This was such a beautiful story. The world building, the characters, the northern lights. It was all so immersive

Beautiful start but ultimately ended up DNFing. Unfortunately it didn’t grab me and keep me.
I would see how readers wanting a slower cozier story would enjoy this one!

I loved the story, the world building and meeting the different characters. I felt completely immersed in the story and couldn't stop reading it.

The novel tells the story of Eline Davis, a half-Norweigian, half-American girl whose mother was taken by the Northern Lights when she was six years old. The book alternates between Eline's present-day story and past stories, all of which are told in lovely fairytale-like prose. Over the course of the book, Eline struggles to find her missing mother and to make sense of what happened in the past.

This book made me cry. THE WIDE STARLIGHT isn't about saving the world. It isn't about good versus evil. There isn't a war, or even very many battles. Instead, it's a very real story about love and loss and family, set in the most fascinating of locations. In the end, what I most remember about THE WIDE STARLIGHT isn't the magic (which is seamlessly woven into the narrative so that sometimes I forgot I wasn't reading a folktale), but the way Eline, her mother Silje, and her grandmother Astrid, were all shaped by the magic in one way or another and how they each perceived the world and shaped each other's lives.

The novel is atmospheric and dreamy and magical, creepy in all the right places, heartfelt in all the right ways. I'm really struggling to think of things I didn't like. Even my one major annoyance (Eline's dad's attitude to magic) was intentional and resolved. I enjoyed this read immensely, and highly recommend it.

I liked this even though it had a sad ending. I was a little confused at the beginning but not in a bad way, I did feel like it might be more middle grade than young adult but that was fine.

I LOVED that this story surrounded the northern lights and the magic that they could possess. I thought it was an interesting missing person story with a hint of magic and fantasy. It wasn’t full blown fantasy, which I enjoyed. I just didn’t like that so many chapters started with once upon a time. That got annoying. Still good though!

A wonderfully magical novel that capitvated and astounded. The writing was wonderful and I really did enjoy this colorful story.

I had a hard time getting into this story and continuing on with it. I think this was just a it's me, not you type of story because based on other reviews, many people liked it.

Eline was raised by her mother, Silje, who told her stories about the winter magic they shared. Ten years ago, however, she called down the Northern Lights and disappeared. Abandoned near their Svalbard hometown, Eline goes to life with her father. Now 16, she's living with her marine biologist father on Cape Cod. When Eline finds a mysterious letter asking her to call Silje down from the sky. The Northern Lights also appear over Cape Cod, so Eli tries to bring her mother back. When she does return, Eli starts seeing some strange things. Three mysterious girls in long cloaks with strange eyes skulking around., meteorites falling, and a pod of narwhals beaching themselves on the cape. When Silje disappears again, Eline's and her father must go back to Svalbard to finish what they started. Along the way, they must face Silje’s mythic creatures, the truth of Eline's heritage, and complicated relationships. This fantasy adventure is magical and mixes modern technology well into the plot. The characters are flawed, complex, and engaging. Mixed with Norwegian mythology, fans of Rick Riordan and mythology will want to pick this one up.

If you like classic fairy tales then I’m sure you would enjoy this book. The first half might be a little hard to get into but give it time because the second half picks up the pace . As you are introduced to the characters they will envelope you. Absolutely enjoyed the Norwegian and Scandinavian folklore. A great book to read.

This was beautifully written and such an entertaining read that left me teary eyed with that ending. It was such a stunning fantasy read with lyrical stories and Nordic. fairytales, it was so captivating to read!!

This book wasn't for me. I can see how others would like it but I just couldn't connect with the main character. I basically was checked out for most of the story. Wanted to love it so badly.

Dear The Wide Starlight by @nicolesperance ,

I love you. I love the way you make our world a fairy tale, from Eli's traumatic childhood, her mother's disappearance on a frozen Norwegian fjord, taken by the Northern Lights, to the impossible return of her mother, half frozen, half ghost, in Massachusetts when she's sixteen years old.

Your brilliance lies in the way you exist between reality and story, in the gray layers between possibilities. In your pages, mental illness and child abandonment coexist with wild magic, princesses bearing bad omens, generational trauma, and, of course, a land east of the sun and west of the moon.

Your writing gleams in bright icy fragments, in rich descriptions, in Eli's struggle to understand the chaos of her world. To make meaning from symbols and stories and pain.

