Matthew Quick is my favourite author and to say I was gutted when he went on hiatus is an understatement. But I understand why it had to be. And that why is also why I love his books so much. His soul is gentle, he writes the most wonderful characters. In my eyes he is a genius and that genius comes at a cost to him. So I sat back, wishing him well, and hoping he would come out the other side.
Little was I prepared for that to be along with another absolutely brilliant book. One I requested an arc of as soon as I saw it. One that I begged and pleaded and bargained everything for. And one that, as soon as I got my hands on it, I broke all my reviewer rules and bumped it up to next on my tbr. I did everything short of ditching my current read - although had I not less that 100 pages left in that, it might have been a different story!
Lucas has lived through a tragedy. He is a survivor of an incident where many from his suburb died. Including his wife Darcy, who still visits him during the night as an angel. To say he has survivor's guilt, well... you can judge for yourself. He survives, or tries to, by writing letters to his analyst and it is these letters that make up this book...
And that's all I am saying. Because I believe that you really need to know everything about this book exactly when the author wants you to. Go in as blind as you can. Discover everything at the right time for maximum impact. Take the Jungian aspects at face value or delve in deeper. It's a story but there is meaning in everything. It just depends on what level you are willing to go...
And Lucas... he is just added onto an ever growing list of favourite characters that this author has gifted me. His books are ones that I often re-read, especially The Silver Linings Playbook (still hate the film). and I do not usually re-read. I also have them all as physical copies, again unusual for me. My parting wish is that the author doesn't leave it so long before he delivers me his next book. Oh and I almost forgot - FlyEaglesFly
My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

This book appealed to me because I’m all in on Jungian psychology, healing relationships between younger and older generations, and epistolary novels. However, this one wasn’t for me. It grabbed my attention in the beginning, but later bogged down. I was unable to relate to any of the characters and abandoned it at 26%. All the same, thanks to the publisher for offering me the e=galley. I’m sure the problem is not with the book but with my own life experience not being relatable to the characters, or maybe it was the wrong book at the wrong time. I will not be posting this review publicly.

We Are the Light by Matthew Quick was extraordinary! This book was more movie than I first thought it would be but from the authors previous works I should have known it would bring out all the feels. This book deals with the aftermath of a tragedy. It shows how people come together. The main character tells the story through letters to his therapist. While the book moves slow, it is building on the over all story. Highly recommend this read!

I was so blessed to be approved for an e-ARC of Matthew Quick’s We Are the Light by NetGalley (this review is not biased by this fact). I have read 3 other of this author’s works and I immensely enjoyed all of them. Matthew Quick is not afraid to tackle hard issues, and he continues that with this novel.

This epistolary novel is centered around Lucas Goodgame, a high school counselor, who was present for a mass shooting at a movie theatre in his town of Majestic. Lucas is having a hard time dealing with this trauma, and he writes letters to his Jungian analyst, Karl. As this novel has not come out yet, I don’t want to go into more detail. I hate spoilers!

I will say that this book took me a while to read because it was emotionally heavy. It was beautifully written, and you can’t but feel for Lucas and the other characters in this book. I am not ashamed to admit that I cried. I was emotionally invested in this novel – I don’t see how anyone reading it could not be. Out of the four novels by this author that I have read (Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock, Silver Linings Playbook, The Good Luck of Right Now, and this one), We Are the Light is my favorite. The other novels are great, but this one will stay with me for a very long time.

This novel comes out on November 1, 2022. I highly recommend it! Just make sure you are prepared for an emotional read.

5/5 stars

I had to stop at 25%. It was too close to home. Similar “tragedies” have affected me, my family, my friends and my communities deeply and how some of the reactions were portrayed in the book, I just couldn’t go on. I didn't expect it to affect me in this way or I wouldn't have chosen it as an early release. I will try to come back to it at a later time. Thank you to NetGalley and Avid Reader Press providing We Are The Light in exchange for my honest opinion. It will be available on 11/1/22.

Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free, electronic ARC of this novel received in exchange for an honest review.
Expected publication date: November 1, 2022
Matthew Quick, author of “Silver Linings Playbook”, returns with a poignant and powerful new novel, “We Are the Light”.
After a tragedy in his hometown of Majestic, Pennsylvania, high school counselor Lucas Goodgame is hailed as a hero by many, but it doesn’t feel that way to him. Lucas knows that of all the people who lost someone that night, he is the lucky one, as his deceased wife Darcy comes to him every night, in her angel form. As he communicates to his therapist, Karl, via letters that go unanswered, Lucas tries to come to terms with the devastating loss, and finally finds some relief when a heartbroken young man pitches a tent in his backyard. Desperate for connection and bonded through grief, Eli and Lucas find a renewed faith in each other, and in humanity.
“Light” is a heavy novel, covering grief and loss, mass shooting tragedies, suicide and mental illness, but it is also a shining ray of hope. Quick’s novel is narrated by Lucas, told in letter form through his communications with his therapist. Although this is a unique format, it did not turn me off, as Quick still provided all the relevant details needed to create a connection with Lucas and the community of Majestic.
Lucas uses Jungian psychology as a way to get through his grief, so there is a lot of this theory scattered throughout the novel. Quick does not use academic wording or drone on with mundane theories on Jung’s philosophies, but anyone without a passion for psychology may not find it nearly as intriguing as I did.
Right from the beginning, I knew there would be an inevitable plot twist, and therefore it did not surprise me when it came. However, the predictable twist had such an emotional element to it that I couldn’t help but feel completely overcome right alongside Lucas.
Quick adds in his author’s notes how personal this novel was to him, as he struggles with lifelong depression and anxiety, and it makes “Light” all the more engaging and honest. The characters are all broken pieces desperately looking for something to put them back together again, and what they find instead is a young man, shattered by his own grief, and looking for acceptance. “Light” left behind so many emotions that it’s going to take some time to process, but Quick has delivered a unique and emotional novel about the powers of human connection and I can’t wait to see where he goes next.

The town of Majestic, PA is reeling from the loss of 17 of its members in a shooting at the local movie theater. No one is more affected than Lucas Goodgame, who is being lauded as a hero for his actions during the incident. But Lucas is struggling. Since his Jungian analyst, Karl, will not see him, Lucas has started writing letters to Karl to process his feelings and the events occurring in the wake of the incident. And just maybe, Karl will decide to restart their therapy.

This book. Where do I even begin? It's a book about a horrible tragedy, but it's just so darn hopeful and heartfelt. I am a huge Matthew Quick fan and I am so glad that he wrote this book. It won't be for everyone (definite trigger warnings) but it is beautifully written and it left me feeling lighter.

This book is the epitome of healing through writing. The author does a great job in creating a clear character voice by using a letter style in Lucas writing to his analyst Karl.

This book can relate to so many people with dealing with traumatic events or mental health issues. This book deals with the survivors after a mass shooting in a movie theater. The writing makes you really feel brought into the emotions that Lucas is feeling and him rediscovering the horrible events that his mind had put away. He even sees an angel version of his dead wife Darcy.

My favorite part of this book was the introduction of Eli and the town coming together to make a monster movie. I think Lucas really got the darkness off his chest little by little through each letter and Eli along with Jill were a big part as well. Everyone healing together really is the light.

Really Karl could have been anyone, since the writing was really the healing, but the twist with Karl was pretty creative. We all need a Karl, Eli, and Jill in our lives.

Thank you to Simon and Schuster and Netgalley for providing me a copy of this ARC for my honest review.

• Thank you to Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for providing this Advance Reading Copy. Expected publication date is November 1, 2022. #WeAretheLight #NetGalley

This is an epistolary novel composed of letters written by Lucas Goodgame written to his Jungian analyst. It is a diary of sorts written after Lucas witnessed a mass shooting in the town’s movie theater on Christmas Eve. Lucas’s wife, along with 17 others, lost their lives that night. Lucas was considered a hero in the town of Majestic, PA after taking down the shooter by himself. But, Lucas has a long way to go in his healing efforts, all of which is slowly revealed through his letters.

