Drawing With Light by Julia Green

Reviewed by Jenni Nock

When I was a teenager I spent most of my time reading fiction aimed at adults with YA making up a smaller proportion of my book pile. I think if I'd been reading YA fiction written this well those proportions would have been very different.

Emily barely remembers her mother who left when she was a toddler. An offhand comment by her photography teacher about how much Emily's work reminds him of her mother's starts her wondering about the woman who deserted her. Everything is changing in her life - her dad's life is moving on with his new wife, her sister is finding her own way at uni and Emily herself is starting a proper relationship with Seb. Does she really want to find the answers to the questions she has about this mystery woman?

I loved the way this book was written, I found Emily a really endearing character. Her emotions shift from chapter to chapter, and the sense of confusion that anyone, teenager or not, would experience in such an uncertain situation came across really well. I must admit at times Emily's behaviour did verge towards the stereotypical teenage strop, but because I'd experienced everything with her I could understand completely why she was behaving in that way. 

I thought that the range of issues that were covered in the book was really interesting. The way the relationship develops between Emily and Seb was very responsibly written, and I thought that dealing with the fact that Seb didn't want to go to university was something that was probably very relevant for teenage readers. I must admit that as I was reading it I started to worry about what might happen if Emily did meet her mother, my fears about an artificially perfect ending were unfounded.

An excellent read, I'll certainly be looking for more of Julia Green's books.

Buy Drawing With Light from Amazon

Comments

[Debs]

OOoh great review, Keris - another to add to the pile!

[Keris]

Thanks, Debs. But it was Jenni, not me.

[Clover]

I don't hear a lot about Julia Green, but when I do, it's always really good. Will definitely have to look out for something of hers!
Thanks for the review :)