Thank you for giving me a vast world to explore, for giving me Nordic folklore, for giving me a heartwrenching magical journey I will never forget. For telling a story that centers non-romantic love, that understands the depth of friendship and family relationships, that can hurt us as much as they anchor us.

Different from my normal reading style, the cover drew me in but the story kept me going. The beautiful and wonderful storyline read well and made me think.

The Wide Starlight is the evocative, atmospheric story of 16-year old Eli, whose missing mother draws her into a strange and magical world.

Eli’s mother disappeared one night, leaving her stranded on a sheet of ice in Svalbard, north of the mainland of Norway, where she might have frozen to death or been killed by a polar bear. Remarkably, Eli was discovered and saved, but Silje’s body is never found. Is she dead or missing? Did her troubled mind finally snap, leading her to abandon her young daughter before fleeing?

Silje’s body is never recovered. Eli is taken back to America by her American father and raised there. But then, a decade later, a series of strange events begin, leading Eli on the path of discovering the mystery that landed her on that ice alone, her mother missing.

A mixture of myth, magic, and contemporary storytelling, The Wide Starlight, is a vivid, ethereal story in which the reader (and often Eli) is never sure what is real and what is imagined. The friendship of Eli and Iris is ground in contemporary culture, but the spiritual bond to her mother is woven with fantasy and fairytales. The author’s portrait of Eli’s grandmother Mormor is especially excellent.

I read most of this engaging, bizarre, beautiful novel while curled up by the fire with a mug of steaming coffee. I suggest you do the same.

This was pretty good. I expected more from it, but still enjoyed it. I felt confused at times but not that much.

A lyrical tale and profound portrayal of grief, loss, and the journey toward healing set against the backdrop of the Northern Lights.

Eline was six years old when her mother bundled her up extra warm, took her out onto a frozen fjord in the middle of the night, and vanished — swept away by the Northern Lights after whistling for them (just like Arctic legend warned). Ten years later, Eline (Eli) and her dad have moved from the Arctic Circle to Cape Cod, but her mother’s absence continues to haunt her. Eli’s best and only friend — Eli’s got abandonment issues — is quirky über-genius Iris. (This story is about Eli’s journey, but their friendship is a beautiful thing to read.) When the Northern Lights appear in Cape Cod, along with mysterious letters delivered by the wind and other magical occurrences, Eli knows it’s time to return to Norway to find her mom and bring her back home.

The Wide Starlight is magical realism at its finest, a beautiful and achingly vivid tale of loss and grief, of what it means to be human and suffer. It’s a portrayal of mental illness expressed via a tapestry of Norwegian fairytales (mythology), with “once upon a time…” tales woven in between Eli’s first-person account of the present. The effect is a dreamlike whole — something hauntingly enchanting. The Wide Starlight is a tale spun of magic, yet at its core, it’s so true to the human condition that readers will find something that deeply resonates here.

Eline’s mother has been missing for years. Ever since she was a little girl and her mother brought her out on the ice in Norway and whistled to the Northern Lights. Eline’s mother disappeared up in the sky before her very eyes and Eline was found alone, stranded on the ice.
Eline is older now and the same Northern Lights have come to Massachusetts Peninsula for exactly one night. Eline takes a chance and whistles to those lights and they bring back her mother. But there is something different about her mother and these ancient girls from old stories have hitched a ride as well and seem to be drawing her mother away. Eline convinces her Dad to take a trip to Norway under the pretense of visiting her Grandmother when in reality she hopes to find her mother on the same patch of ice from long ago.

I think I might be in the minority for this one. It just wasn’t my cup of tea. Don’t get me wrong it has some emotional feels and I definitely had a lot of empathy for Eline but that was it. I didn’t really feel a connection to her otherwise. And that is very important to me while reading a book. Also she was a terrible friend. I understood she was going through a lot with her mother missing but she was really horrible to Iris her best friend.

I loved what the author was trying to do with the story itself, mix Norwegian Folk Lore with magical realism but it just didn’t sit well with me and it was a bit confusing and kind of weird to me at times.
I also felt more invested in the past timeline and not enough to the present because of the way it was told.

Thank You to Penguin Teen for this gifted eArc in exchange for my honest review.

DNF at 50% Storyline wasn't that interesting and the book's plot was a little all over the place for me.

This gem captured me immediately and kept me reading. I had to get my hands on this because the character , like so many YA readers experience a reality of emotions that we all face and must navigate through in life. This book makes us feel like we belong, no matter what we are going through and we are not by ourselves in this journey