This dystopian novel was quite good, better than I had expected. The characters were great, very well developed and the story kept my interest. Rorie is especially a great main character and narrator of the story! I'd recommend this novel.

Kudos to Ms. Lansens for writing a different genre but her contemporary fiction (The Girls) and her historical fiction (Rush Home Road) are two of my all-time favourite reads.
This Little Light takes place over 48 hours in the year 2023. They live in an exclusive gated area where abortion is illegal and girls must pledge to their fathers that they will not have sex before marriage.
This is the story of 16 yr old Rory on the run with her best friend because they are accused of bombing their upper-class Californian high school during an American Virtue Ball. There is a bounty on their heads and they hide as law enforcement, helicopters and drones try to track them down.
Told through Rory's blog writings of the events that occurred it is also about women's rights, abortion, immigration, religion and friendship.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin/Random House Canada for a copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley. Thank you to the author, the publisher and to Netgalley. This is the 4th book that I have read by Lori Lansens, and I really liked it. When I read the description of this book, I knew I wanted to read it. I really liked the main character Rory, she was very much an entitled teen, who wanted everything and got everything that she wanted. But when a new girl showed up in their cul-de-sac, she started questioning everything and looking beyond her entitled lifestyle. I liked how the blog she wrote allowed her to start seeing the truth in things and start believing in herself.
I originally thought that this would be a good book for my daughter to read, but there are some very mature themes in the book. My daughter is only 14, so I think I will wait a few years before she reads it.
I give this book 4 stars, it kept me wondering what happened. I was NOT expecting that ending. I wish there was a little bit more information at the end.

A special thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House Canada for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This Little Light takes place over a frenzied 48 hours in the near future (2023). Teenagers Rory and Feliza are on the run after they are accused of bombing their posh Californian high school on the night of the Virtue Ball. There's a bounty on their heads and everyone is trying to track them down. Rory's mom—an activist and lawyer—has been implicated in her daughter's crimes where her dad—who left them for another woman—is cooperating with the authorities.

Right-wing Christians have gained the upper hand so abortion and birth control has been re-criminalized. Girls are expected to pledge their virginity and know their roles. Rory is looking for someone and something she can trust. She's a smart girl who is not only cynical and scathing, but scared and emotional. What she writes is painful, intense, passionate, funny at times, and despondent.

For a teen, Rory is intelligent and fiercely independent. She is an incredibly strong character both in her voice and actions. Rory is an urgent narrator—you can almost feel the palpable keystrokes in her blog entries. Lansens captures her voice perfectly and the fever pace of the narrative is spot on. Remember, this novel only spans 48 hours, but it is enough time because Rory writes about past events that give credibility to her theory as to who is responsible for the bomb.

The plot is taut, tense, and timely. With the issues of reproductive rights, immigration, religion, and sexuality, I couldn't help but think of The Handmaid's Tale and how although this story is set in the future, the topics are relevant today. What Lansens achieves in this work is nothing short of extraordinary. And that ending...whoa! I can't give anything away, but it was a sucker punch right to the gut.

After being a fan of Lansens since reading and falling in love with the lyrical Rush Home Road years ago, I highly recommend this book. This Little Light burns bright. Congratulations, Lori.

Lori Lansens is one of my favourite Canadian writers; I’ve read and loved all of her books so I was anxious to read This Little Light, her latest novel. It is an intense, compelling read.

Events are set in Calabasas, California, over a period of 48 hours in November of 2024. Sixteen-year-old Rory Miller and her best friend, Fee (Feliza) Lopez, are hunted fugitives hiding in a shed. They are accused of bombing their Christian high school during an American Virtue Ball after they took virginity oaths. As they hide, Rory writes for her blog, This Little Light, explaining what is happening in the present and what lead to their being outlaws: “In order to remain calm-ish, I’m going to write our side of the story. I’m afraid we’ll be tracked to the shed if I post entries in real time, so I won’t submit until I know we’re safe.”

Rory’s world is a dystopian near-future which was obviously inspired by current events. Her world is that of double- and triple-gated communities outside of which there are “dozens of tent cities and homeless encampments” inhabited by illegal immigrants. Because of drought, finding safe drinking water is difficult: “now irrigation water’s reclaimed so not potable, and you can only drink bottled or tap, but only if the tap has a filtration system, which many poor people still don’t have.” And “it’s always fire season now.”

Christian fundamentalists have gained political power so abortion has been re-criminalized: “we girls hung on all the celebrity accusations and #MeToo confessions just like everyone else. Then came all the abortion stuff. Fetal heartbeat restrictions. Counseling restrictions. Ultrasound requirements. Near bans and outright prohibitions.” Teenaged girls are pressured to make chastity oaths, but there does exist a Pink Market “helping minors access birth control, and morning-after pills, and getting them to underground clinics.”

