Songlight by Moira Buffini is a captivating tale of identity, acceptance, all types of love full of mystery, intricate politics, heartbreak, and betrayals that will have you captivated from beginning to end. Buffini manages to capture all that makes us humans, all of the emotions and their nuances in under 400 pages.

Set in a dystopian world-at-war, we meet Elsa and Rya, who are both blessed/cursed with Songlight and know of no one else with it - a telepathic form of communication. People with Songlight are considered to be "unhumans." They are hunted and imprisoned, turned into mindless slaves. To keep themselves safe, they have to keep their gift a secret from absolutely everyone. When something terrible happens that leaves Elsa full of anguish: "In songlight, I roar in white, inchohate pain." Which allows another person with songlight to find her, someone quite far away, whose songlight is even more powerful than Elsa's. From there, it dives into friendships and found family, political intrigue, actual truth vs trusting what you were always told is true, right vs wrong, fighting a war for victory vs fighting a war for freedom, and so much more. It may sound like too much, but I don't think it was - at all.

📖 The plot is phenomenal. Intricately woven with big important topics, full of emotions (I got actual chills reading one part) and depth. I love that the plot mimics issues we have in our world in 2024. It encourages readers to look at their beliefs, to search deeper for the truth, to look more deeply at your own beliefs. It also gives you glimpses as to how and why some can have the beliefs and opinions they do, what could lead them to be so dogmatic. That doesn't mean those beliefs are right, or even ok - just providing insight as to some things that could cause a person to hold such parochial beliefs.

It has multiple POVs (5 as I recall), which I know some aren't fans of. Buffini does am excellent job of giving each POV character a distinct voice, making it easy for me to remember whose POV I was in. I enjoyed the multi-POVs and felt it enriched the story a lot.

⏳️ The pacing is great. I read it in a day, and would've read it in one sitting if life had allowed. I couldn't put it down. It has action, mystery, intrigue, and tension - I can't imagine anyone being bored reading this.

The ending had me full on Michael Scott, "No! God! Please! NO!" and panic-swiping. Book 2 can't be in my hands soon enough. 😆 While I love and appreciate the way it ended, I think so many not love the semi-open ending (if they read it before book 2 is out).

✍️ Buffini writes eloquently. It's smooth, and I learned a few new words. The dialogue reads as natural. She imbues so much emotion that it's visceral at times.

🗺 The world building is excellent. Buffini encapsulates all of your senses, and you'll feel like you're there with the cast. Orienting yourself is a breeze. It's written in a way that made it almost cinematic.

🔮 The magic (or gift, rather) is well explained and developed. I found this specific form of telepathy to be unique and quite interesting.

👥️ The characters are nuanced and dimensional. I love them all, except the ones I love to hate. She shows the good and bad in everyone, which really brings out their humanity. She made me cry a number of times, plus the time I got chills reading a passage. The cast is diverse, LGBTQ+ and trauma rep.

If you're someone who has (or is) struggling with your identity and/or coming out, I feel like this book could be a great read for you. I think it could help you feel more confident in yourself and who you are inside. However, I feel like it could be a rough read for a tiny group of people who are struggling with their identity and/or coming out. For those reasons, especially, please, please look up content and trigger warnings. ⚠️ some CW/TW: racism, sexism, homophobia, slavery, talk of forced sex work, violence (including 🔫), and death.

It didn't feel YA to me. It read as New Adult, or maybe even Adult. As much as I enjoy YA, I appreciated that it reads as older.

I personally wouldn't say this is a romantasy. It's a fantasy that has some very light romance aspects as more of a footnote. I love that about this book. I think if there had been a stronger focus on romance, it would've pulled the focus away from the very big, important topics.

If you enjoyed: The Hunger Games, Divergent, The Handmaid's Tale, and/or Shadow and Bone - I think you would enjoy this.

Thank you to Moira Buffini @HarperCollins and @netgalley for the opportunity to read this eARC. I'm choosing to leave this unbiased review.

