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A Certain Slant of Light
Unavailable
A Certain Slant of Light
Unavailable
A Certain Slant of Light
Audiobook8 hours

A Certain Slant of Light

Written by Laura Whitcomb

Narrated by Lauren Molina

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

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Currently unavailable

Currently unavailable

About this audiobook

Someone was looking at me, a disturbing sensation if you're dead.

Though I could not feel paper between my fingers, smell ink, or taste the tip of a pencil, I could see and hear the world with all the clarity of the Living. They, on the other hand, did not see me as a shadow or a floating vapor. To the Quick, I was empty air.

Or so I thought.

In the class of the high school English teacher she has been haunting, Helen feels them: For the first time in 130 years, human eyes are looking at her. They belong to a boy, a boy who has not seemed remarkable until now. And Helen-terrified, but intrigued-is drawn to him. The fact that he is in a body and she is not presents this unlikely couple with their first challenge. But as the lovers struggle to find a way to be together, they begin to discover the secrets of their former lives and of the young people they come to possess.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateJun 13, 2006
ISBN9780307286116
Unavailable
A Certain Slant of Light
Author

Laura Whitcomb

Laura Whitcomb grew up in Pasadena, California where she lived in a mildly haunted house for 12 years. She has taught English in California and Hawaii. The winner of three Kay Snow Writing Awards, she was once runner up in the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction contest for the best first sentence of the worst science fiction novel never written. She lives in Portland, Oregon, with her dog Maximus.    

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Rating: 3.8840046253602303 out of 5 stars
4/5

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  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I really wanted to LOVE this book. I liked the premise and the happy hint of a timeless romance. But the purple prose was too much, and the characters' actions and decisions were unreal. The dialog was just strange. I can imagine that dialog like this does happen in real life, but on paper it was too jarring. I spent most of the middle of the book not knowing what the hell was going on. The ending did redeem the book, however, as I found myself grabbing for a tissue. The emotion was there; in the end I really did care about the two star-crossed lovers.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Gorgeous. Perfect YA 'romance beyond the grave' but also rich and complex enough for adult fans of speculative fiction and relationship stories. Plenty to think about, to discuss, to enjoy upon a reread. If the blurb catches your eye, I do recommend it.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    What an interesting premise!! The more I read, the more I loved it. It is a wonderful young adult book, but more toward the "adult" than the "young".
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    A good idea that was poorly executed. The characters were boring, their actions were inexplicable at times, and the ending was just really annoying.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    'That I am your heart's secret fills me with song. I wish I could sing of you here in my cage. You are my heart's hidden poem. I reread you, memorize you every moment we're apart.'

    This was a real shocker for me that I enjoyed it as much as I did. For one, this has been on and off my TBR shelf several times as I would occasionally decide that this is simply not for me and I have no plans to read it. But go figure a few months later it pops up on my Goodreads timeline, I take another glance and decide it may be worth a shot. Thanks, Wendy, for giving me that final push. :)

    I was actually quite touched by Helen and James' relationship/connection (at least I was once I overlooked their questionable acts). Helen had been Light (a spirit) for well over a century and not once spoke to anyone that entire time and had never quite realized how desperately she craved the company of another. Their feelings for each other were instantaneous yet it thankfully managed to not feel akin to every other insta-love situation these days in YA literature. Helen and James have their own special situation and instead of calling it insta-love I would consider it more of an extreme fascination with one another as they are the only ones of their 'species' as they called it.

    I know that I should have been repelled by the whole concept of human's walking around 'empty' just ripe for the taking for deceased spirits. That their soul can be absent, drifted off to a new place, while their body remains living its life. It really was a creepy concept/possibility but what honestly scared me the most were Jenny's religious extremist parents. Before Helen came along, she watched Jenny for some time as she simply went through the motions of life without exuding any sort of emotion. Being so constricted by your family, being forced to obey and follow such rigid rules, and forcing their religion into every facet of your very being? Now that's scary.

    This is one of those books where the writing truly took my breath away. It flowed so beautifully and was a real delight. I loved how she kept Helen's speech true to form considering she wasn't from this day and age. That type of extra little touch really helped make this a very special book.

    This is a novel about love but it's mostly about learning to forgive yourself for the very reason Helen and James were still on Earth to find each other was because they hadn't relived their final moments in order to forgive themselves for the actions they made. This was a wonderful, mature, YA novel with hints of romance, paranormal, and learning to find peace.

