𝑺𝒐 𝒎𝒖𝒄𝒉 𝒊𝒔 𝒑𝒐𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝒐𝒏𝒍𝒚 𝒊𝒏 𝒅𝒂𝒓𝒌𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒔.

Whether it is bright objects like comets or other omens, people have been looking for messages, meaning for human existence since the dawn of time. This novel is about trying to make sense of the events in our life, especially life altering tragic ones. For Sylvia Knight it is the horrific death of her husband Christopher after he is killed during a hit-and-run. The car accident is a blur in her mind, and Sylvia is consumed with poisonous rage, believing in her gut she knows exactly who the person behind the wheel of the other car was. It is a dangerous obsession, and while the legal case is closed, she refuses to see the monster who destroyed her world walk away free. The story takes place in Australia, a small town that is bubbling over with excitement over a comet said to be bigger than Haley’s. A cult of people under mystic Joseph Evans believes the universe talks to us in signs “for those with eyes to see,” that the comet is a divine event. His magnetism pulls people in, but is this new age priest trustworthy? American astronomer Theo St. John, who discovered the rare comet named St. John, has arrived to track its course. Sylvia finds herself drawn to him, inviting herself to the observatory, asking him to show her the comet. What she sees behind the lens triggers the night she lost all the years she should have had with Christopher. But if there is an answer in the stars, glorious wisdom about what fate has stolen, what she has planned for justice, the sky is silent. Shipwrecked in her grief, Sylvia is shocked by the emotions stirred when in Theo’s presence, as if being in his orbit is reminding her what it means to feel alive. Why then does his own face express fear? She cannot be distracted from her mission, an appointment with dark destiny, not even by the possibility of a new love.

There is something broken within Theo, a loss that mirrors Sylvia’s own. She thinks she understands his wounds, but he has his own dark night. Sylvia’s quest for justice and her former mother-in-law Sandy’s own path for healing collides, but neither is leading them where they hope. Joseph and his ilk can be a soothing sleep, an escape from the cold realities of life. Just like the comet that is growing brighter and brighter, so is the truth that is hiding in the blind spots of Sylvia’s vision. Justice, they say, is a double-edged sword, salvation is too. This is a beautiful, heart-breaking novel about the stories we invent to cope with personal tragedy, the ways we blind ourselves to the truth and what we must confront to move on. The cult is fascinating, how we fall under the spell of hope, hunger for a prophet, escape. The same could be said of the comet, that harmless bright object that enchants us, that we project onto.

It is about the loyalty we feel we owe our loved ones, even after death. How righteous anger clouds our judgement. It is the rebirthing that occurs within us, through every hardship we face, if we have courage. Yes, read it.

Published July 16, 2024

Simon & Schuster

Since her husband died in a hit and run accident, Sylvia Knight, a funeral home assistant in a small Australian town, has languished in grief. Her despair over losing Christopher is almost matched by her anger that the perpetrator is unknown and free to evade justice.

At this sensitive juncture (in 1997), she meets Theo St. John, an American astronomer who discovered a bright comet that passes earth only once every several hundred years. The rarity and wonder of the St. John’s comet whips Sylvia’s town, Jericho, into a frenzy, with the local bakery selling space-themed pastries and the shop Sweet Mementos offering comet china, tea towels, and jewelry.

Joseph Evans, whose well-known mother just died, sees the comet as a spiritual watershed and begins holding meditation sessions at his farm, ultimately devoting the space to a festival to be held the day the comet is closest to Jericho.

Sylvia becomes caught in the tug-of-war between the man of science and man of faith as a new lead in the hit and run propels her on an obsessive quest for answers.

BRIGHT OBJECTS personally resonated with me on many levels but at times it was hard to read since given Sylvia’s job, many scenes were set in the funeral home or were about death and dying, something challenging since losing both my aunt and mother in the past eight months.

On the other hand, all the excitement and build up and questions about meaning preceding the comet reminded me of the solar eclipse in April (damn the cloud coverage!). How people respond to these phenomena is very interesting to me!

The beautifully written book is primarily character-driven, and Sylvia is often in her head. This works for me because she is sympathetic and because Todd’s writing is so musical. In the last twenty to twenty-five percent of the book though, it was one powerful wave of shock after another.

This was such a unique book. It felt…massive? I’m honestly not sure how to describe it, and this review is difficult to write.

Bright Objects is truly a genre defying novel. It encapsulates so many existential themes and examines them through a narrow lens of time that revolves around a comet’s arrival.

If you’re familiar with the film Melancholia, this book gives off very similar vibes. I found the style and language of Todd’s prose beautifully mirrored the atmosphere of grief, melancholy, and mysticism. The pacing of the book felt symbolic as well. Part one was a slow build, and it took me a while to get my mind around the story. Shortly after, this was a hard book to put down. The pace accelerates dramatically.

Overall, I’m glad I read it and truly did like it. I would recommend this to a specific audience who enjoys literary fiction, slower builds that accelerate quickly, and an even mix of character/plot-driven storytelling.
My rating: 4⭐️

TW: I don’t normally mention trigger warnings in reviews but suicidal thoughts are very prevalent throughout this book. Please read with care.

