Oh my gosh, I LOVED this book! As someone who has a mental illness, I was intrigued by the book description. I wasn’t sure what to expect though, as so many authors completely miss the target for a number of reasons. This author, however, nailed it! Some people may find the main character’s depiction of what’s happening as extreme and unbelievable. But anyone who is familiar with her diagnosis will find that these are very accurate depictions (I’m not going to reveal what her diagnosis was because it might cause you to go into it with a biased opinion.) I ended up taking pics of some of the pages because I loved what she wrote. I highly recommend this book. It’s going into my list of books that I would enjoy rereading here and there (I’m picky so it’s a short list right now lol.)

The Fragility of Light" is a novel by Heather Lonczak. It is a coming-of-age story that follows the journey of a young woman named Ava as she navigates the complexities of adolescence and the challenges of growing up in a dysfunctional family. As Ava grapples with issues of identity, self-worth, and belonging, she discovers the power of resilience and the importance of finding hope in the darkest of times. With its poignant exploration of themes such as trauma, forgiveness, and healing, "The Fragility of Light" is a deeply moving and thought-provoking read.

Everyone needs to read this book, whether you have direct association with mental illness or not. This book was beautifully heart wrenching. Written from three different view points, the mental illness sufferer, the husband, and the father. So much information weaved into a wonderful story.

Occasionally a book will touch you in such a way that you continue to think about it long after finishing it, The Fragility of Light by Heather S. Lonczak, PhD may well be one of those for me. I could hardly put it down, and have been thinking about so much of the book since finishing. The Fragility of Light is a novel focusing on the very bright, beautiful, capable and competent Sunny Zelinski. Life is going well for Sunny: she has a loving family,is planning her wedding to a fiance who adores her, is graduating Magn Cum Laude and is going to start her dream job working as an editor for a publishing house. She has always been goal oriented, and now all of her dreams appear to be her reality. Although successful at almost everything she has tried, Sunny is a sensitive, unassuming young woman, often uncomfortable in social situations.
Sunny's mom, Gracie, a beautiful and flamboyant artist died when Sunny was eight; she was essentially raised by her loving dad, Peter and her warm and wonderful Holocaust surviving grandparents. Baba and Papa die within one month of each other and Sunny's world begins to disintegrate. I don't want to include any spoilers so suffice to say Sunny begins a downward spiral into the dark world of mental illness. The story is told through the eyes of Sunny, her dad and her husband Joshua. It is a very powerful and moving book giving the reader a glimpse into the impact of mental illness on the person, his/her family, friends and the world around them. It can be an emotional read, however I highly recommend The Fragility of Light.
Thank you to NetGalley, Ivy Lane Press and the author. for the opportunity to read and review an ARC of The Fragility of Light, my review is completely voluntary and reflects only my opinion.

The Fragility of Light is a book that gives you a first hand glimpse in the mind of a young woman, "Sunny", who grew up around mental illness and finds herself being slowly sucked away by the disease. I would recommend this book for readers who are curious in learning more about mental illness or who have experienced it themselves.

It took me awhile to get invested in the story. I almost did not finish because I was waiting for the story to happen. I felt like I was reading a journal from someone recounting their uneventful past and found myself bored. I wanted more. After a while, the story does pick up and it was much easier to get through.

One thing I did enjoy was reading Sunny's dad and husband's point of view, it added an extra element the story, which I felt the story needed.

Thank you to Netgalley and Heather Lonczak for granting me early access to read this gripping novel.

This book was quick to read, but I didn't like it. It's a book that helped me better understand mental health and schizophrenia so from an educational standpoint it provided a true glimpse into the intricacies of the disease. However, from a storytelling standpoint, the narrative flopped for me. I felt that the jumping between characters cause a bit of repetitiveness. It felt like a generic want-to-be Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness.

This was a great book. I loved every paragraph, every sentence and every word of this masterpiece! I read it in 12 hours, which is a lot for me to do! It had everything and more laid out in the novel! I sure hope There is more to come from this author! I am totally hooked!

OH MY this story! Just so real and just so heartbreaking. I have never dealt with anyone that has had mental illness but this story definitely made it real.

This story was beautifully written and i will recommend this story to everyone. Just makes you realize you just never know what the future will hold. Makes you think that you really need to be kind in life because you never know what someone is going thru.

Just a great book and just makes you thankful for life in general.

Well Done by the Author!