    'Your mind will never lose anything forever that's worth keeping.'
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I'm not sure what I was expecting this book to be like, but that was not it.I think I believed it would be more similar to standard YA fiction. I expected a ghost story with a romance, and based on the cover I thought it would be dark. I thought the ghost main characters would do things they shouldn't, and we would end the story having figured out exactly why they shouldn't. But that is not what this book is about.Instead, it's a really, really well told story about Big Issues. But not in any cheesy, after school special way. It ends up being less "and everyone learned a valuable lesson that day," and more "a profound truth was exposed." Whitcomb has filled her story with complex characters making mistakes and offering small kindnesses and for the most part doing the best they can. And the thing that I liked best, about the characters specifically, is that we get parallel character studies between two people who could not seem more dissimilar. A working class young man who likes women and booze and who gives his little brother shit and never cleans the house. A stay-at-home mom with a pristine home who attends regular church meetings and prays with her daughter every morning, at every meal, and every evening.Polar opposites. And yet, we discover that both of these characters are taking sole responsibility for holding their families together. The young man has taken the role of father and mother toward his younger brother, and sees himself failing. The mother holds on to her perfect family, and feels it slipping away. And I'm hiding this in a spoiler tag because Dan, the father of the upright, proper, Christian family is without doubt one of the biggest jerks I've read in a while. Which was perfectly exhibited by a Monopoly game, of all things. For family game night, the mother (Carol) puts out Monopoly. Her husband is the top hat, her daughter is the dog, and she selects the ship as her own token. But Dan the asshole puts the ship away and replaces it with the iron. Father, Mother, and, as he so lovingly refers to his daughter, Puppy. Gag.Anyway. This is one of those teen novels that could easily be shelved in the adult section, with no one the wiser. It has some very sophisticated things to say about both grasping your life with both hands, and resolving your life once it's passed you by. Not at all the dark and mysterious, but ultimately fluffy, book I was half expecting.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Great Story, two ghosts seek to inhabit living bodies in order for them to be together. Unable to remember their lifes and deaths, the longer they remain in a host, the more they can recall.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Helen latches on to the skirt hem of "her saint" from her icy dungeon hell after her death. She is a Light, a ghost that has lived for decades without any of the Quick, the humans, seeing her ghostly form. She needs a host to attach to, even if they do not know of her presence, or else she will be begin to return to that icy hell. She doesn't have many memories from before her death and doesn't know what she did to deserve such hell. All of her hosts are mostly creative writerly people: poets, playwrights. So it's a pity when the person she actually possesses has no fiction in the house at all. One day, a high school boy can see her. And they clearly have a connection. Helen has to work to keep this connection and also figure out why the spirit of the girl she is possessing left her body in the first place. This seems like the second book I read this year with a Romeo & Juliet influence (Isaac Marion's Warm Bodies). That's fine.. I'm just happy this book was written a few years before Twilight and didn't have that influence. I actually really liked this book, though I don't have an easy reason why. I don't have any complaints with this one! However, I'm not sure if this is a young adult book or not.. Kids books have such heavy swearing these days? I may just be confused because there are teenage characters. Apparently in the sequel, Helen is haunting again, but the ending is very satisfying in this one, so I feel like this book will be diminished by that one.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A highly sensual, supernatural story of two spirits caught in purgatory. . . . Mesmerizing. I really loved this book! The details made it all believable. The character development was in depth and made the characters come to life on the paper. It was so compelling that I read in it one sitting.The very first book I read from Laura Whitcomb and I was absolutely mesmerized. From the very first page, I was hooked and couldn't put it down. I am so glad I chose to read this because it's so darn good. Come on now, I can't lie about a good book. If a book's good, it's good. But this book is more than good: it's great, awesome, and magnificent. Pick up the book! What are you waiting for?Laura Whitcomb is a great author. This book is perfect for teens and adults alike. The end is very touching. Great job Laura Whitcomb!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A Certain Slant of Light has now made it to one of my top 10 books. It is beautifully written and unique. I bought the kindle edition and there seems to be alot of typos, not sure if its just the kindle or not but either way its a fantastic book. I highly recommend it!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Loved the concept. The writing was very different too and I enjoyed it.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Ever so often, a modern novel comes along that takes my breath away, and that is what A Certain Slant Of Light did. Even in the first few chapters I knew I had began something unique and wonderful. The story is supernatural, yet real and heartbreaking. I wasn't sure what to expect with this one, but it far exceeded my expectations. Absolutely beautiful!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    First Line: "Someone was looking at me, a disturbing sensation if you're dead." This was a beautiful story about two ghosts who fall in love. It took me a little while to get a feel for the characters, but once I did I devoured the book. I also really loved learning about the families of the two teenagers that the ghosts took over.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Despite being creepy this was a compelling page turner. Ghosts trapped in their own private hells, occupying the bodies of the living sounds very frightening but it was just strange and creepy, not scary.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    The novel, A Certain Slant of Light by Laura Whitcomb encompassess that you are more special than you think. In the beginning, Helen is a Light ghost that is attached to Mr. Brown, a high school English teacher and she struggles with feeling neglected and lost, wanting to make more out of her life. Throughout the middle she perseveres through finding another body to enter and she can be with her lover, James that is a Quick in Billy's body. By the end, I predict that she has learned that she does not have to be in a body to be happy, and that she will go to heaven with James. (pages 130/272)
