Thank you NetGalley and Penguin for an Advanced Reader’s Copy of this book. I was not sure what to expect when I started this book, and I am glad I did not know the details. I firmly believe that it made the reading experience so much better. This book is Ilya a HS student from Russia who get the opportunity to go the United States in an exchange program. This story follows two timelines, the present and the past in Russia and the events that lead up to Ilya deciding to come to America. This book is about family, love and loyalty. This one will give you all the feels throughout. I really loved this one,.

A coming of age story of two devoted Russian brothers. Vladimir the oldest is quite a cad.. into thievery, drugs, sex, .etc. and Ilya the younger brother, a good kid with a great mind. They come from a very poor family and Ilya has the opportunity of coming to America as an exchange student.
This story goes back and forth from their story while together in Russia and the time Ilya is here in Louisiana with his host family and attending high school.
I enjoyed this story very much.. it contains a mystery, along with some grit..but really is mostly about the bond of brotherhood even from afar.

Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Press for the ARC!

This was a novel of paradoxes; it was sad yet uplifting, frustrating yet satisfying, poor yet rich. The conflict felt by Ilya kept off the page and it was hard to think of him as a 15 year old boy, yet I would be quickly reminded of his age when he would make poor choices. This is the first book in awhile that left me wishing for a sequel.

This was a well written debut that did some really interesting things with family dynamics and Russian culture. Due to the slower pace, I never really connected to the characters or story, so I can't see myself rating this more than a three. However, I do think the writing her was polished and promising for a debut, so I definitely would check out something else from Lydia Fitzpatrick in the future. Recommended for fans of slow, character driven stories.

4.25 Stars* (rounded down)

When Ilya got the opportunity to go to America from his hometown of Berlozhniki in Russia, he always imagined that his older brother, Vladimir would be going with him. Never in a million years did Ilya think that Vlad would be in prison, charged with murdering three young women while he was on his way to Louisiana as part of an exchange program. Now, every day and night at the Masons, is spent thinking about Vlad, trying to figure out how to prove his innocence, because he simply has to be innocent.. right?

Told in both past and present timelines, “Lights All Night Long” is an extremely powerful and poignant story of family, friendship, love, loyalty and strength. It is a story of triumphs and tribulations and most of all forgiveness.

Though this novel started out a little slow, it quickly got my attention. The prose is gorgeous and the characters made my heart ache fiercely. Vladimir’s overprotectiveness of his brother, Ilya’s determination to prove his brother’s innocence, call it love, or call whatever you want. Their love for each other will make you smile and it will bring tears to your eyes more than once.

A huge thank you to NetGalley, The Penguin Group - Penguin Press and Lydia Fitzpatrick for an arc of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Published on NetGalley and Goodreads on 2.26.19.
*Will be published on Amazon and Twitter on 4.2.19

Lights All Night Long feels really quite an accomplished debut novel from Lydia Fitzpatrick. A coming of age story following Ilya Ekhalov, a teenage boy from rural Russia who gains a place on an exchange programme to study in America. The story is told in alternating chapters set in Russia and America - focusing on the lead-up to his trip to America and chapters on what happens once he gets there.

While Ilya is the main character, the supporting cast - Vladimir (his elder brother), his mother and grandmother, Sadie (the adopted daughter of his host family), his English teacher, his brother's friends - are all well fleshed out and people we care about while following his story.

If you're a fan of coming of age stories (with the tone more skewed towards adult than YA) or great storytelling I'd definitely recommend checking this one out.

What a remarkable book! Reading it I had the sense that was discovering something I had never seen before. The juxtaposition of two places, two cultures — a remote town in Russia, once a Stalin era penal village now become a place of dead and dying dreams, of drugs and drunken stupor, and flickering glints of hope; and a small town in Louisiana, with its own nests of poverty, it’s own conflicted identities — is revelatory. Throw in a smart young boy, a broken but loving brother, dark secrets, and a couple of murders, and you’re drawn in and held until the last page. Really interesting, well drawn characters, vividly recreated landscapes, striking imagery... The book is not without flaws but Fitzpatrick's talents are so prodigious that I had no hesitations at all about letting them slide by. I really hope this book gets the attention it deserves. And I'll eagerly await her next book.

