In Your Light: a compelling and powerful read (with a GORGEOUS cover)

“Mella Laverty had been missing for eight months, six days and eighteen hours. Seventeen-year-old Lil’s heart was broken when her big sister, Mella, went missing. Now she is ‘Lil After’ – angry, cold and dark. One especially dark and rainy night, Lil accidentally runs a strange girl, ‘Seven’ down in her car. Tiny, gentle, terrified Seven was born into the Sisterhood of the Light, a seemingly peaceful community that believes in the healing power of the sun. When a fire tore through the compound, Seven ran for her life, straight into Lil’s path. But now the Sisterhood is unwilling to let Seven go. What could she have fled that is worse than flames …? As Lil and Seven’s stories unfold and intertwine, they begin to trust each other with dark secrets. And there’s more darkness to come ..”

In Your Light tells the story of Lil, whose sister Mella has gone missing. Lil blames herself for her sister’s disappearance. As you go on through the book, you start to get pieces of the puzzle clicking together to find out WHY Lil blames herself for her sister’s disappearance. Lil just wants her sister back. It’s having an impact on so many different parts of her life. While all of this is happening in her life, Lil comes across a young girl, hurt in the road. Lil rescues this young girl, who could be the clue to Lil finding her sister. 

The story is told through two perspectives, which for me can go SO wrong, but in this book is it done SO beautifully. The perspectives keep the book moving at a brilliant pace. On one hand, you get the perspective of a scared girl desperately searching for her sister, and on the other you get a young girl searching for herself in a new world. 

One of the biggest hooks for me with this book was that it was about a cult, or a sisterhood, and following my love of After the Fire, I needed some more of that in my life. There are scenes from the sisterhood, where the sisterhood is talked about and it is harrowing some of the things that the sisters do. It’s compelling reading however. I wanted to keep reading because I needed to know what was going to happen. The young girl, Seven, who Lil finds is from this sisterhood and as she reveals more to Lil, it becomes apparent that there are secrets and a REAL darkness that Lil needs to save her sister from. 

There’s some pretty dark themes explored in this book, but they’re done so brilliantly and dealt with in such a caring way that you want to read on. The thread of “learning to trust” is one of the most interesting. Lil has to learn to trust Seven, Seven has to learn to trust Lil. Lil questions whether she can trust her family and friends. Mella wonders about trusting her newly found sisters. This trust dynamic makes for interesting reading. There were many moments where I wanted to scream at the book and say NO DON’T DO IT, THAT’S NOT RIGHT. (That’s when you know it’s a good book… when you want to shout at it. It means you’re INVESTED).

I also must take a moment to appreciate that cover. SUCH A GORGEOUS COVER. Some of the raindrops are tactile too… *swoon*

My Goodreads review:

A massive thanks to Katherine Webber for recommending this book to me at YAShot! I bought it entirely based on her recommendation and I do not regret a single second of it! My lush friend Kelly ALSO bought it at YAShot – if you’d like to read her review, check it out here.

Have you read In Your Light?
Can you recommend any other “cult” books to me?
Has an author ever recommended a book to you?

Let me know your thoughts in the comments! I need more books about cults in my life, thanks. 

S x