“I’ll tell you the truest thing I know: You are not a creature of grief. You are not a congregation of wounds. You are not the sum of your losses. Your skin is not your scars. Your life is yours, and it can be new and wondrous. Remember that.”
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Delaney is a genius. A high school Junior from Sawyer, Tennessee who finds a mold in a cave that might work better than penicillin. This earns her a free ride to private school Middleton in Connecticut. The only thing she asks for is that her best friend, Cash, gets a scholarship as well. Cash is worried about leaving his grandfather, Pep, the only father he’s ever known, who is sick with emphysema. Torn between two worlds, Cash learns to be independent, while still holding on to all the ideals his Papaw instilled in him.
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There are some authors whose work you would recognize without ever knowing they wrote it because it’s so specific to them. People like Jason Reynolds, Angie Thomas, Julie Murphy. Jeff Zentner is one of those authors for me. Every word he writes is poetry, even when this is his first book to deal with the topic itself. His love for his home state is relevant on every page. Jeff can make me cry on page 1–not many authors can do that. He has a certain way of writing that is 100% original, beautiful, intentional and important. This is my new favorite of his (if you haven’t read The Serpent King, stop what you’re doing right now and get yourself a copy.) I’m still sobbing my eyes out over this YA masterpiece so I feel like I don’t have the appropriate words to adequately express my love for it, but come August—so many people in my life are getting a copy of this book.
P.S. Fans of Zentner’s work will see previous characters and references to his other books in this novel. I love that he does that! This is an easy ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️. Thanks @netgalley for an ARC.

Jeff Zentner is a master storyteller. Wow. This book is so special and for a Northeast kid like me, an eye opener. This felt almost like a YA version of The Glass Castle, Educated, and updated Looking for Alaska with shout outs to Jeff's older work (loved seeing Lydia! :D). This is an important book, and a special book, and a brilliant book. Just wow. Looking forward to sharing with some teens who love John Green. Thank you RH for the opportunity to read it early.

In the Wild Light is everything you hope for when you pick up a Jeff Zentner novel.

Cash and Delaney have been best friends for a long while. Long enough that they know one another's darkest moments and brightest hopes. Delaney is brilliant and the world outside of their small town is catching on after she discovers a new strain of penicillin. When she is offered a scholarship to a prestigious private school, she accepts under the condition that Cash comes as well. Cash is reticent to leave his ailing grandfather, but Papaw insists that Cash take the leap.

I always expect tears when I read Zentner's work and this was no exception. The authenticity with which he writes relationships always gets me invested in every character. I highly recommend that others pick up this book as soon as it comes out!

Wow. Perfect. I couldn't put it down and it is a tight story with beautiful writing. I teach high school English in rural/suburban Western North Carolina, and this book is for my kids. My class library is full of the latest and greatest, but southern stories that truly let my students see themselves are harder to find. Zentner does it and does it well. The prose is so beautiful, like the nature that Cash loves, the words flow like a river on its way down stream. I sat and marveled at something in every chapter. Some emotion or some feeling. Just like Cash was in awe of the poetry Dr. Adkins gave him, so am I in awe of the real, round characters Zentner presents. The dialogue is fantastic!!! I also felt inspired by Dr. Adkins. As an English teacher, the book continued to remind me how important it is for kids to have space and time to explore texts, poems, and to find their voices. This is already my favorite book of 2021 and we haven't even started the year! I WILL be getting a copy for myself and as many as possible for my class library. This is a title, like Serpent King, that I think I could teach whole class. I know my copy will be full of sticky notes and highlights. Living in the mountains, I know what it is that the book talks about...just that feeling - when you are up on mountain or you walk out and see the fields and cows and the sunlight creep into your holler...it's poetry and it surrounds us every day. I just can't say enough, and I will be raving about this book from now until August. It was just fantastic. Full of beauty and truth, "truth beauty" ...."that is all ye need to know on earth, and all ye need to know."

Jeff Zentner's writing is why I love books and reading. His books are why I tell other adults to read YA fiction and why I believe this genre is where the most authentic, soulful and true words are committed to the page. After reading Serpent King, I thought Jeff couldn't outdo himself again. Surely there was no real, lovable, rounded character that I would grow to love like Dillard Early and Lydia Blankenship. Then, I opened "In the Wild Light" and fell head over heels for Cash and Delaney. Pep broke my heart into a million tiny pieces and made me remember my own Appalachian Papaw and how much he meant to me. This book that I read in December of 2020 is now the best thing I've read all year. In 2021, I will continue to sing its praises and wait with bated breath till the day I can share it with my students, friends and family. Well done, Zentner, you've broken my heart and put it back together somehow stronger for the broken places.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a DRC of this title for review. All opinions are my own.

I've been staring at my computer screen, trying to write this review, for quite a while now. Everything I come up with to say falls so very short of what I want you to know about this book. Zentner is a master of writing. There were moments in this story where I literally had to put the book down, tears in my eyes, to appreciate not only the beauty of the writing, but the beauty of the moment in the story. This is a story of grief, of love, of life in all it's beautiful and wonderful brutality.