Living in a derelict mining town near the Arctic Circle, Ilya learns English from the bootleg VHS movies he and his brother Vladimir watch incessantly. Some tapes are so damaged that the dubbing of the languages overlap. After an astute teacher recognizes his "gift," Ilya's loyalties are split between his increasing ambitions to become an exchange student in the US and his love for his brother who he doesn't want to leave in the dust. From the first, we know he makes his way to Louisiana, and his story is told in alternating chapters between his last year in Berlozhniki and his current new life in Leffie, LA. Keeping much of his personal history to himself and only releasing details sporadically, he attempts to learn truths about events that still haunt him from his earlier life, and the resolution is truly satisfying and original. So distressing to learn that the drug krokodil is present and working its evil half way around the world.

An intriguing and sometimes difficult read. It’s the story of 2 brothers living in Russia, both looking for a way to escape the grittines of their lives. One chooses drugs, the other gets a chance as an American exchange student. The descriptions transported me to a world I have never experienced. I found it to be realistic, thought provoking and also life affirming. The relationship between the brothers was so genuine yet so difficult to maintain.
I’d like to thank Net Galley, the publisher and the author for a chance to read the arc.

This is a story unlike any other I have read. It started slowly for me; I felt no connection with any character until at least half of the way through, and then I began to relate to the beauty of the imagery that the author so skillfully designed. Her words are gorgeous, and I found myself highlighting beautiful passages that hit with stunning force, and the mesmerizing story she tells unfolded for me.

Ilya and his older brother Vladimir live in Berlozhniki, Russia. Ilya, the younger, looks up to his big brother with love and awe, and would do almost anything for him. Vladimir loves his younger brother, as well, but doesn’t have the interest in studies or the aptitude for learning that Ilya has. He is wilder, lives on the edge, and his choices are terrible and terrifying.

When Ilya has the chance to travel to America for a year as an exchange student, Vladimir becomes even more reckless than usual and his poor choices lead to a horrifying addiction, which in turn leads to his arrest for murder. Ilya, convinced of his brother’s innocence and now living with his host family in a small town in Louisiana in the US, does what he can from afar to dig into the truth of what really happened.

The outcome of this story is breathtaking, heartbreaking and extraordinary. I was absorbed in the author’s lovely images, even as I consistently had to look up the Russian terminology for so many words that were sprinkled throughout. This book started as a 3 star for me because it took a while to grip me; I felt removed from the characters and the storyline, but what a testament to the author’s writing skills that I never wanted to quit and that she pulled me in so completely that I can give this story nothing less than 5 stars.
Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Press for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.

This is such an amazing, beautiful, sad and utterly compelling novel by the brilliant author Lydia Fitzpatrick that from the very first few pages transport’s you into two completely different ways of life from Ilya’s life in Russia to the life he then is sent to as an exchange student in America. I was completely captivated the character Ilya and by the descriptions of his life especially in connection to his brother Vladimir and the need for him with the help of Sadie the eldest daughter of the host family he is staying with to find a way to clear his brothers name of a murder back in Russia.The love between these two brothers is beautiful, the book is breathtaking and desperately, heartbreakingly sad especially with the depiction’s of the horrific drug Krokodil and yet it’s filled with hope and love thus making it a book not to be missed it’s spellbinding (it made me cry !!) and I highly recommend it.
My thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Press for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

This book… If you are looking for a story that is going to consume your mind for a few days (months, years after you have read it), this is one for you.

Teenage Ilya lives with his mother, grandmother, and older brother Vladimir in a remote town called Berlozhniki, located in the gulag archipelago. The family live in a kommunalki (communal apartment block), and struggle to make ends meet. The main attraction of the town is the oil refinery, owned by an oligarch, and where most of the town are employed, with lights that shine brightly all night long into the kommunalki. Ilya is a lingual prodigy, teaching himself English, and Vladimir is more interested in fighting for a better existence in other ways. While Ilya works with his devoted teacher towards passing boards in order to receive an exchange student scholarship to the US, sponsored by the oil companies, Vladimir discovers the new drug Krokodil, and the life that it brings along with it. During the long winter before Ilya is supposed to leave, three women are murdered, and Vladimir confesses to their murders. Ilya leaves for Effie, Louisiana, heartbroken but determined to prove that Vladimir is innocent.

