In The Wild Light by Jeff Zentner begins in a small Tennessee town and is told through the point of view of Cash. He and his best friend Delaney Doyle are both in their junior year of high school and have already experienced tremendous losses. Cash’s father was never in the picture and his mother died of an overdose. Delaney’s dad was also never in the picture and her mother was constantly overdosing, with Delaney bringing her back. All of these losses though are what brought the pair together. They met at a Narateen meeting and quickly became friends bonding over their sad home lives.
When Delaney discovers a new fungus on one of their adventures she gets the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to attend Middleford Academy in Connecticut. But she’ll only go if Cash can attend as well. So the teens embark on a journey finding new love, loss, friendship, and family.
I really enjoyed In The Wild Light, although the ending seemed a little fast and I think it was missing a little bit of character development/connections. Overall though I really enjoyed it and thought it was a nice new take on the typical YA romance book.
In The Wild Light was nominated for The North Star YA Award. This award is designed to encourage young adults to read for fun. All of the books are nominated and voted for by Maine teens. I think this book really deserved this nomination because of its coming-of-age theme and real depiction of what it is like to deal with loss.