Matthew Crow

Life threatening cancer brings Francis and Amber together, but when Francis's recovery takes a different path from Amber's, he has no idea how to live--or how to let go.

The Brilliant Light of Amber Sunrise

jess

Have I ever hated a main character so much? This kid had his head so far up his own ass he was talking out of his asshole but the sound came out his mouth. Look - I'm all for smart kids. What I can't take is the 'better than thou' attitude that Francis had throughout the whole book. He called himself a sophisticate, an intellectual, which is annoying, but then Matthew Crow would give him an "impressive array of literature" and make him like Romantic poets and then go ahead and put down Kelly and Paul, making them caricatures of teenagers. He didn't even have any redeeming qualities either. He whined a lot. Like, actually whining. 

And Amber - typical Manic Pixie Dream Girl. (view spoiler)[She dies at the end to change Francis's life. It's typical and annoying and unsurprising. (hide spoiler)] Bad trope. She's a Cool Girl who Changes The Boy's Life and Gets Him Into Trouble and shit like that. 

This book was trying too hard to be The Fault in Our Stars, too, but at the same time ... cancer really wasn't a huge part of the book? There was no explanation of treatment. It was very badly written. Oh, and it was romanticising a terminal illness as well. Yeah. Not good all around.

 Bruna Acioly Leão

This book was okay to read, but nothing special or particularly memorable. It is kind of like TFIOS in the sense that there are two main characters who have cancer and meet and fall in love. But ultimately it isn’t as funny or witty and the characters aren’t as engaging. I don’t want to be comparing things, but it’s impossible not to with such similar premises...

Good things:

Easy to read. The writing had a nice pace in my opinion, it was fit for a contemporary in the sense that is not too fast with lots of action, but it doesn’t drag on with descriptions either. There’s plenty of dialogue and inner character monologues which makes books easier for me to read. I also really enjoyed the writing style and thought it was very clever.

British things. I liked the little bits on British culture and words like “reckon” and things like that. It wasn’t filled with it, but it was a cool setting.

In Between Things:

The characters. I had mixed feelings about Francis and Amber. He is realistically written, which I appreciate, but extremely selfish and over dramatic about things. He expects too much of Amber, who is sick with a serious illness and he expects her to be there at his constant back and call or else she doesn’t love him. That really annoyed me. And Amber wasn’t very realistic at all. Ah, the curse of the manic pixie dream girl. She is the “cool girl” who doesn’t like cosmetics and is outgoing and honest and kind of rude and bla. I always hated that girl.

The emotions. There were moments where I thought I was feeling things for the characters, but those feelings were never fully explored. I just didn’t connect too deeply with any of the characters personally, despite connecting with their situation.

Overall

It was a book I don’t regret reading, but that I wouldn’t read it again or rave about it to anyone.

pey leigh

Heather

libby k

Life threatening cancer brings two teens together in this “story about moving through the trajectory of illness and loss and then beyond it” (Bulletin, starred review) in the bestselling tradition of John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars. Francis is determined to forge his own way in school and life despite his loony, awkward, broken family...and noticeable lack of friends. Then he is diagnosed with leukemia. It wasn’t part of his strategy, but there are moments when he can see the upside. After all, people are nice to you when you’re sick. While in the hospital, Francis meets Amber. She’s outspoken and sarcastic, and Francis falls for her almost immediately. Together, they take on the other cancer ward patients, overbearing mothers, and treatments with a positive attitude and lively wit. But Francis’s recovery is taking a different path from Amber’s. He’s actually getting better. And although he knew who he was before cancer, before Amber, now he has no idea how to live—or how to let go…

The Brilliant Light of Amber Sunrise

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