Lydia Fitzpatrick does such a brilliant job of weaving two worlds together, in such a way that we become Ilya navigating them both on tiptoes, afraid to fall into the pits that exist on either side. Lights All Night Long is mystery, coming of age, humanity in general, the bond between siblings, and brilliant look into how similar we are wherever we may come from. I thoroughly enjoyed the deep look into the Russia of today that we don’t really see depicted anywhere else (unless you actively search for it), as well as the way we discover the US in the same way as Ilya does.

I also absolutely love both Ilya and Sadie, the eldest daughter in Ilya’s US host family. They are the type of characters that feel real. All of the characters actually felt real to me, but these two shone despite some of the darkness surrounding them.

My last read of 2018 turned out to be a real gem. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance copy, and thanks so much to Lydia Fitzpatrick for gracing us with this wonderful read!

An incredible book,. The characters so well defined, the locations visible to the the readers eye, the storyline realistic, and the layering superb.

Kudos author Lydia Fitzpatrick!

A heartbreaking story of addiction, poverty, hope and dreams, brotherly bonds, family sacrifices, and redemption, with a nice mystery to boot! Who could ask for more?

Highly recommended.

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Press for the opportunity to experience this book.

Seeing life in America from the point of view of a visitor on Russia interesting. I enjoyed learning about the selection process for exchange students. But I was disappointed in the role that drugs played in this book. I suppose I am not the right demographic for this book.

Profoundly sad and affecting story of two brothers from a small town in what is best known to the rest of the world as gulag archipelago who take very different ways out of there. One uses his smarts, learns English, gets to go to US to study, the other choses addiction. No idea if the author has ever actually visited the area, but her descriptions of it are superb, not just surroundings but the zeitgeist, the beaten down snowed in tired desperation of an oligarch owned small company town so remote, bleak and hopeless that it makes communism seem like a decent idea, at least to the older population. It’s a place anyone would want to leave. A place anyone would do whatever it takes to leave. And that’s exactly how it plays out when two very different (opposites really) young brothers set their mind on America, the land of dreams as seen in incompetently dubbed action movies they like so much. And when one of them makes it, the culture disparity of a life with an all American family from Louisiana is staggering. And difficult to enjoy, weighted down by the notion that his brother has been arrested and accused of multiple murders. So not only a family drama, it’s a murder mystery. One you can figure out if you think about it, but it isn’t all too obvious. It’s just very appropriate and very tragic. And it’s sad to see how a place’s general ugliness can be so persuasive as to permeate all souls, good and otherwise. In the end it was just a good story well told. I wouldn’t describe it as a mystery per se, it’s primarily a drama, a very heavy one at that, but it’s a very satisfying emotionally engaging read with great characters and memorable story. And that’s a debut too, which is just…wow. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.

I was not sure what to expect from this book as it did not fit in the normal "book" that I usually read, but that is one of the things I love about new books. The opportunity to go to a different world than I'm used to!
I was instantly hooked on the relationship between Ilya and Vladimir.
To be the descriptions in this book was like a breath of fresh air and it really REALLY transports you to the world inside the book, so much so that I had to take a few seconds when I closed the book in order to get my grounding and essentially come out of the book. Yes, it is a mystery novel, but the book is so beautifully written, I don't know if I consider it a full mystery.
This was my first book by Lydia Fitzpatrick, but she has gained a huge fan.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Engrossing and suspenseful, tale of two Russian brothers, one on a scholarly quest to live and go to school in the US, another reckless, drug- addicted, and ultimately jailed for murder in Russia, and their enmeshment. Told with fervor and authenticity. Much intrigue and many plot twists to keep the reader engaged.