ThanksNetGalley for letting me read and review.

This book is between 4 and 5 stars. Five stars for addressing the topic of mental health with a rawness that is real and tangible. I would recommend this book to anyone who has experienced mental health issues with family members or anyone wanting to understand it more through lived experiences. Four stars for the repetitiveness of some of the information and not propelling the story forward and staying circular at times.

With themes of family support, mental illness, and overcoming, this is a decent debut novel that I would definitely recommend.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Ivy Lane Press for the free e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This is such a heart-wrenching story of the ups and downs of a family dealing with mental illness. It was written so well and absolutely could have been the true story of a young woman and her battle with schizoaffective disorder. We learn how the disease has been genetically passed through 3 generations of women and its only until Sunny that the disease is well recognized and treated. Sunny is lucky to have such a devoted network of family and friends.

Highly recommend.

The Fragility of Light brings the reader into the issues of mental health, how it is revealed, its devastation, the importance.of seeking help and relying on the support of family and friends. Expertly written, this debut novel is a well researched portrayal of living with mental health issues or living with someone who has it. Yes, it is a disturbing, but a powerful and important read.

This utterly engrossing book is an examination into a specific mental illness, schizoaffective disorder, through the deeply moving, deeply personal accounts of the main character, Sunny; her husband, Joshua, and her father, Peter. Sunny has graduated with honours from her chosen university, has a “perfect job” with a publishing house, loves and is loved by Joshua and Peter, and her grandparents, her Baba and Papa and she loves and cherishes her cat, Chester. Although she had always been “bookish and shy” and seemed unapproachable to most young men, Joshua was enchanted by her and gradually won her heart.

Sunny’s mother died when Sunny was eight years old. She adored Baba and Papa who were Holocaust survivors and her father’s parents and she immersed herself in Holocaust literature in order to understand their suffering and their sadness over the loss of their extended families.

It is from this background that Heather Lonczak unfolds the story of Sunny’s illness, in such an interesting way that I found it very hard to tear myself away from the book. It is a long book which also encompasses the lives of Baba and Papa, as well as Gracie, Sunny’s mother. All of this is important in order to understand Sunny’s illness. An interesting aspect to the story from the point of view of someone living outside America is that the costs of medical treatments in that country have to be met by insurance policies which form part of wages packages; whereas Australians who don’t have private health insurance are covered by Medicare.

I read The Fragility of Light as an ebook, thanks to Heather Lonczak and Net Galley but I think it would be perfect as a hard copy; there is so much in it that bears dipping into and re-reading.

Published by Ivy Lane Press.

Psychology is a special interest of mine. For this topic, though, I almost always read non-fiction. This fictional account of a woman's descent into mental illness and her process of healing and growth is realistic and insightful. The many contributing factors to the illness as well as the tools for coping are illustrated in such a way that can be supremely helpful to anybody with family or friends experiencing mental illness. Content warnings abound, including profanity and violence, but I don't hold them too high in reference because the main character wouldn't normally think such obscenities. She's appalled by the voices in her head and the violence she imagines.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of this novel. My opinions are my own.

THE FRAGILITY OF LIGHT: a heartwrenching, gripping story of the burden of identity and illness.
Mental illness has become a topic of great sensitivity nowadays, and I believe wholeheartedly it should be talked about much more, and in a manner that is a hundred percent authentic.
Good thing there are books like Ms. Heather Lonczak's heartwrenching novel, THE FRAGILITY OF LIGHT, which, in my view, is an absolute masterpiece of psychological fiction.
Meet Sylvia "Sunny" Zielinski. A bright young woman, with a bright future, just married, looking to become a book editor. She is funny, brilliant, highly empathetic.. So, what could be in her way?
Well, as it turns out, mental illness. Mental illness that is portrayed in SUCH a memorable manner that I dare anyone to make it a character of a story as poignantly and powerfully as Ms. Lonczak has. You see, Sunny comes from a family of Holocaust survivors, and as soon as she discovers the fate of her grandparents, her psychotic episodes start making her believe she is actually being sought for extermination by Nazis.
I loved the way in which Ms. Lonczak chose to tell the story, from the POVs of Sunny, her husband Joshua, and her father, Peter. This is not a book for everyone, as the subject matter and the manner in which it is approached are really intense. However, for those looking for insight into mental illness, as well as one of the most inspiring and emotional family dramas I have ever read, this book is a must. Ten out of five. A gripping, heartfelt, authentic masterpiece!

WOW!!!
I don’t even know how to describe the book to do it justice!
It takes you on a journey thu a families journey thru mental illness.
The writing grabs you and is in so much detail you can actually imagine being there looking at the same things and actually feeling how the characters are feeling. Even the raw emotion. I couldn’t even stop the tears when Sunny lost her grandparents.
I will definitely recommend this to anyone who really wants a gripping story.
Maybe the story hit me a bit more since I have seen how one thing can trigger a schizophrenic episode and my grandparents were in the war. But I could not put this book down. I just wanted to get lost in it.
Thank you NetGalley for the advanced copy

Thank you NetGalley for granting me access to the ebook in exchange for an honest review.

Wow! This is exactly what I needed. I tend to stick to romantasy books but decided to give this book a try.

The way mental illness is explained and how the author allowed the reader to experience this mental illness was fantastic. Not only do you get to hear about Sunny’s journey, but you get the point of view from her husband and father.

I felt that mental illness was portrayed well throughout the story and the way it caused other lives to spiral helped the reader get a full picture of what was actually going on.

I highly recommend this book. I couldn’t put it down. If you’re looking for a more adult version of Kathleen Glasgow books then this is definitely for you.

I received this ebook for free from NetGalley. I originally read 20% and DNF. The author’s husband, who noted he publishes her books, reached out and asked me to reconsider so I gave the book another chance. While I have raised my review from 1 star to 2 stars after finishing the book, I cannot honestly rate it any higher.

The description of this sounded promising, but it was so bogged down with unnecessary details and things that could’ve been cut out. The writing was confusing with several chapters written as Sunny, then when switching to another character, the story would go back to the time that was covered already. It made for stilted reading instead of forward progress. I’m not sure why this book is set in 2001-2002. Other than a quick mention about 9/11, the time period being over 20 years ago does nothing for the story. It also doesn’t make sense why it would be weird that Sunny’s dad doesn’t have a cell phone. That would not have been weird in 2002.

Sunny was unbelievable when lucid and her ability to think rationally one minute after hallucinating was not realistic. She was not a likable character which made it impossible to feel for her.

I find it very hard to believe that her father would not have recognized signs of mental illness way before anything happened because he was aware of her mother’s and grandmother’s illnesses. Joshua was irritating and rude about other patients in the hospital. The way everybody, including Sunny!, spoke about mental illness and people with it was atrocious. Honestly, the only character I had any sympathy for was Linda.

This was an absorbing, compelling read that kept pulling me farther and farther along. Even though it is a novel, it expresses truths about mental illness that a textbook simply can't. It is told from the viewpoints of the Sunny, the person who has a severe mental illness, her husband Josh and her father Peter.

Sunny gives us a vivid accounting of what the world looks and feels like from the point of view of someone experiencing a psychotic break, To put it simply, it is terrifying, a dark world of no hope. Going beyond that, Lonczak gives us insight into why some people discontinue their medication, the very thing that is helping them.

Josh and Peter"s accounts are equally compelling. Those who care for the severely mentally ill have to live in a world where there is sometimes little hope, treading water with their loved ones and never seeming to make a permanent gain. Even though the accounts of all three characters are harrowing, the book is, at bottom, a hopeful one. Illnesses can be managed. People who have these illnesses can live good lives.

NB. Those readers who might be negatively affected by depictions of suicide or attempted suicide should be forewarned that there are brief passages concerning these things in this book.

This was almost a DNF for me. I found the story to be WAY too long and the characters all rubbed me the wrong way. Ultimately, I'm very glad I finished it but I'm not going to say that this, to me, was well written. The story reads like a faux memoir and the characters, particularly Sunny and Joshua, feel very detached from their stories. They tell their stories in separate chapters and they feel somewhat omniscient in the way they relate to what they say. And Sunny and Joshua do not feel like real people. More like, perhaps, archetypes of 'the mentally unstable woman' and 'the madly in love, always forgiving man'. I'm not sure how else to describe them. Joshua in particular is really too good to be true - Mr. Wonderful, 120% devoted to Sunny, throws himself at the altar of love. Again, I enjoyed the story but I'm having a hard time recommending it wholeheartedly.

This ARC was provided by NetGalley and the publisher, the opinions expressed herein are strictly my own.

Thank you for the ARC, NetGalley! As a clinical mental health counselor and book lover, this was a wonderful read.