This is a world where humans, or what they call unhumans, can communicate telepathically with what is called Songlight. If you are found out, you are enslaved and turned into a Siren who hunts for unhumans.

Elsa has Songlight and has had to keep it secret all her life, except from Rye Tern, the only other human she knows who has Songlight. They fall in love, and with Elsa’s forced marriage ceremony approaching, Rye says they should run away. Elsa asks for one more night to prepare, but then the inevitable happens. Rye is found out and captured. To protect Elsa, he spews lies about who he was communicating with and is taken away.

Elsa is determined to save him and to stop being a coward, realizing the true monsters may be right among them, in her own home.

This is a riveting story. In this world, this community, they tell their children the enemies are the Aylish and those who have Songlight. When, really, the true enemy is the leaders amongst them who twist their words and manipulate those who blindly follow them to continue to listen and follow these supposed leaders who supposedly care for the people and want to protect them from the Aylish and those with Songlight.

This is an oppressive world, not just against those who have Songlight, but towards women. It made me angry at times how they treated the women and how they expected the women to always be. Then these women who just blindly listen and are convinced these leaders are right and true and must be followed. It’s saddening and sickening. Such a manipulative world.

It’s a slow moving book at the start. The true action and moving of events occurs about 50% into the book and then the rest of the book is just very fast and, not necessarily action packed, but a lot of exciting events occur and move forward quickly that you can’t help but just read until you finish to see what happens.

There are quite a few POVs. For the most part, I think it was well done, I didn’t feel overwhelmed with all the POVs, but one of them, I would sometimes forget and suddenly remember and wonder what’s going with them. Which I think might have been the point because I have a feeling they’ll be playing a pivotal role in the next book.

I loved the friendship that developed between Lark and Nightingale. These two are so different and yet so similar in their plight. It was amazing how much they helped each other via Songlight, no matter how far away they were from each other.

The relationship between Lark and her family also changed in a drastic way. I think she was always rather far from her brother Piper and poor Piper is so set on their world’s ideals that their relationship suffers. But, Lark’s relationship with her mother grows significantly and I loved it for them.

There’s not really any romance in here. I mean there is between Lark and Rye, but from the get-go, they lose each other and the entire point of this story is Lark saving Rye that just happens to turn into something more and that’s saving all the people, especially those with Songlight and having peace. There are hints of other romances developing, and I’m sure they’ll be expounded on in the next book.

Lark went through a lot of growth in this book. She already hated her community and wanted a change, and yet is unsurprisingly scared. And so when she finally speaks up and tries to make changes, it starts a domino effect that you try to keep up with, but also see her change some views that have stuck with her strongly, like the Aylish being the enemy versus her leaders being the true enemy.

I really enjoyed this book. It put me through a lot of different kinds of emotions, and the ending of the first book left me feeling liberated and I look forward to seeing how this story will continue to play out.

I received a gifted e-ARC to read, thank you NetGalley and the publisher. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I found this book sad in the way that the main characters were so oppressed in their society and had so many forces attacked against them. The politics and lack of knowledge made my chest tight with wanting to fight against the injustice for them. Then as they began to find ways to begin fighting back against their government I wanted to cheer. The full gamut of emotions led up to the final chapters, where knowing this is the beginning of a trilogy, I knew not to expect a full resolution, but was still satisfied emotionally with where the author stopped. I will look forward to reading the rest of the story. (4.5 stars)

2.5. Thank you NetGalley for the E-ARC!

🕊️💖🎶

I think this book had a lot of potential. But that's were it stops, potential.

I loved the idea of the songlight and I love Elsa's relationship with Kaira and Rye.

But, I felt like with this story, we really ended up doing nothing with it until the end. We also had certain character POV's that felt unnecessary, like the point of Piper, Elsa's older brother, who I felt was only in the story so we could see his internal struggle with being gay, which in this world is illegal and punishable by death, but it felt unneeded. I would have loved to see more from Rye's point of view, which we got few and far between but I always found his chapters the most enjoyable and normally the most action would happen.

