Name: Cruel is the Light
ISBN: 9780593810729

Humanity has waged a bloody war against demons for more than a century, with two elite soldiers now leading the fight: Selene Alleva, a powerful exorcist trained at the prestigious Vatican Academy, and orphan Jules Lacroix, unrivaled on the battlefield.

When their paths cross, the distrust—and unwelcome attraction—is immediately apparent. But to get to the bottom of a series of unprecedented demon attacks, Selene and Jules strike an uneasy alliance, agreeing to an unusual arrangement: a fake engagement. With Jules posing as Selene’s estranged fiancé, they head to the holy Vatican City in search of answers—only to discover a terrible secret.

Cruel is the Light

I had to check about three times whether this was really classed as YA. Not because I necessarily think that literature aimed at teenagers has to be certified Pure™ but because it was simply different when it was my primary genre. And alas, I cannot shake the feeling that someone told Sophie Clark to make her characters 18-19yo and call it YA either for marketing purposes or because it had sex and discussed sex but was not explicit enough (though explicit) to go into a higher age group (whatever happened to NA? Maybe it just never caught on) or both.

It is a shame that the novel has such a cool concept and an idea for a setting but it is much more interested in trying to get its leads to sleep together. There are so many missed opportunities - in building up the world, in scene-setting (believe you me, I rarely ever could orient myself within a scene), in actually developing the characters or their attraction to each other. To this moment I am not sure why these two truly fell together beyond circumstance and the Jules had a hard-on for Selene which was explicitly mentioned and sometimes felt like the only thing his narration could talk about.

Most offensive of all, I guess, is how little the novel does with the Catholic aesthetic. You do not have to be Christian to have a little fun with its aesthetics and symbols - truly appropriate them for all I care. The influence of the Church, the influence of religion, the part rituality and visuals play into its power, are all based on historic fact and could make up for such an interesting and rich fantasy world. Unfortunately, we really did not care about that beyond some crown of thorns imagery at some point. (This is worse than whatever was going on in the Grisha books, please note).

This novel's only saving grace was that it was poorly executed but none of the characters were devastatingly stupid. Not smart enough to create intrigue or move the action but not empty-headed.

What works less in its favour is that I also recently read "Blood Over Bright Heaven" which has a lot of common points, including its twist on the source of the powers. However, it had such great understanding of the mechanics of its world and ours and actually had something to say and explore in a complex, layered way. I might have to go back and bump its rating up after this.

I had to check about three times whether this was really classed as YA. Not because I necessarily think that literature aimed at teenagers has to be certified Pure™ but because it was simply different when it was my primary genre. And alas, I cannot shake the feeling that someone told Sophie Clark to make her characters 18-19yo and call it YA either for marketing purposes or because it had sex and discussed sex but was not explicit enough (though explicit) to go into a higher age group (whatever happened to NA? Maybe it just never caught on) or both.

It is a shame that the novel has such a cool concept and an idea for a setting but it is much more interested in trying to get its leads to sleep together. There are so many missed opportunities - in building up the world, in scene-setting (believe you me, I rarely ever could orient myself within a scene), in actually developing the characters or their attraction to each other. To this moment I am not sure why these two truly fell together beyond circumstance and the Jules had a hard-on for Selene which was explicitly mentioned and sometimes felt like the only thing his narration could talk about.

Most offensive of all, I guess, is how little the novel does with the Catholic aesthetic. You do not have to be Christian to have a little fun with its aesthetics and symbols - truly appropriate them for all I care. The influence of the Church, the influence of religion, the part rituality and visuals play into its power, are all based on historic fact and could make up for such an interesting and rich fantasy world. Unfortunately, we really did not care about that beyond some crown of thorns imagery at some point. (This is worse than whatever was going on in the Grisha books, please note).

This novel's only saving grace was that it was poorly executed but none of the characters were devastatingly stupid. Not smart enough to create intrigue or move the action but not empty-headed.

What works less in its favour is that I also recently read "Blood Over Bright Heaven" which has a lot of common points, including its twist on the source of the powers. However, it had such great understanding of the mechanics of its world and ours and actually had something to say and explore in a complex, layered way. I might have to go back and bump its rating up after this.

Cruel is the Light

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