The Wide Starlight is a 2021 fantasy novel by Nicole Lesperance. It was published by Razorbill and released in February of 2021. The novel's blurb describes it as a combination of The Hazel Wood and The Astonishing Color of After. The book can be purchased here from Bookshop.org
Never whistle at the Northern Lights, the story goes, or they'll sweep down from the sky and carry you away. Sixteen-year-old Eline Davis knows it's true. She was there ten years ago, on a frozen fjord in Svalbard, Norway, the night her mother whistled at the lights and then vanished. Now Eli lives an ordinary life with her dad on Cape Cod. But when the Northern Lights are visible over the Cape for just one night, she can't resist the possibility of seeing her mother again. So she whistles—and it works. Her mother appears, with snowy hair, frosty fingertips and a hazy story of where she's been all these years. And she doesn't return alone. Along with Eli's mother's reappearance come strange, impossible things. Narwhals swimming in Cape Cod Bay, meteorites landing in Eli's yard, and three shadowy princesses with ominous messages. It's all too much, too fast, and Eli pushes her mother away. She disappears again—but this time, she leaves behind a note that will send Eli on a journey across continents, to the northern tip of the world: Find me where I left you.
The writing in this novel is absolutely beautiful. The author fills the each page with rich, and at times haunting, imagery. The author makes it very easy to get pulled into the world of the novel, from the ghostly apparitions to the colorful majesty of the northern lights. The prose is great, with the words not only capturing an image of the world, but making the ambiance evident from the first page. The author clearly put a lot of effort in making sure the exact tone and atmosphere that she wanted was on display.
I'd argue that this novel is more character-centric than plot-centric. Eli goes on this journey, which takes her from Cape Cod to Norway, but the novel is more about her growth as a person than anything else. At its core, the novel is an exploration of grief and the uncertainty Eli feels about not having answers about what happened to her mother. The reader is able to easily see how Eli's grief impacts her life and drives a lot of the decisions she makes over the course of the story. Her character arc is centered around her grief, and how she learns to process and overcome it. The author does an excellent job making her grief feel real. Unfortunately, that's the most the reader gets out of Eli. Her character is defined solely by grief, and doesn't feel like a complex figure beyond that. She needed a bit more depth in other areas, but the narrative doesn't give her that. On a similar note, I wish the character of Eli's mother had more development. I never got a true sense of who this character was, aside from being Eli's mother. She doesn't feel fully realized and her characterization is kind of all over the place, making it difficult to stay invested in Eli's search for answers about what happened to her.
The plot of this novel was a mixed bag for me. The novel is about Eli processing the disappearance of her mother, and the impact that its had on her life, through the lens of magical realism. Norwegian folklore and fairytales are woven into the story, alongside events happening to Eli. At the beginning of the novel, the way the narrative moves back and forth between the magical realism and reality felt a bit jarring. They felt like disconnected asides, distracting from the main narrative. As the plot progresses, it became clear where this tactic was going, but for a good portion of the book, the parts felt disconnected. The fairytale portions didn't feel additive until the end. The plot doesn't have a lot of twists and turns, or surprises. There's a steady build-up of stakes as Eli begins to piece together clues about what happened to her mother and the hidden truths become revealed in her search. The main narrative progressed very well, although I have an issue with the climax and the way it is resolved. Since the Norwegian fairytales didn't feel fully connected to what Eli was experiencing, it wasn't as satisfying seeing how they factored into the climax of the novel as the author probably intended.
The Wide Starlight is a book that both did and didn't meet my expectations. The writing was better than I expected, with the author putting a lot of love and effort into creating a very atmospheric and immersive story. The novel is very introspective, which came as a surprise. The main character doesn't feel fully fleshed out, being defined solely by her grief. Parts of the plot worked very well, while other parts left me wanting more. I think this is a book that just "wasn't for me" but plenty of other readers will like it.
Rating: 3 Stars
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