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I was surprised by how much I liked this book. It's an easy read, but also thought provoking. I found myself really caring for the characters, ghosts and all!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Two souls find themselves trapped between earth and heaven and fall in love. Cheezy right? Wrong. I found that I was engrossed in the characters of Helen and James. To be together they possess human bodies, but soon begin to discover who they were in the past and begin to learn more about the young people they possess. A very fast, enjoyable read that I found hard to put down. The ending will not let you down.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    Did not finish the book. Was too slow and boring. A cure for insomnia.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The novel, A Certain Slant of of Light, encompasses of two spirits falling in love and that nothing can brake them apart. In the beginning, Helen, the protagonist struggles with being dead for 130 year as a spirit. Throughout the middle, she perse veres through the love Helen has for James. By the end she learned that maybe being a spirit is not so bad after all if it means being with James for ever.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The novel, A Certain Slant of Light, encompasses how two ghosts find eachother and know they are destined to be together. In the beginning, Helen, the protagonist struggles with being a ghost and holding on to a person. throughout the middle seh perserveres through being in a living persons body and having to deal with everything that gets handed to her. By the end she has learned more about her self when she was alive and that she had 6 or 7 year old daughter.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The novel, A Certain Slant of Light, encompasses love can last through anything. In the beginning, the protagonist struggles with being a ghost and being seen by a human for the first time. Throughout the middle, she preserves through attaching to this human who can see her and find out that he is Light just like her. By the end, she has learned about both their pasts and goes into the light to be with him after he goes into it. (288/288)
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Interesting twist of a ghost story. Helen and James are adult spirits from yesteryear, who find a way to occupy the bodies of Billy and Jenny, two contemporary teens from very different backgrounds. A pretty good read.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I just finished reading this book, literally, like a minute ago. And I felt compelled to write a review right after while all the emotions are still fresh in my mind. I have to say that this is what every fantasy romance novel (especially ones that are classified as Young Adult) should strive to be. I wouldn't be surprised if people sort of classified A Certain Slant of Light as just one of the many fantasy YA novels that are romance and were made solely to capitalize on the success of Twilight. They might dismiss it because of that. If they did, it would be a terrible mistake. This shouldn't even be classified with those other YA novels, not because they're necessarily bad, but because those are more or less fluff. And fluff is good sometimes, yes, but sometimes you need to something a little more meaty and that's what this is. The writing in A Certain Slant of Light is simply superb. It's just beautiful. And that's something that sets it apart from the those other fluffy YA novels (Twilight, Evermore, etc.). There's a poetic flow to it that just leaves you engrossed with not only the plot, but with the language. The heroine, Helen, is so complex, yet completely relateable in all of her ghostly glory. The romance in this was really sweet, but what really had me hooked, was Helen's backstory. Her attachment to her various hosts, her love of reading, her desire to escape the hell she was sometimes plunged into, but her utter fear at actually finding out what happened to her was compelling. So, people shouldn't dismiss this book just because it's YA. Not only is it an amazing YA book, but an amazing book, period. One that I believe everyone would enjoy if not for the plot, then for the tremendous and beautiful writing.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    It's not often that I get to sit down and read a book cover to cover in one sitting. Not for the lack of great reading material, but due more to a lack of time. Isn't it amazing the power of a great book? Great books can make magicians out of us. For a great book, we can create time, conjure up how ever many hours needed to devote to the book. It's a wonderful feeling, to throw caution, and your day to the wind and just simple fall into a book. With a truly great one, you might just leave your own world, and live for a time in a new one.With A Certain Slant of Light, I got book lost. I sat down to read it, and a few hours later I woke up in my house, not really sure of how I got there because the last thing I knew, I was with Helen and James.Helen is Light. Light is what comes after, after we die, when to the world, we are gone but we can't leave. The Quick, the living are unaware of us then. They can't see us, they can't hear us but some part of them can feel we are there. Helen can't remember how she died, who she is, or anything about her life when she was one of the Quick save for her age, her name and that she was female. For over a hundred years Helen has attached herself to a living person, a host, and stayed with them throughout their lives until they passed. The time between hosts means fear, and pain and for Helen, the terrifying sensation of drowning.Mr. Brown, unbeknownst to him, is Helen's host. He is a teacher, and an aspiring novelist who every so often feels a whisper of inspiration from a hidden muse. Unable to stray far from her host, Helen goes with him to school everyday and waits in the classroom, unseen by his students as he teaches."Although I could not feel paper between my fingers, smell ink, or taste