I did feel as though there was a fifty fifty chance that the character would either be lovable or not fully fleshed out, and the pacing of the book could be strange at times. I feel like there were so many times where we talked about doing something but never did, it was a lot of tell and not show.

I think a future installment could do really well with how we set up this first book.

🕊️💖🎶

Rating: 2.5 ⭐️

Unfortunately, this one wasn't a hit for me.

While I do think the story has good bones, the world building was lacking, and the alternating perspectives felt a little choppy.

The "Handmaid's tale"-esque plot, where the people are kept ignorant of government corruption and women are raised to serve their husbands by giving them babies, was more cringe to me than impactful.

I did enjoy the idea of the telepathic connections bringing people from different lands together to try and end wars and corruption, however, I probably won't be continuing the story to see what happens next.

Overall this was a book that, for me, had potential it didn't live up to.

I absolutely loved this book and I’m still thinking about it days after I finished it! If you want to step into the fantasy world, pick up Songlight. The cover first drew me in! I love a book that has an illustrative cover and good design. The illustrations were beautiful and created a charming, dreamy backdrop in which I could imagine myself in this unique world. The storyline definitely fulfilled my craving for a beautiful fantasy novel. Not only am I excited for the pub date but I can't wait for the 2nd book to come out!

It was a quick and easy read. I read this an e-book and finished it within three days. 

I gave this book 4.5 stars.

I can’t believe this is a YA novel! I was a bit skeptical at first since it’s been a while since I’ve read a good dystopian novel but I was blown away by the captivating storytelling, and world building.

I think this has the potential to get really popular and picked up as a movie. It has the potential to join the ranks of well loved series for ages to come.

The story primarily focuses on Lark and Nightingale who “find” each other telepathically during a moment of deep grief and sorrow. Being a torch, having songlight, is forbidden and they are persecuted. While there is a heavy focus on these 2 characters and their POV, the book also has more POVs. At first I didn’t like that, but then I’ve come to really love it. It helps truly flesh out the intricacies of the multitude of sides and perspectives.

The storytelling was so griping and it only become increasingly so. By the end of it, I was flying through the pages so caught up in what’s happening. By the end I was fuming, frustrated, and amped up. The author does a wonderful job of planting little seeds and having them flourish by the end.

The rest of this series is definitely an auto-buy for me. I’m riveted and I can’t wait to see where this story leads.

Grateful for this ARC opportunity! Thank you @netgalley! Cant wait for the next one!!! I have so much waiting to do now.

When I read the synopsis of this book, I was definitely intrigued, and the cover is gorgeous. However, as I began reading, it had a very slow start, and the world-building was a bit confusing, especially with all the different POVs. I found myself getting lost at certain points throughout. This book definitely has potential, but the author's writing style wasn’t for me, and I couldn’t connect with the characters enough to immerse myself in the world. Still, it’s an interesting and unique story that I haven't encountered before.

I will be giving this book another try when the audio is released because it definitely has potential and maybe hearing it will bring it more to life to me.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins Children's Books for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thanks to Net Galley & Harper Collins for the Advanced Copy of this book!
A dystopian future. A forbidden power. A senseless war. Moira Buffini’s debut novel is a rollercoaster of emotions.

In Songlight, we follow the story of several people through multiple POVs. In the post-apocalyptic, dystopian world of Brightland, we first meet Elsa, a young girl with songlight, a sort of telepathy ability that allows her to talk to and feel emotions of other people with songlight (among other things that we learn later). However, songlight is forbidden and deems one Unhuman, stripped of their name and their sense of self to become a chrysalid. Once her friend is discovered and taken away, she vows to find him and save him. We also meet Kaira, a young girl living in the city of Brightlinghelm. She also has songlight and lives in fear every day. She feels Elsa’s pain of losing her friend and sends her songlight. This begins a bond that sets off a chain of events that can change the fate of their entire world.
I enjoyed this book a lot! I was very intrigued by the songlight ability and how it works and what one can actually do with it. I liked this dystopian world that is kind of a warning to us now about the dangers of the fuel we use and how it will become our downfall. In this world, we are called the Light People and we destroyed our planet by using too much firefuel, which eventually becomes illegal. I loved the characters and the worldbuilding. My only gripe would be that we kind of get a slow start to the story but it picks up about a quarter of the way through and from their we take off! I also learned that the author was the showrunner of one of my favorite shows, Harlots, so that’s bonus points as wel! Overall, this was a well written, intriguing, and captivating take on a future we could be headed towards if we don’t change our ways now.
4 stars!

4.5 stars
Wow, I ended up liking this book SO much more than I initially thought I would.
This is a book set in a dystopian world where some people have "songlight" (similar to Telekinesis the "Light People" had). People with songlight can communicate with their minds to others with songlight, can project their bodies to act like they are with someone else with songlight, they can "mind-twist" people (plant thoughts in their mind), along with other things. These people are aberrations. If they are caught, they are sent to a Chrysalid House where their brains are drilled into, their songlight removed and their reproductive organs are taken out. They are then basically husks used as slaves. There is currently a war between the people who believe in this way of life who live in Brightling and the people who accept those with songlight, from Ayland.
In this book, we get 5 POVs. I am usually rubbish with so many POVs, but I was able to immediately jump into all of them and keep them separate very easily. We have Elsa/Lark and Rye. They both live in Northaven, a small coastal town very set in the ways of the Brethren. Lark and Rye both have songlight and they have fallen in love through it. After something happens, Kaira/Nightingale finds Lark through her songlight. She lives in the capital of Brightlinghelm and also has songlight. Probably the most dangerous place she could be. We also have POVs of Lark's brother Piper who is being sent to the front lines and Sister Swan who basically belongs to Brother Kite. He's the only one who knows she is a Siren (someone with songlight who is able to keep their powers in exchange for catching others with songlight).
Every POV in this book was so different. But every POV gave so much to the story. Every part of this story was so necessary to make everything come together. And I wouldn't even call every POV a hero which made things super interesting. We saw every single side of the story, good and bad and I don't think this book would have been anywhere near as good without every side.
When I first started reading this book, I was feeling a little blah. The mindset of Northaven was just so cruel on how they treat people with songlight and how they treated women. Once men come home from serving in the war, they are gifted a wife. This is usually someone with parents who are high up in the community. The men are then able to comb through the rest of the girls and pick their Second Wife. Basically these girls are just there for pleasure. They do all the cooking, cleaning, chores etc. Then Third Wives are send to Pink Houses to be "comfort girls" for the men in the war. This whole system just made me feel super icky. But once I hit the second half of the book, it made fighting for a better world so much more powerful. It made me root for some of these characters so much harder and it made me hate other characters even more.
Even though I slightly struggled with the concept of the first part of the book, I was immediately invested, especially in Lark. I was always happy to pick up the book even if it was only for a little while. By the second half of the book, I was constantly looking forward to picking it up.
The only thing that took me out of the story was that constantly this would be used: "(dialogue) ...?" but the dialogue was not a question. It made me second guess the whole dialogue and I had to go back and reread it and it still wasn't a question. I'm not sure why this was used so often for things that weren't questions, but it definitely took me out of the story.
This book really took me by surprise especially after the shaky start, but I am already really excited for the sequel!

Part fantasy/romance, part dystopian warning bells, this YA novel has engaging characters, a well paced plot, and edge of your seat action. It kept me turning the pages and I read it in a little over a day. In a world worthy of "A Handsmaid Tale" telepaths are considered unhuman. misogyny, homophobia, and brutality reign. Although this is a YA Fantasy novel, it deftly tackles critical social issues with mature themes. This is the beginning of a trilogy and as such ended on a cliff hanger. I can't wait for the next book. Highly recommended

Thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins for an advanced reader copy.

