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Book Reviewed by:A young widow grapples with the arrival of a once-in-a-lifetime comet and its tumultuous consequences, in a debut novel that blends mystery, astronomy, and romance, perfect for fans of Emma Cline's The Girls and Ottessa Moshfegh's Death in Her Hands.
Sylvia Knight is losing hope that the person who killed her husband will ever face justice. Since the night of the hit-and-run, her world has been shrouded in hazy darkness—until she meets Theo St. John, the discoverer of a rare comet soon to be visible to the naked eye.
As the comet begins to brighten, Sylvia wonders what the apparition might signify. She is soon drawn into the orbit of local mystic Joseph Evans, who believes the comet's arrival is nothing short of a divine message. Finding herself caught between two conflicting perspectives of this celestial phenomenon, she struggles to define for herself where the reality lies. As the comet grows in the sky, her town slowly descends further and further into a fervor over its impending apex, and Sylvia's quest to uncover her husband's killer will push her and those around her to the furthest reaches of their very lives.
A novel about the search for meaning in a bewildering world, the loyalty of love, and the dangerous lengths people go to in pursuit of obsession, Bright Objects is a luminous, masterfully crafted literary thriller.
Excerpt
Bright Objects
Some might have thought it unhealthy for a new widow to begin work in a funeral home, especially the same one that just months before had sent off her husband in a premium rosewood casket. But Jericho was a small town, and I was suited to the business. I grew fond of the ritual chores, the somber quiet, the tight-lipped atmosphere of wood polish and plush carpet and heavy drapes. I enjoyed the feeling of marshaling the stricken troops to church, and the soothing sound of a casket closing. I knew the tone to take with the bereaved, knew how to slide around details as if by way of a network of delicate balustrades, to deflect death. But neither was I afraid of allowing the Reaper into the reception room as I served tea to those customers I liked best, who announced themselves with a look that was naked and steely at once, who wanted no part in a pantomime.
The work tired my body and stilled my brain, and offered at least some prospect of sleep at the end of the day. I...
The plot is centered around a young widow's journey to find something grounding and tangible in what feels like a meaningless world. While death and grief are huge themes, Todd juxtaposes them with the thrill surrounding the comet. I would be remiss if I didn't mention how wonderfully written Bright Objects is. In a slow-paced and reflective narrative, Todd masterfully builds suspense. She infuses history, science, and magic in her imagery of the natural world, especially when depicting the comet: "I tried to picture it, the same flaring creature passing by, a bird in flight, its wings of gas and dust blazing blue-green and white, over a planet yet to see the collapse of the Bronze Age, the birth of Babylon, the date of the biblical flood, or the beginning of recorded history."..continued
Full Review
(733 words)
(Reviewed by Frankie Martinez).
A central event in Ruby Todd's debut novel, Bright Objects, is the sighting of a comet in the atmosphere. Comet St. John appears in January of 1997 over Sylvia's small town in Australia, causing its residents, along with the rest of the world, to stargaze and ponder the mysteries of the universe.
While Comet St. John is a fictional comet, Todd has stated that the events in Bright Objects are based on the real-life Comet Hale-Bopp, which passed over Earth for an eighteen-month period in 1996 and 1997, as well as its strange connection to the Heaven's Gate cult.
Also known as the Great Comet of 1997, Comet Hale-Bopp or C/1995 O1 was discovered on July 23, 1995 by amateur astronomers Alan Hale and Thomas Bopp, who spotted...
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