At first I didn’t know what to think of this book. It clearly wasn’t the Matthew Quick I’ve been used to reading. Yet, it coaxed me to keep reading just enough until I got into the rhythm of the story. The last chapter was definitely the payoff. However, I’m not suggesting anyone just go to the last chapter and read that because, if you did, you would be missing so much raw emotion along the way.

Perhaps once upon a time, a story like this one would seem unimaginable, but feels all too real, even prior to these last several years.

This begins with a tragedy that devastates a town. leaving many people traumatized with the memories that haunt them. Lucas Goodgame is one of those people. As a high school counselor in Majestic, Pennsylvania, and one of the many people who lost loved ones in a mass shooting, he turns to his psychoanalyst, leaving him letters to which he never receives a reply. He persists to the point where a local policeman steps in often to remind him that he must stop leaving these letters.

As a husband, he clings to his wife, Darcy, whose life was taken on that horrific day, but she still visits him in angelic form most nights. While he acknowledges to himself these visits won’t last forever, he treasures her visitations all the more when they do come. The mornings after, he collects the feathers left from her wings lying on the bed.

Jill, his late wife’s best friend, looks after Lucas, bringing him food and making sure that he is at least physically, if not emotionally, taking care of himself. He’s still so lost in his grief, and in his determination to hold onto Darcy. After a while, she moves into his house, knowing he needs someone to make sure he isn’t falling down deeper into this nightmare. One night soon after, a tent appears in his backyard. When Lucas goes out to discover who has pitched his orange tent in his yard, he finds Eli, the brother of the shooter. That night, ‘Winged’ Darcy appears and, pointing to the tent says ’That boy is the way forward.’ When he asks what she means, she repeats the phrase, and then repeats it one more time.

While this story initially revolves around the impact of the shooting, it evolves into a story that encompasses so much more. Love, in all its many forms and its ability to heal, versus those who build walls to keep others away. Although Lucas is clearly suffering from the loss of his wife, he takes Eli in. Into his home, but also into this new family being formed.

Grief, how we process grief, the length of time before we begin to heal is such an individual process. And while this story revolves around a horrific event, a town and people who are forever changed by it, it is also a story of love, of kindness, of moving forward in life while still remembering and honoring the past. Lucas helps to heal Eli by encouraging him and assisting him in making a movie. A movie that he hopes will not only help Eli heal, but the others in the town and beyond, as well. In turn, Eli’s healing begins during the process of working on this movie.

The focus of this story is less about the event itself than it is about both the trauma that follows, and the love and care extended that follows as a result. At its heart, this is a story about the healing power of love - for both the giver and receiver.


Pub Date: 01 Nov 2022


Many thanks for the ARC provided by Avid Reader Press, Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster

Thanks to Avid Reader Press for the copy of this ARC.

We Are the Light is a timely epistolary novel centered around a mass shooting in a small town. The main character, Lucas, lost his wife in the shooting and believes that she is still present with him as a guardian angel. He's writing letters to his former Jungian analyst, Karl (which is a bit confusing given Carl Jung's name), going over his life since the shooting. Lucas forms a bond with a high school senior named Eli, and together they plan a project to bring healing back into the town where many experienced direct loss due to the shooting. We Are the Light is a really unique narrative on loss, grief, loneliness, and in the end, hope. It shows us the power of being there for a person going through a hard time and how much that can really make a difference.

I think this book's subject matter is incredibly important, but the implementation just did not work super well for me. I easily predicted what was happening in the book and got super weary of the philosophy discussions.

2,5 stars

First of all, I realize that most people are posting raving reviews (please read them!) and I must say that the book is very well written. I especially liked the epistolary format, which brings the story to a close and personal level, feeling as if the letters are written to the reader itself.