Rory and Fee are branded “Villains in Versace” but Rory is not a typical privileged girl. Though she has typical adolescent concerns (“fear of missing out” and “fear of losing my best friends” to a new girl and getting “a lot of likes” on social media), she cares about others. During a fire evacuation, she worries about “Mrs. Shea at the end of our street because she’s deaf and takes too many pills.” She knows that “not everybody starts life with the same degree of privilege” and wonders “Wouldn’t it be better for everyone to, like, find a way to get everybody in the game?” Her mother’s description of Rory is the most accurate: someone believing “in truth, and honesty, humility and humanity. . . . relentless in her questioning of herself, and of our world.”

More than once, Rory is described as “Relentless. Too true. I never shut up. I never give up. I ask too many questions. I’m a contrarian.” It is her intelligent and independent thinking that stands out. She calls out a friend who refuses to give money to a beggar by saying, “’That’s straight-up unchristian, Jinny.’” She makes observations like “when you mix wealth and privilege and religion, and isolation from the real world, I mean, when people actually believe they deserve their shit, they’re gonna tend to skew dickish.” She asks, “Shouldn’t actual evidence decide guilt or innocence, not freaking polls?” She expresses disgust with immigration policy when one woman is deported, “being sent to a place she hasn’t seen in twenty-five years, where she has no family or friends. Jesus fucking Christ.” She is not afraid of self-examination either: “all the things I’ve taken for granted. The sense of entitlement . . . My house. My ensuite bathroom. My filtered water. Agua. Not just clean water to drink and cook with, but clean water to wash myself with.”

Rory has an authentic teenage voice. She tends to end words with y like “corpse-y” and “spectrum-y” and “pose-y” and “desert-y”. She says “prolly” for probably and overuses “whatever”. In her sentences, she leaves out words: a father is “hardly home because work”; Calabasas “is famous because Kardashians”; teenage girls eat little “of the food because thin”; and “My parents, because Canadian, but also because statistics, hated guns, and brought me up to fear and loathe them too.”

The novel certainly maintains the reader’s interest throughout. There is suspense because of the danger which the girls face. Rory and Fee are being chased by the police but also by fundamentalist Christians known as Crusaders and by bounty hunters seeking the million dollar reward for finding them. Dogs, drones and helicopters are being used. Hate against them is being inflamed on television and online. Of course, the reader also wants to know what happened to bring the girls into this situation. Rory flashes back to earlier events and gradually reveals the sequence of events that lead to their being fugitives.

The message of the book is that people must question and work to find the truth. Rory calls out someone who uses graphic images “to emotionally manipulate . . . and confuse” in an argument against a woman’s right to make decisions about her body. Rory realizes that her and Fee’s hope lies in “journalists, and regular people, . . . starting to question.” She even wants to have children and teach them about resistance: “I wanna raise the kind of people who speak up, and ask questions, and call themselves out as well as others, and dig deeper.”

This novel touches on so many subjects: women’s rights, economic disparity, immigration, religion, sexuality, climate change, and parenting. Of course, I could not but think of The Handmaid’s Tale. Like Atwood’s book, This Little Light offers so much to ponder. Though the novel is set in 2024, the world described is much more present than future.

Note: In return for an honest review, I received a digital galley from the publisher via NetGalley.

This Little Light is short but intense -- in a good way. The story is set in the near future, in a dystopian southern California. The narrator is 16 year old Rorie, who in real time recounts the events that led her and her friend Fee to become hunted fugitives. Rorie is a smart, independent thinking and mouthy 16 year old, living in a privileged gated world where abortion is illegal and girls are pressured into making a pledge to their fathers that they will not have sex before marriage. Meanwhile, outside the gated community, the world is populated by homeless people desperately seeking food and safe drinking water; they are largely made up of illegal immigrants. It's not hard to see where the idea for the novel comes from. What really carried it for me was Rorie's voice. At times, she is a petulant 16 year old and at other times she seems to be the only sane person in her crazy world. Lansens's prose really flows smoothly, adding to the intensity and immediacy of the story. And the end -- well the end is quite something -- but I can't say more without spilling the beans. This isn't my usual type of book, but it was well worth it. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an opportunity to read an advance copy.

Je viens de terminer ce livre. Je suis complètement sous le choc de la fin, dont je ne discuterai pas. J'ai apprécié que l'autrice discute des sujets sociaux tels que le féminisme, l'athéisme et la montée de la droite religieuse et de l'intolérance, etc, et ce au travers de la bouche d'une adolescente. Toutefois, j'ai eu l'impression à plusieurs reprises que ces thèmes étaient plutôt abordés comme une checklist. Je recommande ce livre pour les adolescents et les adultes.

This was a wonderful read. Entertaining, powerful and humorous at times, it is sure to be a hit. Set in the year 2023 it is told through the blog writings of a 16 year old teenager who is on the run with her friend from authorities after a bomb explodes in a high school washroom at a virginity pledge event. This is a read that is worthy of your time.