In a surprising twist of events, I managed to complete March’s LDR Book Club book of the month on time! However, what I wasn’t expecting was the lack of long distance relationship aspects included in this book. I’ll explain why later in this post.
Let’s get into it.
What Light by Jay Asher is a wholesome, clean-read young adult novel focusing on Sierra and her family that runs a Christmas tree farm in Oregon. Every year, they pack up and spend time in California running a Christmas tree lot for the season. For a short amount of time, Sierra’s life is split into two different worlds – her life in Oregon that she sees 95% of the time and then her Christmas-filled life in California. Either way, she’s missing something.
However, the Christmas we see in the book is much different than Christmas past. The threat of losing the Christmas tree lot is imminent, something that has been a staple in the family for many years, and Sierra doesn’t know how to cope with that thought. In the midst of trying to navigate the struggles of whether the lot will stay, Sierra meets Caleb – a boy her age with a questionable past.
Throughout this book, we see Sierra’s struggles of the uncertainty of the fate of her family’s Christmas tree lot, falling in love with someone people have hesitation over, and ultimately, the difficulties that surround long distance. Ultimately, the story focuses on Sierra’s budding relationship with Caleb and her quest to both understand why people are so afraid of someone who appears to be so giving and her attempts at making people see the truth behind his past.
With so much of this book focusing on Sierra being stressed over the idea of having a long distance relationship with Caleb, it was disappointing that we didn’t get to see this aspect. We see the number of times that Sierra is quite insistent that she would never do such a thing after denying her feelings, despite Caleb being obviously interested and more willing to give things a shot. Although, that isn’t to say that Caleb also has his reservations considering the things people say and think about him. I won’t spoil what Caleb’s story is and I recommend reading to find that out.
We do see the difficulties surrounding long distance with her friends, which, even with only being apart from them for one month of the year, it appears to be filled with far more drama than expected. I understand the issues that her friends had, namely that Sierra chose to stay behind to spend time with Caleb, but there was also very little understanding or really any care that Sierra is in California for one month. She spends most of her life in Oregon, and Heather – her best friend in California that she only sees for that single month, seems to have far more empathy and understanding for Sierra’s situation.
Despite the lack of the long distance aspect for a long distance relationship being shown and only showing us a very limited view of the difficulties of maintaining long distance friendships (even temporarily), it’s a very cute book. When I say this book is wholesome, it’s wholesome. Spoiler alert – one that will most likely have you going “Awww!”: One of Caleb’s most endearing qualities is his charity towards others and his giving away of Christmas trees during the holiday season. He also brings Sierra along to church for Christmas mass and then proceeds to bring her outside during a very specific moment that he’s always found his favorite just because he wants to share the same feelings he has with her and only with her.
Okay, so maybe that was two incredibly endearing qualities about Caleb – but that’s besides the point! It was sweet, and even if you’re not particularly religious, I think it’s written in a way that it can easily translate into other situations. Sometimes you just really want to share specific moments with a single person just to experience it together.
Even though this book doesn’t really delve much into long distance relationships, I still recommend this book. Even the small touches and glimpses and fears that come with long distance make it worth it. There are a few moments that come off as more than a bit pessimistic and whiny, but that happens sometimes.
Rating: 3/5 stars
I’m not sure what the book for April will be just yet, but be sure to follow me on my socials to find out! If you haven’t read the reviews already, check out January and February’s books!
[…] What Light by Jay Asher […]