839130847
PRICE £7.99 (GBP)

Available on NetGalley

NetGalley Shelf App (EPUB)
Send to Kindle (EPUB)

Average rating from 10 members


Featured Reviews

I’m in awe! This book is like a love song so mesmerizing, you put it on repeat again and again. Like a poem so vivid, it’s etched into your mind forever. Like prose so tangible, it touches your whole being. And it’s YA, y’all!!

‘When you grow up with ugliness and corruption, you surrender to beauty ... You let it save you, if only for the time it takes a snowflake to melt on your tongue, or for the sun to sink below the horizon in a wildfire of clouds.’

I loved The Serpent King, a beautiful story! An easy five star read. And this? I’d like to give it a million stars. It’s a gem! It could easily be a literary masterpiece! Jeff Zentner juggles with words and puts them together in a hypnotizing way. It left me longing and breathless and smiling and silent and crying and so much more. How can someone make me feel so many emotions just by putting words together?

‘Sometimes a clear day will cloud up without your noticing, until a gust of rain-scented wind nearly steals your balance. That’s how the homesickness hits my center of gravity.’

And then the story itself. Don’t read it because you want to read a book with a major plot. This is a character driven story and quite simple, but when Jeff Zentner uses his magic, even the simplest things become magnificent. Let this story take your breath away. Let the writing flood you, just feel the warmth, hear the cicadas, smell the grass. Feel Cash’s doubts, endure his homesickness, feel his love for the people around him.

‘In the dim of the porch light I see his eyes, ardent with furious love. It burns through the darkness in me. It pulls me from the maelstrom and drops me, dripping and shivering on the shore.’

Lastly that cover and title! Like the story they’re simple, and so breathtaking at the same time! It fits Cash and the writing perfectly. And ... I strongly believe this story should not only be pitched as a YA. Like I said above, this could easily be a literary masterpiece!

‘There are days when your heart is so filled with this world’s beauty, it feels like holding too much of something in your hand. Days that taste like wild honey.’

Thank you so much Jeff Zentner for writing this gorgeous story!! I’m still in awe... And everyone reading this review, even if you normally don’t read YA: please read this brilliant gem of a book!

‘Life often won’t freely give you moments of joy. Sometimes you have to wrench them away and cup them in your hands, to protect them from the wind and rain. Art is a pair of cupped hands. Poetry is a pair of cupped hands.’

Was this review helpful?

In The Wild Light is such a wonderful and heartbreaking novel
With some amazing characters that I fell in love with (Delaney is my favourite)
A brilliant book that I was very lucky to be able to read before publication thank you so much Jeff Zentner for writing it ❤️
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Was this review helpful?

Nobody writes coming of age stories like Jeff Zentner! Packed with raw emotion and gorgeous prose this was every bit as memorable as his debut (which I sobbed through).

Was this review helpful?

Readers who liked this book also liked: