First off, isn't the cover just gorgeous? I absolutely allow covers to give me a first impression. The All-Night Sun is a meditation on grief and the things people do as a result of grief.

Lauren Cress teaches writing at a small school outside of DC, and she accepts a student's invitation to visit her home in Sweden for the Midsommar Festival, which was a bad idea, as off-campus interactions with students generally are.

What keeps this book from being just dark and predatory (though there are elements) is the beautiful writing by Zinna. It's not my favorite sort of plot, but it's still a captivating read.

Many thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book. All thoughts are my own.

The all night sun was really amazing. IF you like Midsommar and inappropriate relationships between college students and their professors, then this the book for you! Highly recommend.

The All-Night Sun is a beautifully written novel of love, grief and the pain of intimacy.

Lauren, an adjunct professor of English for international students at Stella Maris College in Massachusetts makes most of her money via technical writing contracts. Even with these two jobs she makes barely enough to support herself. She loves teaching but with only a master's degree she doubts she can ever get a permanent tenured position at the college. She is very personable with the students, gives her all in feedback to assignments and tries to come up with creative ideas to stimulate the students' learning. During one semester she becomes close with a Swedish student named Siri and they begin a friendship.

Lauren appears to have things together but in reality she has little self-esteem and is very self-deprecatory. She has been living in a world of grief since her parents died in an automobile accident when she was a teenager. The grief has taken over her life and she can't find a way to recover - that is, until she meets Siri. Lauren is an accomplished liar. She finds that lying allows her to provide a mask of normalcy to others. When she finds out that Siri has also been orphaned at a young age, she feels a true kinship and closeness to her.

Stella Maris is a Christian school and, as such, has very particular rules and expectations about student-teacher relationships and boundaries. Siri invites Lauren to spend part of the summer with her in Sweden and on a whim, Lauren agrees even though she knows that this choice could get her in trouble with the college.

What follows during the summer is a desperate effort for Lauren to keep Siri close to her. Siri's family dynamics are conflicted and Siri's set of lifelong friends are put off by Lauren who is several years older than Siri and a newcomer to their established group. Siri is willful, adventurous and impulsive. Siri's sister wants Lauren to watch over her, a task that feels impossible to Lauren. The more Lauren takes on the role of 'protector', the more she loses her sense of self. Her attempts to connect to Siri, often unsuccessful, create a lack of balance in Lauren's worldview. She begins to lose herself and doubt her perceptions.

The writing is poetic and the inclusion of Swedish language and poetry make this book very special. I felt that I was in Sweden, part of its magic and mythology, enjoying the customs and beauty of a land I've never actually seen. This book is a gem and I highly recommend it.

Diane Zinna's The All-Night Sun is one of the most haunting and beautifully written books I have ever read. And let me just put this out there: I will be buying this book because I need to have that cover in my book collection.

Lauren Cress teaches an international class at a small Catholic college outside Washington, DC. She is charismatic and well-liked by her students. But she is also deeply lonely and still grieving her parents' deaths from ten years before. Everything changes when Siri, a charming eighteen-year-old fresh from Sweden, enters her classroom. Lauren is immediately taken with her and forms a boundary-crossing friendship.

When Siri invites Lauren back home during the summer break for her Midsommar festival, the lines between teacher and student get even more blurred. She is drawn to Siri's brooding older brother, Magnus, and sees a new side to her friend: one that is self-centered, destructive, and cruel. But Lauren is desperate to hold on to the only friend she has. And when things take a dark turn on the last day of the trip, Lauren escapes home in a state even worse than when she left. And the cost of her actions may be too high to recover from.

I typically read books quickly, especially if they're quickly-paced thrillers. I've found that I don't need to dwell on the writing, especially if it's not that memorable. Some have even lent themselves to "the skim," because they're full of filler that adds nothing to the plot.

The All-Night Sun forced me to slow down. I read this over a couple weeks rather than days, because I was just so captivated by Zinna's writing. If the cover is art, then her prose is a masterpiece. It's a quiet sort of book that doesn't rely on plot explosions, and I found myself lingering on each sentence. The reader is immersed in the setting with her rich descriptions and eye for detail.

There is a note in Zinna's acknowledgments about books with unlikable characters, and I've seen reviews that make note of this as well. I think because Lauren and Siri...let's say, don't always act in the most mature ways. But I didn't find them unlikable and I think that's down to how Zinna has given them life. Lauren is achingly lonely and obviously depressed and it's clear Siri is suffering as well. It's no wonder these two women found each other, regardless of how ill-advised their relationship may be. And though I didn't always agree with how they behaved, I could understand their motivations. And that's really all I needed.

I really recommend this to everyone. Even if the premise doesn't sound like something that's right for you, Zinna's immersive writing is something you should experience.


Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for allowing me this copy to review. It was truly a privilege.
(I am adding this to my blog as of 4/30 and will attach a link on the page below)

Gorgeous exploration of grief and the choices we make in the midst of it. Partly based in a school setting, and partly based in Sweden during the Midsommar celebration. I found this story both hard to face and impossible to turn away from.