Songlight is a dystopian fantasy novel set in a world where certain individuals can use telepathy also known as "songlight". The author does a fresh take on telepathy by incorporating elements of song and harmony which I enjoyed. The story centers around the two main FMC's Lark and Nightingale, the two have the ability to use telepathy, and live during a time when being a torch means facing persecution. Lark and Nightingale bond over their hardships and having to lie to those they love for fear of being outed and killed. Being outed would mean to be deemed "unhuman" forcing their loved ones and community to shun them. Both FMC's were very well written and fleshed out, I enjoyed reading the progression of their bond as they learn to find strength in each other. In this book we get introduced to many characters and their stories, at times I found myself struggling to keep up as the story is told from multiple POV's.

I am happily surprised to know that this book is a bit more on the mature side although its labeled as YA. Their are many mature themes discussed in this novel such as homophobia, sexism, loss, and racism. The author does a good job of creating a narrative that keeps the reader intrigued, leaving us eager to know how this trilogy will unfold. Overall the plot was enjoyable, this book felt reminiscent of handmaids tale when it comes to the way women are viewed in this society. The author ends on a cliffhanger, as she leaves us in suspense when it comes to the fates of certain characters . This was a 3.5 star read for me, mainly because it felt like to much information was trying to be packed in at once.

It’s been over 10 years since I wanted to immediately reread a book. I find myself struggling to write without spoilers. I so badly need others to discuss this with. The pace was easy to follow, sometimes the change of character point of view was confusing to navigate. Overall I really came to like the multiple character point of view. Eagerly awaiting more to read from this author.

Songlight is a dystopian novel that primarily follows Lark and Nightingale, two young girls with the power of "Songlight" or in simpler terms, telepathy. The two live in a time of war, where individuals born with the power of Songlight live in fear of being outed and experiencing persecution. The society they live in deems these indiviudals to be "unhumans" and their community + loved ones are encouraged to publicly shun them. As Lark and Nightingale watch the war continue to unravel and struggle to fit into their set roles in their respective communities, they develop a unique sisterhood rooted in their ability to connect through Songlight.

This book was wonderful and I found it to be an interesting take on telepathy. Telepathy being turned into Songlight and then incorporating elements of song/harmony created a beautiful magic that was enchanting. I also thought the two main characters were fleshed out very well, and they felt like very strong role models for the target audience. I also think the subjects matters that are covered were handled well and will really connect with a lot of readers who struggle with similar issues.
I did feel that the book was somewhat slow in the beginning and it made it hard to immerse into the story, but I will say that this was amended by the end of the book. By then, you've already connected to the characters and learned to understand their reasoning/intentions. I would also say that a certain chapter that happens after the first major conflict that is supposed to show how the character's mind falls into routine and short, direct thoughts after a big stressor, feels like it could've been executed in a way that was more interesting; The idea felt abandoned after only being used once or twice. I thought it was a cool way to show the character's coping style and it could've been used a bit more to really emphasize their emotions consistently conflicting with their sense of duty.
Overall I had a wonderful time and I look forward to reading more work from Moira Buffini in the future!

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Song light by Moira Buffini is a book I typically would not have read but found it interesting enough to keep me engaged A society that appears to have been created after a large world war that basically had them starting over, the book is presented from several views, our main character, her brother, mother, and others who come into her life given her special gift of songlight. This gift while considered a gift in one community is considered wrong in her own and she has tried to keep anyone from finding out because of the consequences she would suffer if it was known. The novel contains element of romance, abuse, war and friendship. The writing is well done and the author has done a great job in keeping the reader (me) engaged. I will note this is book one of a series. B

The premise of this story was incredibly intriguing. I was captivated by the concept of telepathy as an ability and the contrasting views of two nations—one that embraces it and another that condemns it. It reminded me of a blend between Sense 8 and the Cold War. I appreciated the multiple perspectives; each character's inner thoughts were distinct and well-defined. There's been so much development that I'm eager to see what unfolds next. Regarding the writing style, while some elements seemed a bit rushed, the wealth of information presented kept me engaged and didn’t detract from my enjoyment. Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins for the ARC!

Yet another YA dystopian fantasy, yet another great book that I could not stop reading.

