A short wonderful read about a horrifying tragedy. We meet Lucas who has lost his wife in a shooting. An evocative heart-rending novel. A must read.

This one was interesting! It discussed some heavy topics like grief combined with Quick's on sense of humor. I thought the ending was easy to see but it still made for an enjoyable read!

Whew- what a book! A man has gone through unimaginable tragedy and copes by writing letters to his analyst. I am a counselor myself, and even I found there to be too much analysis talk. That said, this is a moving and complex story that will definitely make you feel. The angel angle was just okay for me, but I think a reader might get more out of it if they were more spiritual. A memorable story.

A fascinating yet sobering glimpse into one man’s mental collapse after a terrible mass shooting where his wife and many friends were murdered. That he realizes that he is losing his hold on reality makes this especially heartbreaking, but that he is able to begin to recover gives the reader hope.

I’ve long loved Matthew Quick - Sorta Like a Rock Star was a fave - and here he uses the same endearingly rambly, imperfect and self-reflective style, this time in an epistolary novel with a wholly fresh perspective about life post-mass shooting. This book will stick with me for a long time.

Many thanks to Netgalley and publishers for providing a review copy.

Matthew Quick is one of my auto-read authors. There's something about how he writes characters that are so appealing and dynamic. While a heavy read, you won't be able to put this one down!

Matthew Quick is one of my very favorite authors, and this book was even better than I hoped it would be. We Are The Light felt somewhat like a mix between two of his other titles (The Silver Linings Playbook and Forgive Me Leonard Peacock), covering topics like grief, relationships, mass shootings, and mental health. Quick expertly writes in a way that is lighthearted, yet incredibly meaningful. I absolutely recommend this book to all readers!

We Are the Light by Matthew Quick is a novel about a husband's grief due to the murder of his wife. There was a shooting at the movie theater one night when he and his wife were there. Many people died that night, and Lucas is suffering. So, he starts writing letters to his former Jungian analyst, Karl; except Karl doesn't write back. This book was very unique and a little strange, but the way it spoke of grief and love was really beautiful. Thanks to NetGalley for the free digital review copy. All opinions are my own.

What a book! Thank you NetGalley! Loved the letter format way of writing this novel about a heavy topic that is sadly becoming all to common.
The characters are all so well developed, I felt like I knew them. Just a beautiful book about healing and community. Bravo Matthew Quick.

I like the characters and their investigation style but it is very straight forward detecting. The description of place and background of characters isnt present in the writing but maybe that's the point. The translation flows and the characters are easy to follow. Interesting to read a series from another culture although its not my favorite series.

Copy provided by the publisher and NetGalley

We Are the Light is one of the most unique, quirkiest books I have read in quite some time. Written as letters to his therapist for the entirety of the book, Lucas Goodgame is recounting a tragedy...while desperately seeking help.

Majestic, Pennsylvania was the setting of a recent massacre that has left Lucas widowed, mentally unstable, and a small town hero all in one.

At first I was unsure about the letter format but it really worked & was a unique way to tell his story in first person. Past, present, and future helped to paint the picture of the many citizens of Majestic, PA who were all affected, by not only this recent tragedy, but the tragedy that was their prior life. Silver Linings Playbook is one of my favorites and I could definitely feel similarities between the two. Mental health, forgiveness, and a positive outlook on life after loss. Thank you to NetGalley & Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster for an ARC of We Are the Light. All opinions are my own. 4 stars.

My expectations were quite high for this book after reading the author's previous book. I enjoyed this book but not as much.
The epistolary technique was used to create the plot and that can be tough going. Yet, the beauty of the prose and the sincerity of the expression of loss and sadness is masterfully undertaken.
It is uplifting and heartrending simultaneously which the author skillfully accomplishes.

Having read other Matthew Quick books before I expected this one to blow me away. I enjoyed my time reading, but it was not a knock out.

I just was not connected to the MC and felt neutral about the whole book. I also am not a fan of magical realism so those aspects did not appeal to me.

3 stars

In all honesty, this one was a struggle for me. It wasn't bad, it just didn't blow me away. It actually didn't even compel me to sit down and read it, which was the problem. I never connected with the storyline or the characters so when faced with some free time, I opted to do other things besides read this, and ended up reading it mostly when I wasn't able to sleep and didn't have a lot of other options. And I honestly am disappointed I didn't like it more. I truly don't know if it was an issue with the book or with me, but we just never clicked like I would have liked. The book was well-written and had a compelling storyline but I think ultimately my issue was with the main character, Lucas, and the fact that I was just never able to sympathize or relate to him in any way. I really didn't even like him much. So unfortunately, this was just a a so-so read for me. I will say that I finally felt a glimmer of a connection at the very end. Way at the very end, which was simply just too late to save the book for me.

There is something intimate and a bit tender about an epistolary novel. I feel so connected to the story when I’m drawn into the heartfelt letters of the narrator.