Cash has been living with his grandparents ever since his mother passed away from an opioid overdose. Pawpaw and Mamaw have been there for him, giving him the only safety and security he has ever known. So when Delaney, his best friend and resident genius, tells him that he can join her on scholarship at an exclusive boarding school up North, he hesitates. Pawpaw is sick and isn't getting better. Leaving him feels like an impossible choice, but Cash's family insists that he go and try school. There, he battles feelings of insecurity, convinced he isn't good enough and doesn't belong. His greatest fear is a battle between missing the end of Pawpaw's life and having the last moments of it be clouded by the disappointment he is sure his family will feel when they realize how un-extraordinary he really is.

Like I said, nothing I write about this book will ever do it justice. It was a quietly beautiful book that left me in tears. I loved it and can't wait for the rest of the world to discover it. Highly recommend. This is first purchase, pre-order multiple copies territory.

Every novel by Jeff Zentner is a gift for the reader. Zentner writes from the heart. Each book he writes fills a hole the reader doesn’t even know exists. This beautiful novel, my favorite of 2020 touched me personally. I know it will also touch the lives of many of my students. There is such beauty in the story of Cash, Delaney, Papaw, and Mamaw. It is a love story for all children being raised by grandparents.

"You are not a creature of grief. You are not a congregation of wounds. You are not the sum of your losses. Your skin is not your scars. Your life is yours, and it can be new and wondrous. Remember that."

Alright I finally feel emotionally recovered enough to attempt a review.

Easy 5 stars, obviously. Probably my new favorite Zentner. Everything about this book was stunning. The characters and their journeys, the setting, the writing, the poetry...all of it. Jeff Zentner's writing is relatable, easy to grasp, yet the way he arranges his words and articulates his narrative absolutely knocks you over with its beauty. It's something that I think he does better than anybody else. He brings beauty to the mundane, he makes you feel for people you'd usually overlook... he gives dignity to unremarkable, "average" people.

I find what I love most about my favorite authors is that they tell previously overlooked, untold stories. Which is why I love all of Jeff's books. There's nothing spectacular or special about any of his main characters. They're the kids in your high school that you probably didn't know much about, the cashier at the Dairy Queen, the quirky kids with the odd hobbies, the misfits in your hometown. But he gives them dignity. He makes you look at those "average" and "unspectacular" people and see that they actually are spectacular and special, in their own ways.

"I've always loved when the light finds the broken spots in the world and makes them beautiful."

That's what Jeff does through his writing. He finds the "broken spots" and makes them beautiful. This book is special. The characters are special. And I hope you give this special book a chance. If you've never given contemporary fic a chance, I beg you to try Jeff's books. I'm not saying his books will all of a sudden make you love all contemporary, realistic fic...but I am saying that his books are remarkable and able to be loved and appreciated by every type of reader. Readers love good stories, and all of Jeff's stories are good.

"There are days when your heart is so filled with this world's beauty, it feels like holding too much of something in your hand. Days that taste like wild honey. This is one of them."

Jeff Zentner is a master with words - and this book further proves that. It's a beautiful story of family and friendship - and of loss, grief, and overcoming all of it. If you've read Jeff's other books, and love them, then this will not disappoint. I cried multiple times and loved the beauty of the words, of the writing style, of how Jeff makes you feel what these characters are feeling. I cheered for Cash throughout this entire story - it's easy to do. I can't wait to purchase this for my high school library and share this with my students.

TRIGGER WARNINGS include in-depth descriptions of anxiety and depression; drug abuse and overdose; sexual assault; and the deaths of close family members.

The story is gorgeous, and I was able to read it in a really difficult time in my life where I really needed this book. This story wrecked me in the best way possible, and I feel so honored to be able to live in a world where this book exist for my students to read. It is going to make a difference in the lives of so many young adults.

I was quickly engrossed in this book. Zentner's words are lyrical and captivating. Zentner grapples with the details of the hardest parts of life. The parts that are unfair, and the parts that we don't deserve. There are deep feelings of heartbreak sprinkled with hope and humor. I felt connected to Cash throughout the whole story. His struggles with his anxiety were reminiscent of some of the things that I—as a 28-year-old adult—still regularly struggle with, and I was able to find pockets of hope for myself as well.

Cash is a high schooler going into his junior year with his best friend, Delaney. Delaney is the "town genius" in their little town of Sawyer, Tennessee. Delaney discovers a new strain of penicillin that is can help tackle antibiotic resistant bacteria like MRSA, and she is launched into a spotlight that she never intended to be in.

Delaney is offered the opportunity to leave their small town and continue her education at an elite boarding school, Middleford Academy. She agrees to go only if she is able to take Cash with her, and he reluctantly goes despite the heartache of leaving his grandfather who is struggling with the late stages of emphysema.

Throughout this journey, Cash struggles with Imposter Syndrome because he does not believe he deserves the good fortune he has been handed. He also has to deal with making new friends, learning a new team sport, balancing this friendship with Delaney, and coping with being away from the grandparents who raise him. Along the way, he discovers poetry and is able to find some healing and stability in his new life.