Into The Light is an absolutely incredible mystery and coming-of-age story that truly sucks you in and keeps you wanting more from the very first moment that you meet Manny, a queer, latinx teen adoptee who is also homeless and desperately trying to survive the world and find his sister. The book is told through flashbacks to various points of Manny's life and his present, traveling on the road with the Valera family.

I truly loved this book, and I really loved the style it was written it. It kept me on the edge of my seat, giving me enough pieces of the story to put together Manny's past but it still kept me wondering and constantly guessing at what might be next. The end truly had me emotional in the best way possible and wanting even more from the characters that I had fallen in love with and who I had seen grown so much.

this books does delve into very heavy topics, so I do recommend looking at the trigger warnings before picking his book up. However, I do highly recommend his book as I absolutely loved it and could not put it down!

*****SPOILERS*****

The one part of this book that I didn't love was the big twist about 80% in. The twist itself was interesting, however it seemed to come out of no where. I wish there had been some indication of it before, something to lead up to the twist. It seemed as if Manny's memory had been erased by trauma, which I understand was the red herring however there was nothing supernatural before that point, and after the fact we got very little reaction to it and no explanation or questioning how it happened. I wish it had been expanded upon.

***** END SPOILERS*****

4.5 stars, rounded up.

From page one, I was completely engrossed. It's the story of Manny, a gay, latinx orphan who is currently homeless, travelling from place to place by hitching rides with strangers, and doing odd jobs just to survive. How Manny got there is told in flashbacks of the past woven seamlessly with the present.

I don't really want to reveal too much about the story, because I enjoyed piecing things together as the story came together, as the flashbacks and the current day story came together.

I've been a fan of Mark Oshiro's for a few years now, discovering him first from his blogs, and now reading his novels. From what he's said about his own childhood experiences, I can tell how personal and powerful this story is.

I really only had one issue with it. <spoiler>Up until the big reveal at about the 85% mark, I was expecting Eli to have been another personality of Manny's, or that Deacon had done something to cause Manny to have amnesia. I definitely wasn't expecting anything supernatural in the story, and so it felt like it came out of left field. Maybe if we'd had some hint of supernatural happenings earlier, it wouldn't have been so jarring to me.</spoiler>

Mark Oshiro has a great style for a mystery novel, it does everything that I was hoping for in this type of book. The plot was engaging and it worked so well as a mystery novel and a young adult book. I had such a good time reading this and look forward to reading more from Mr. Oshiro.

"I make a mental note to bring that up again, because I want to know what Monica was talking about. “He has a whole YouTube channel, remember? That’s how Elena found him and the Sullivans initially. And he does these updates from the compound. Films them inside the lodge. And . . . well, Elena hasn’t been in one for a while.”