But what I didn't like was the main character, Lucas. He came across a an arrogant, petulant child. He is seriously stalking his former therapist and forms a dangers to others, yet he is protected by an old police "friend" and also by the rest of the town. I can imaging that he would be extremely scarred by the event that ruined a large part of the community he's living in, but somehow I can only imagine that he was unlikable to begin with and the the trauma just made it worse. Then there is the all encompassing influence of the Jungian analysis, which I must say was weird, selling it off as superior to all other forms of therapy. Especially the fact that if "Psyche" dictates something, it must be done. It just seems like having an excuse to get away with anything. Just like a petulant child indeed: "It wasn't me, it was Psyche". Ach... Another line of thought that I thought was off-putting is that men are supposed to pass on some wisdom or 'phallic energy' to boys, to guide them from boyhood to manhood, either by their father or a father figure. Which then brings me to the only main female character in this book: Lucas's wife's best friend, who is basically just cooking, cleaning and doing laundry, leaving the men to their "philosophy". Ach again...

Once I got invested in not liking Lucas at all, nor his therapy, it was very difficult to appreciate the story itself, which I think was rather bizarre, and maybe something more suitable for a YA book. Seeing all the stellar reviews, I makes me feel like I've read a different book. It's probably me not getting it, I don't know.

Thank you NetGalley, Avid Reader Press and the author for an ARC in exchange for a honest review.

3.5 stars. This is a moving epistolary novel about overcoming a terrible tragedy. The story takes place in the form of letters from one of the survivors of a mass shooting, Lucas, writing to his former Jungian analyst. It didn't land quite right with me; I found Lucas's narrative tone frustrating and hard to connect with. Even if there are some reasons for the tone that are eventually revealed, I still felt rather disinterested in the heavy Jungian aspects of the book. I did appreciate the healing that Lucas and all the survivors underwent, and the various paths that healing took. I have a feeling this will really be the right book for a lot of people. Thank you to NetGalley and Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster for a digital review copy.

This is such a good read! It is a novel based on an all too familiar subject in our society today, a mass shooting set in the small town of Majestic, PA., the emotional fall-out felt by families who lost someone (the survivors), and the subsequent impact on the entire town.

The story is cleverly told through a series of letters written by Lucas Goodgame, a hero and survivor, to his former Jungian analyst, Karl, also a survivor. Through the letters we watch the deep grief Lucas wrestles with on the loss on his wife, his guilt because he couldn't save more people, and his mourning of all that the town has lost and is now struggling to deal with.

His life begins to find new meaning when a teenaged boy whom he used to counsel in school, sets up a tent in Lucas' back yard and begins living in it. Eli has been shunned by the town because his brother was involved in the tragedy. Lucas and Eli develop a closer relationship, and as they begin to heal themselves, they take on a project with the goal of helping to heal the town too. The townspeople find themselve wanting to be involved in the project to help Lucas and Eli, and where darkness prevailed before, light, love, and happiness begin to come back to Majestic.

A story of love, loss, grief, depression, redemption, and the strength of the heart and soul this is a book that will leave you with a smile on your face and a warmth in your soul. Don't miss the opportunity to be reminded how wonderful it is to be human and to be part of something bigger than ourselves.

My thanks to Simon & Schuster's Avid Readers Press for allowing me to read an ARC of this wonderful novel via NetGalley. Publication is scheduled for 11/1/22. All opinions expressed in this review are my own and are freely given.

Matthew Quick has made a powerful and memorable return to the world of fiction. We Are the Light is an emotional look at grief, mental illness, and mass shootings in America. The main character Lucas takes you on a journey through grieving, PTSD, and psychosis. The epistolary style of writing feels real and raw, like you're inside of Lucas' mind as he writes letters to Karl. Approaching the last quarter of the book I began to feel like something was lacking, as if there were pieces of Lucas' mental puzzle that the reader was not aware of. The plot twist about Karl made it all come together and gave a better understanding on what was the reality of the situation vs. what Lucas believed himself and led the reader to believe. The ending letter was hopeful, joyful, and emotional and I felt like the characters got the outcomes they deserved. Overall the story was an emotional look at community, I really enjoyed watching relationships form and strengthen through tragedy and loss.