the tip of a pencil, I could see and hear the world with all the clarity of the Living. They, on the other hand, did not see me as a shadow or a floating vapor. To the Quick, I was empty air."But one day, someone sees her.A boy in the back of the room, she's seen him before but he's never noticed her. Now he's looking right at her. For 130 years, she has been invisible, even to her host. Her life was watching his life, repetitive, quiet and still and now a human was watching her."How is it you see me?" But I wanted to cry Thank God you do."I'm like you." he said.This book reads like a song- it could easily be set to music. Beautiful, lovely, romantic and haunting. I could keep gushing. I'm amazed by Whitcomb's writing. I was instantly captivated and floated effortlessly through the story all the way to the end. She put me through so many emotions- grief, loss, loneliness, love, lust, loathing. There is a family in the story, you'll see, and every time the story turned to them it made me angry.I'm so sad that it's over. Read it and tell me what you think- that way it will be like I'm going back for a visit.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Helen is a ghost. She can't remember much about how she died, but she knows that there must be a reason that she is Light: unseen by humans on earth but unable to move on to final rest - wherever that might be.She loves literature, and has cleaved herself to a high school English teacher, Mr Brown, who is writing a novel and reads a lot, enabling her to read over his shoulder.One day in Mr Brown's class, a boy named William Blake sees Helen. She hasn't been visible to anyone in over a hundred years. Billy Blake is actually James, another Light being who has managed to take over a body so that he can eat and feel and be seen, and he encourages Helen to find her own body so that they can be together. Helen finds Jenny, the daughter of religious extremists, and the rest of the book examines their struggle to be together forever.This book is beautifully written, and not dumbed down like some young adult fiction. Its literary merits are evident in the cellar door metaphor, which will be familiar to some readers from the film Donnie Darko as the most beautiful words in the English language.It's a haunting and sad ghost story, and a sensitive look at the unhappiness of teenagers and the behaviour of adults, with a little guilt and redemption thrown in too. Very good.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    My Thoughts:Positives: * God, this book was good. I was interested throughout the whole thing. * The romance between the two main characters is gripping. It reminds me of that first pull towards someone that you hope to spend eternity with. * Interesting take on the living and the dead * Mixes past and present circumstances, giving life to both with a lot of figurative language that seems literal.Negatives: * Drug use, teenage sex, not appropriate for immature readers. * Abusive families in many extremes makes this a little difficult for the faint of heart. * Makes religion look REALLY bad.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I read this book because Amazon kept recommending it to me and because the premise sounded interesting.The premise of the book is that Helen has been a ghost for 130 years; she remembers little more of her past than her name, how long ago she died, and the age at which she died. She also quickly discovered that she needs to cleave onto a host in order to avoid horrible searing pain. Yet she has not figured out how to continue on her journey to heaven beyond. Things all change when she is "seen" by another student in her host's classroom.I didn't really like this book much. It was too much of a romance for me. I like my books with a little romance but also some action and plot. Initially it seemed like a really interesting idea for a story. It just degraded into too much romance. The two families involved were interesting but it seemed a bit too forced. I mean how would you get two characters involved with such polar opposite families? It was a bit too deliberate.I was also both disappointed and interested in the ending. The book ended exactly how I expected a book about a ghost to end; there were no surprises. On the other hand it was nice to find out what had happened to Helen. This book was just too boring and predictable for my tastes; the quality of the writing was okay but I don't feel it offset the negatives of the book.I read this book on the airplane; I don't think I would have finished it if I had been at home. I definitely will not read it again and it is in the "books to sell" pile on my desk at home.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. It was well written and kept pace nicely. The love story portrayed by the suthor is believable and the paranormal aspect did not interfere with any of the believability at all. It was as if spirits and ghosts absolutely exist and are an ordinary occurance. I did not find the characters to be annoying at any point. Helen is emotional and strong at the same time and finds her strength throughout the story. I loved James as a secondary protagonist. He was easliy adored and I found that as I was reading I could have fallen for him as well. I actually also enjoyed getting to know the "bodies" they Inhabited . Billy and Jenny became an integral part of the story as well. I found their stories to be a compliment to the main love story. I really felt for them and the difficult lives they were enduring. I fully understood why the abandoned their bodies. Overall this is a must read for paranormal romance fans. You will love the characters and all the story lines developed throughout by Whitcomb.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This book gets better as it goes, and by the end, I thought the author was really creating some nice moments. The writing is nice and occasionally quite lyrical, and I like the character dynamics in Jenny's household, which I felt was really where this book was strongest. The chemistry between the two ghosts did not immediately ring true to me, so some of the events at the beginning of the book seemed a little jarring and forced. Overall, though, an interesting book that had a strong impact on me in the end. I'm glad I kept reading.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Loved this book. The premise is so mind blowing and the characters are wonderful. It would be the perfect book: food for thought, inspiring, romantic, sexy, superbly written. The only complaint is even though it was a nice ending, the last 10 pages are a bit of a disappointment, a little corny. But again is a rather small detail. The book is wonderful.