WE ARE THE LIGHT follows Lucas Goodgame in the aftermath of his wife’s murder in a mass shooting at a movie theatre. As he navigates his grief, he makes unlikely friendships and creates beauty out of the ashes.

I was apprehensive to pick up a story about gun violence, but Matthew Quick handled the story with great care. He created a cast of characters in a small community that I adored and the way they banded together in the face of deep grief to create connection was touching.

The story shines in the way that various forms of grief are portrayed. Each character processes their sorrow in a unique way but the common thread was “the only way out is through”, but with one another. The story tackles heavy themes, but does so in a way that left me feeling hopeful.

RATING: 4/5
PUB DATE: November 1, 2022

Thank you NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for an electronic ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Matthew Quick's books are not linear. They do not start on day 1 and progress to day 2, then 3 and so on. They take the reader on a wandering, meandering journey where the characters move forward, sideways and sometimes backwards in their earnest efforts to reach a point where they understand the journey and can move on. While there is a traumatic event at the center of the story, the heart of the story is the healing and self forgiveness that must happen in order to continue living, not just existing. I loved Silver Linings Playbook. It had the same quirks and odd moments as We Are The Light. Both show humans at their worst and their best.

Thank you to the author, Avid Reader Press and NetGalley, for an ARC in exchange for an honest review (coming late because COVID finally got me).

This book is very much one that grew on me. I am admittedly a sucker for an epistolary format, but the letters so obliquely referred to the events behind the trauma the protagonist (and everyone in the entire town) was going through that it took me a while to really get into the story. The story is beautifully written, a triumph of love and healing - my only quibble was the all-encompassing emphasis on the superiority of Jungian analysis.

It was just ok. I loved the ending but so much build up and you don’t even get the full story of what happened that tragic night. Good narration.

“Every healer is a wounded person first.”

Going to the movies used to be one of my favorite things. But I had the (fortunately) unfortunate experience of seeing Dark Knight Rises in Aurora, Illinois at a historic theater where everyone sat in old bucket seats dressed as Batman, while across the country, in Aurora, Colorado, a man shot up a theater of people enjoying the same movie.

Since then, every visit to the theater has been fraught with anxiety, extensive planning on where to sit, eyes constantly darting from exit to exit, just to make sure a madman with a gun wasn’t about to end my life - worse now after having kids, because every time I leave for the movies and kiss their sweet foreheads and sniff their soft hair, I imagine it being the last. The reality is, in America, I am not alone in these anxieties about going to the movies. And that is heartbreaking.

Lucas and many others experienced one of my greatest fears in this book, and We Are the Light is a story about how these people learn to carry and heal from their trauma and their fears, made possible by an overwhelming sense of community.

I found a little too much of my anxiety in this book. My worries. My neuroses. But I also found hope, comfort, and a quirky sort of joy that is unique to how Matthew Quick writes. There is always a wholesomeness in the people surrounding and upholding our broken and lovable narrator. Matthew Quick gently allows you to see the good in people, even in the worst of circumstances.

We Are the Light is poignant, raw, tinged with sweet and subtle humor. It’s one of the best books I’ve read this year.

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I had a lot of anticipation over this book having really enjoyed an earlier book and adaptation of it to film by our author. You may be most familiar with our author from the screen adaptation of one of their prior books ‘The Silver Linings Playbook’. I really appreciated this powerful read. It is all in the format of an Epistolary Novel. Per masterclass.com “In an epistolary novel, the story is told through the form of love letters, diary entries, newspaper clippings, telegrams, or other documents. A modern novel in the epistolary form may include electronic documents such as emails or text messages.” There were a few detailed scenes that were hard to read and I would alert any reader to a strong trigger warning and subject matter that may be difficult to read, this book does deal with a very heavy topic that the US is experiencing much too often.

Goodreads tells us that “Lucas Goodgame lives in Majestic, Pennsylvania, a quaint suburb that has been torn apart by a recent tragedy. Everyone in Majestic sees Lucas as a hero—everyone, that is, except Lucas himself. Insisting that his deceased wife, Darcy, visits him every night in the form of an angel, Lucas spends his time writing letters to his former Jungian analyst, Karl. It is only when Eli, an eighteen-year-old young man whom the community has ostracized, begins camping out in Lucas’s backyard that an unlikely alliance takes shape and the two embark on a journey to heal their neighbors and, most important, themselves.”

I especially enjoyed the format of the book in letters, our protagonists voice was so well done and really set this book up for success in being unique in my opinion. The coming together of the community in a time of tragedy really pulls at your heart strings. They can all relate to one another in terms of loss and I found them all relatable in their own way. I expected to be a bit more emotional over the book and have a little bit more of an emotional connection overall with the characters, but that’s not to say it wasn’t emotional in its own sense. I think it’s really beautiful to read about this community growing together and reminds us that there is still good even in heartache and tragedy.

Many thanks to our author, Netgalley and Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster for providing me with an advanced eGalley copy of the book on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This was released on November 1st, 2022 and I hope if you choose to read it you like it also.