Soon the Light Will Be Perfect by Dave Patterson

☆☆☆☆☆
Kindle Edition, 288 pages
Expected publication: April 9th 2019 by Hanover Square Press & HARLEQUIN – Trade Publishing
About the Book:
A taut portrait of poverty, Catholicism, and a family in crisis in rural Vermont. A 12-year-old altar boy lives with his family in a small, poverty stricken town in Vermont. His father works at a manufacturing plant, his mother is a homemaker, and his fifteen-year-old brother is about to enter high school. His family has gained enough financial stability to move out of the nearby trailer park, and as conflict rages abroad, his father’s job at a weapons manufacturing plant appears safe. But then his mother is diagnosed with cancer, and everything changes. As his family clings to the traditions of their hard-lined Catholicism, the narrator begins to see how ideology and human nature are often at odds. He meets Taylor, a perceptive, beguiling girl from the trailer park, a girl who has been forced to grow up too fast. Taylor represents everything his life as an altar boy isn’t, and their fledgling connection develops as his mother’s health deteriorates. Set over the course of one propulsive summer, Soon the Light Will be Perfect chronicles the journey of a young man on the cusp of adulthood, a town battered by poverty, and a family at a breaking point. In spare, fiercely honest prose, Dave Patterson captures what it feels like to be gloriously, violently alive at a moment of political, social, and familial instability.

This book is well written. The troubles that eventually surface could be considered a little on the dramatic side, yet they have grown so organically from the characters, that they don't seem at all contrived or forced. It is a rare thing these days for an author to manage to move the plot along without resorting to out of character or illogical actions of the characters. A gripping novel from word one until long after the novel has ended. A realistic novel that is both heartbreaking and heartwarming. It is a novel you can relate to as it could happen to any of us.

This was actually a very heart-wrenching story. The story is told from the point of view of our 12 year old protagonist. Dave Patterson did a great job moving the main story-line forward. The pace of the story kept me engaged until the end. Even though a large part of the story was somber and a lot of sorrowful things happen I mostly found it to be a very uplifting story about family and faith and I was very satisfied with the ending.

Thank you NetGalley, Hanover Square Press, HARLEQUIN – Trade Publishing and Dave Patterson for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an impartial review; all opinions are my own.

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