About the Book
Title: Songlight
Author: Moira Buffini
Series: Torch Trilogy #1
Genre: YA Fantasy, Dystopian
Pages: 384
Release Date: September 3, 2024 – out now!
Edition Read: Netgalley ARC
Dates Read: August 20-26, 2024
Blurb: Star-crossed lovers, against-all-odds friendship, and a brutally unforgiving world make this first in a trilogy utterly unforgettable.
We’re two songs joined. And there’s a word for that. A harmony.
Elsa is used to hiding the most important parts of herself—her feelings for Rye, her distaste for a world ruled by men, and, most crucially, her gift of songlight. She buries that secret deep inside. In Brightland, those with songlight are called Unhumans and are abhorred. Rye is the only other person Elsa has known with songlight, and their shared bond has brought them together.
Elsa’s world begins to fall apart one desperate, heart-wrenching day and she doesn’t know where to turn until a girl appears before her. But the girl isn’t really there—her songlight has been drawn to Elsa’s frantic grief.
Elsa lives in a remote seaside village; Nightingale, her new friend, lives in a city hundreds of miles away with her father, a government official responsible for rooting out Unhumans. The two never expected to connect via songlight. But when they do, and when they realize the extent of their power, they’ll be thrust in the middle of a war that threatens their very existence.
Review
This book was so good! I got it sort of on a whim – it was mentioned in my Netgalley newsletter as on “read now” status, meaning I could just get it and not have to wait to be approved. It was an upcoming release. Even better. I was completely blown away.
Songlight is a telepathic power that lets people not just communicate, but also sort of astral project – you can see the other person depending on how deep into the songlight you go. The way that it was describe was absolutely beautiful, which made it all the more jarring when the characters described how “evil” it was. There is a lot of things in this book that have similar contrasts like this. Characters who seem weak physically are very strong in their songlight. Characters that you expect to be warmongers are actually trying to seek peace. I always worry in stories like this that there will be characters that are completely one dimensional, and that was definitely not the case here.
Elsa is a great character. She is stuck within the bounds of her culture and society’s expectations, but she is also born with this power that has to stay hidden. Their world is very patriarchal, where women don’t get to decide what they do or who they marry, but Elsa does everything she can to rebel within the system while trying to keep her family safe. Rye is the love of her life, but once he is taken away after being outed as an “unhuman,” Elsa will do whatever she can to try and find him. Nightingale was also a beautiful character, another girl with songlight who finds herself deep within the heart of the enemy and also finds the extent of her powers.
There’s also the Aylish – another country that Brightland is at war with. They embrace those with songlight, calling them Torches, and this makes them all the more abominable in the eyes of the people of Brightland. They are built up to be this evil entity, but again, nothing is quite what it seems and nothing should be taken for granted. Especially when the history that had always been taught may not be what actually happened.
I loved everything about this book. Buffini is a screenwriter and playwright, but this is her first novel. It was wonderful. The only thing I didn’t like was that there is no information about when to expect book two. I need it now!
GoodReads rating: 5 stars all the way
Categories: Books I've Read
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