"Each Night was Illuminated" by Jodi Lynn Anderson

 

Each Night was Illuminated (Sept. 20, 2022) by Jodi Lynn Anderson.

*This is a standalone novel.*

Once upon a time, Cassie Blake believed she’d grow up to become a nun. Then the train plummeted into the river, killing six (all members of the Rose Hotel-owning Van Doren family), as Cassie witnessed with Elias Jones when she was 11. Fast forward to going-on-18-year-old Cassie, who’s riddled with insomnia and has become a nonbeliever in her [fictional] hometown of Green Valley, New Jersey, an exurb of NYC. Elias returns to Australia, but he sends her letters. Cassie never responds. Then Elias returns. He’s passionate about ghost-hunting and comes armed with equipment. They sneak out at night, and Cassie indulges Elias, knowing they won’t find any wandering spirits. Elias is actionable in his passion for ghosts, with his imagination, his rebelliousness and his harmless pranks. He’s bigger than the box Cassie fits herself in, even down to internalizing her anger. “You’d be good at being angry,” Elias tells her. “You’d get it right.” While Sister Suzanne is her “badass” favorite nun, Father James is an antagonistic, divisive priest. Futures are upended, and disaster is imminent, though Cassie doesn’t yet know it. Cassie sees the hopelessness in most and is awed by Elias’ belief in magical things. But if he stops believing, what hope is there for her?

            The setting is a world that feels broken; it’s a “... people are bats**t everywhere but there’s a special brand of American crazy” kind-of-world, and I expect that will resonate with too many in our nation. This isn’t a hopeful story until the end, but Cassie’s struggle and introspective resilience, her skepticism and floundering faith make this YA novel more believable. Most characters read as white; Elias has a Bangladeshi grandmother, which makes that inclusion feel like a placeholder for diversity instead of actual diversity. The pace moved slowly for me on occasion, but that didn’t take away from the weight of the story. It’s one of global and personal crises, small-town racism and close-mindedness. There are saints and secrets, rage and love and possibly, maybe, seemingly hidden, there’s hope.