Whew! This was an emotional read. I liked the uniqueness of the book - the whole story is told via letters. You could feel the sense of community/small town when a few people came to help each other maneuver through the awful tragedy. It is hard to read at times because of this, but the grief process is very real. This book also shows hope. A very worthwhile to read. Thank you to NetGalley and Avid Reader Press for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

This book made me remember being in college in my English classes, talking about unreliable narrators. Lucas Goodgame really came off as an unreliable narrator, and he has a really good excuse: trauma.

The community of Majestic has experienced a tragedy, and the whole town is affected – especially the people with loved ones who perished in the tragedy.

In short, there’s been a shooting in a movie theater, and Lucas’s wife was shot and killed. The whole book is told in letters after the tragedy that Lucas writes to his therapist, who doesn’t answer any of the letters. So, it’s a narrative from a man in a deep depression who’s seeing his wife appearing to him as an angel.

The best part of this book is Lucas’s relationship with Eli. They’re two people who clearly need camaraderie and somewhere to put their weird grief energy (which really is a real grief thing).

The grief and mental health stuff in this book was really well done, which I definitely expected from the author of The Silver Linings Playbook. Quick has a way of getting so deeply into the minds of his characters, and somehow conveying the complexity of their emotion to the reader.

I’m not sure how far I want to go into what happened in this book, because it could be spoiled pretty easily. What I will say is that I really appreciated the way the author was able to use a rather unreliable narrator to help show how utterly confusing grief is, and how it can completely change a person.

The only thing that really sticks out that I didn’t love about We Are the Light is the emphasis on Jungian analysis. The therapist Lucas is writing to the whole time is his “Jungian analysist” and he goes a little bit too far into Jungian philosophy for me. It was just mentioned so many times, it started taking me out of the story and was distracting.

All-in-all, though, this really was a good book, and I loved how it ended. It takes such tragedy and gives you a glimpse of all the humanity in it, and shows how it’s possible for humans go on when nothing is right.

For something similar that I loved, see No Hiding in Boise.

This was a very emotional book to read. The story is about Lucas, who has lost his wife in a mass shooting, and is writing letters to his Jungian analyst (who is no longer seeing patients because he was also affected by the shooting) about his grieving, in hopes of healing. His community is also grieving what has happened. When an 18 yr old boy shows up in Lucas' yard, his wife Darcy who visits him as an angel, tells him he needs to help this boy.

This book pulled at my heartstrings. This book is about how people in a community cine together to pull through the hard times. I understood more about this book as I read the epilogue, and I would definitely recommend this one!!

thank you to the publisher and netgalley for the gifted copy. All opinions are my own. Out Nov. 1

Wanting to expand my reading horizons and also try a new-to-me author’s book, I felt prompted to read this one.

It’s different.

In a nutshell, it’s about a grieving widower who befriends and takes in an ostracized and grieving teenager and together they inspire a revival in Majestic, Pennsylvania. Driven to control his own deteriorating mental health and anxiety, the author wrote to explore the emotions of grief, love, and empathy through art. The solace he found in Jungian ideas is reflected in this novel.

It would be wrong of me to judge another’s efforts at overcoming a dark period in life, so I’ll simply say that I commend the author for his perseverance and hope that the success he wishes for this novel brings wind beneath his wings.

I’m struggling with this review. I think it’s a combination of a few things I’m unfamiliar or uncomfortable with: the subject matter (mass shooting), the format (epistolary) mixed with the injection of reason and philosophy. The message was clear, and I am in agreement: we are the light. This knowledge requires action. We need to shine that light for others - a lighthouse in a storm can save a ship. I did appreciate the reminder that despite how downtrodden we feel or how insignificant we may see ourselves, there’s still hope and help for us.

I was gifted this advance copy by Avid Reader Press, Simon & Schuster, and NetGalley and was under no obligation to provide a review.