#sffwrtcht

“Lightbringer” by K. D. McEntire is a YA urban fantasy about a teenager, Wendy, who does much more than just “see” ghosts after the death of her best friend’s father in a car wreck. As a Lightbringer, Wendy has the power to send spirits wandering the Never into the light, but this power comes at a cost. For each ghost sent into the Light, Wendy gives up a bit of her own life. Yet, if a soul remains in the Never, it risks fading into nothing. This fate-worse-than-death is what Wendy fears lays in store for her comatose mother, whose soul has inexplicably vanished during a strange accident involving the Lost, child souls in limbo. After bringing herself to the point of exhaustion searching for her mother’s soul every night, Wendy meets a dead boy whose presence might be the key to this mystery and more.The first two scenes plunge us straight into Lightbringer’s plot, first by introducing us to Wendy and Eddie in the living world, and then Piotr and his lost in the Never. Wendy’s search for her mother provides Wendy’s character motivation while the the Riders’ protection of their Lost against the White Lady provides a firm sense of urgency, and both drive us on to discover the end. Scenes from Wendy’s point of view, such as the car accident and the funeral, are interspersed in rapid non-linear succession with scenes of the Never from Piotr’s point of view in an artful release of information to the reader. Like the half-trained Wendy, the reader must learn the complicated rules of the Never as they are revealed through dialogue and circumstantial evidence. Underlying these mysteries is the implication that Wendy’s lack of knowledge threatens her own soul because, until she learns what caused her mother’s soul to disappear, the same thing could happen to her.

Besides the Never, Lightbringer sports several supporting details that help build reader trust throughout. Wendy is not an impossible super woman who stays up every night battling Walkers with no consequences. K. D. McEntire skillfully points out that her protagonist is running herself ragged – falling grades, plummeting body weight, and a complete breakdown of social niceties marks her internal struggle throughout the novel. Her complicated feelings for both Eddie and Piotr are portrayed through engaging descriptions of virgin desire. Never are we in danger of seeing Wendy as a hapless teenager who loves boys because their eyes are blue or because they are on the basketball team. Instead we see her confronted on the one hand with a best friend who is, unfortunately, a slut, and on the other with a ghost whom Wendy believes that she should send into the Light. Underlying all of this is a touch of horror genre, with flaps of skin here and an overturned bus there that reminds us that we are talking about dead people.

The only aspects of the story that I found somewhat stereotypical were the real-world setup at the very beginning and the girl-ghost love subplot. In both cases, however, I can see the author’s reasons for using these tropes. The beginning starts off by showing us a glimpse of Wendy and Eddie before their lives went strange. I usually prefer stories that begin in medias res, but this more straightforward technique is like presenting us with a medical baseline: we can see exactly how the car wreck has changed Eddie and Wendy. The girl-meets-ghost love story is also more than it appears to be on the jacket cover. McEntire has an intriguing reason for Piotr and Wendy to be together, a mystery in and of itself that ties into the bigger whole. For, like all good novels, not all of the characters are what the protagonist assumes them to be. In fact, nearly every character has something about them that the author saves for the explosive climax – but, ah! No spoilers!

All in all, Lightbringer is a fun read full of mystery and surprises, and one that will leave you looking for the upcoming sequels. You can find K. D. McEntire’s website at http://kdmcentire.com/. Look for Lightbringer, coming out November 15th.

Michelle writes short fiction of all speculative fiction genres in between chasing her toddler from tree to tree. The shorter the work, the better, because 200 words looks very long on her cellphone and that keypad is very, very small. You can find out more about her rabid love of Star Trek, podcasting, and raising future geeklings at her blog, wakingdreamsblog.blogspot.com