Published by William Morrow Genres: Crime, Fiction, Women's Fiction
Format: ARC, eBook
Joyce Maynard has another brilliant book on her hands with this gripping follow up to Count the Ways. This book can easily be read as a stand-alone, but I highly recommend reading that book first as it was wonderful as well.
After the death of her ex-husband, Cam, Eleanor has moved back to the farm in New Hampshire where her children were raised. With it come memories of all the events that touched and affected their lives. Toby, Eleanor’s adult son who suffered a brain injury as a small child, lives with her.
This book follows a 15-year time span and follows the family and each family member’s journey. Eleanor is the focus of this book with Toby coming in a close second. Joyce Maynard depicts how trauma has affected this family. She also shows the family’s resiliency, their hope, their insecurities, their issues, their pain, their love, and their triumphs.
I found How the Light Gets In to be a captivating, enjoyable and emotion evoking read. I love Joyce Maynard’s writing and her look at families. I appreciate the insight into human behavior and relationships that Joyce Maynard brought not only to this book but to all her books. Families and relationships can be messy, and Joyce Maynard depicted this brilliantly in this book.
Every character in this family was so distinct and unique, which was nice in keeping everyone clear and having a distinct voice. Plus, each had their own journey individually and as member of a family in this book. Toby and his sheep stole the show for me. I simply adored his character.
This book does touch on covid, political events and politics in America, and her characters thoughts on them in this book. While those things happened during this book and it makes sense that the characters would experience and have thoughts on them, it began to feel like repetitive.
This book was beautifully written, compelling, evokes emotion, and full of characters that at times had me wanting to give them a hug. Joyce Maynard is a gifted writer and her talent shines through.
This book does touch on many difficult subjects and Joyce Maynard handled them with care.