Songlight is a novel about people with telepathic skills in a bleak, post-apocalyptic world reminiscent of archaic civilizations who are persecuted and dehumanized by their communities. Their society is rife with violence, misogyny, homophobia, and war. The political landscape of this society is dictatorial, and cruel dogma and propaganda rule the lives of the common people, who are themselves entrenched in these beliefs. There are multiple POVs, ranging from young women and men at sea and at war, to the individuals in the cities and political strongholds. This is the kind of book I choose for escapism, and it delivered beautiful turns of the story while building an incredibly realistic world. This is the author's debut novel, and she mentions that Atwood and Le Guin are her inspirations, whom you can definitely find shades of in the book.

The main gripe I had with this is that it was too short and things were happening too fast. Worlds like these benefit from slower plots and heavier books for the story and the emotional turmoil to really sink in. This book is closer to a 4-star read for me, but I just know that I'd love to reread this before the next one, and that usually deserves 5 stars. I judge YA a tad more favorably on any banalities as well, even though this book touches upon many adult themes and is considerably mature.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of the eARC in exchange for an honest review! Songlight comes out September 3rd, 2024.

Songlight was a pretty great debut. I didn’t have any preconceived notions before going into this book, but I did enjoy it more than expected. I’ve been in a pretty bad slump lately, so I was worried that would affect my reading experience. Thankfully for the most part, this was a pretty quick read. I got through the first half very fast and the pace of the rest of the book was ok, but I did expect it to pick up more.

Personally, I think there were too many perspectives. I really didn’t care about Piper or what he was up to. There is a reason why you get his point of view every so often, but he’s the worst. I also didn’t like the tone of his narration. It was quite choppy and blunt, which I’m assuming is a stylistic choice for his character, but I personally didn’t like how it read.

Swan was also a terrible person. I really don’t like her at all. Usually I love a conniving woman, but the fact that she physically abuses her ‘servants’ is too much. I’m fine with her plotting against the people with power, but hurting defenceless servants who have already had their free will taken away is pure evil.

Elsa and Kaira on the other hand were great characters. They both go through a massive amount of development and for the better. By learning to take what they want and stand up for themselves, they become strong characters that I want to see thrive.

I don’t want to give any spoilers but there's a particular character you don’t learn the fate of at the end and I would love to know what was happening. They only had around three chapters in the entire book and I think most of them happened before the midway point. I’m not sure if they were forgotten about or if this was done on purpose to create mystery, but either way I’m unsatisfied.

Songlight is such a cool concept but I still don’t fully understand how it works. I'm sure we will learn more in future instalments, but I love what I know so far. I thought this would have more to do with music, but there are some musical references. Elsa and Kaira have created a ‘harmony’ together, which again, I don’t fully understand what that means, but I like the sound of it.

The world of Songlight and its characters have been crafted so well. They’re complex, flawed and interesting. I’m definitely going to continue this series when the next instalment is published.

Wow. What a debut novel! I loved this book!

The world building was quick, concise, and easy to follow. The characters were well thought out and I felt like I got a really good sense who they really were from their first introduction. We got multiple POVs, which I always love.

Elsa/Lark was perfect. Being different in world that condemns any type of “different” can be incredibly difficult. We see her grow into who she is what figuring out what she truly believes. With the help of her unexpected, sweet, powerful friend, Nightingale.

Nightingale was unexpected in her resilience and her love of those around her. I loved seeing her grow and fight for herself and for what is right.

Piper… I hope he truly learns his lesson.
Rye… 😭 I need to know where he is, what he is doing. Give us more Rye!
Heron… ugh. I can’t wait to see where his character goes.

The bad thing about reading an ARC for book 1 of a series is that you have to wait *extra* long for the story to continue. I can’t wait for it!

I love a good fantasy, and with truly fond remembrances of reading some fantastic YA fantasy novels back in the late 80’s/early 90’s (there are some I’d love to read again but can’t remember titles), I will happily read either.

Engaging and compelling, Songlight pulled me in from the very first chapter and I read this, eager to see what next - and wow, I’m definitely looking forward to the next two titles.



Thank you to HarperCollins and NetGalley for the DRC