BRIGHT OBJECTS is the kind of novel one wants to read at least twice: on the first read, to bask in the glow, to follow the protagonist and also to follow the progress of the fabled and rarely-appearing Comet St. John. A second read is to immerse in the literary and metaphysical aspects, to savor the prose of this debut novel.

BRIGHT OBJECTS, as well as being Literary, Metaphysical, and Astronomical, is also a deeply human novel of emotions and grief and wonder.

This beautifully written debut literary mystery masterfully blends astronomy with mysticism, a tragic accident, a love story and a man with a shocking plan.

Sylvia is a young Australian widow, still reeling from the death of her husband Christopher in a hit and run accident two years ago. She was resuscitated and brought back from the dead, but her grief at losing Christopher, a young man with so much life still to live, has left her with thoughts of killing herself. The driver of the car was never found, although Sylvia has her suspicions of who it is and has become obsessed with proving it and bringing him to justice.

Sylvia works at a funeral parlour where she helps people with kindness and compassion to choose the type of funeral they want for their loved ones. One of her customers, Joseph Evans, a local mystic, becomes obsessed with the news that a newly discovered comet will soon be visible to the naked eye in the southern skies and believes there must be a connection between his mother’s death and the coming of the comet. He gradually draws in other believers in the comet’s power for change into a cultish group, including Sylvia’s mother-in-law, who is also still grieving Christopher’s untimely death.

At the funeral parlour Sylvia also meets Theo St John, the astronomer who discovered the comet, which has been named after him. Theo’s sadness evokes a feeling of an affinity with this man. She discovers he is monitoring the comet’s progress as it approaches Earth at the nearby observatory and asks if he will show her the comet through the telescope there. Once the comet becomes visible in the night skies, everyone in town is drawn to it and comet fever infects them all. A festival on Joseph’s farm is planned for August when the comet will reach its apex and Joseph and his group plan a special ritual for the end of the night.

Humanity has always regarded comets as something mystical and unworldly, bearing messages from outer space, and tried to instil meaning into their appearance. Todd’s writing is cool and objective which suits the subject matter very well, with its themes of grief, loss, loneliness and obsession. There is a splash of romance as well and while it took a while to warm to the characters and their flaws, by the end of the book I was deeply invested in their futures. This unusual, well crafted literary debut, with a mystery underlying its’ major themes, is both immersive and thought provoking, resulting in a compelling read.

I was really drawn to the premise of this one but admit I was skeptical reading that this was being compared to Tartt’s writing style. On a line-by-line basis or paragraph basis this does feel true early on, but I felt this book didn’t totally succeed in turning the beautiful lines into a coherent, fleshed out story.

There are many parts to this slow, melancholic tale. Sylvia works at a funeral home, obsessed with finding g justice for her husband’s death at the hands of a hit and run driver, all while her town is in a frenzy over the arrival of St. John’s comet. I truly enjoyed the relationships highlighted here- between Sylvia and her mother in law and between Sylvia and the astronomer who discovered the comet.

I felt the obsession/mystery aspect with her husband’s death maybe was not quite as intriguing as it could have been, but did add tension. I also wasn’t totally sold on the cult aspect.

Definitely interesting with some beautiful lines and tone I enjoy, but not fully able to come together for me.

I received an eARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Bright Objects by Ruby Todd is a good mystical thriller with a dash of romance and astronomy! 🤯☄️

Blurb: 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.

🌟🌟🌟🌟

I enjoyed reading Bright Objects! Although the writing was difficult to follow at times, it was a gripping enough story to keep me at the edge of my seat. Sylvia is an amazing FMC who is caught between two widely different spectrums, one scientific and one spiritual (?). Her race to decide who to trust before a life-changing comet hits her small Australian town was intriguing and suspenseful! I never would have guessed the revelations at the end. All in all, a great read if you love space and unsolved/unexplained mysteries. 😊💫

Thank you to @simonbooks for sending me a gifted ARC copy and giving me the opportunity to read/review! 🤩📚

🏷️: #BrightObjects #RubyTodd #SimonBooksBuddy #review #bookrecommendation #bookstagram

An unusual novel about grief and a comet. Set in a small town in Australia, it's the story of Sylvia, who, mourning the death of her husband and working in a funeral parlor, comes to focus on the St John Comet. And then she meets Theo St John,, the astronomer who found and named it. This is heavy on the philosophy and would have benefited from a paring but it's an emotional and thoughtful read. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. It might be a love it or hate it proposition but I come down in the middle-entranced by Sylvia and yet frustrated with what surrounds her.

Bright Objects was an obvious mixture of the Hale Bop Comet cult and Jonestown. Underneath that though, it is about grief. And the grief different characters are dealing with makes them look for relief in some very strange places. The story just kind of rolled along with not much really happening until the very end. Then it became an altogether different book. After all is said and done, I could not believe the choices that the characters made. Could not find a place to hold onto this book.

I really liked this book. It was sci/fi but really it was literary, about grief guilt and loss. Sylvie struggled with the loss of her husband and the guilt she had over surviving the accident. So she sets out to find the deeper meaning of her life. Very engaging.

This was a captivating read with complex characters. I enjoyed the theme of astronomy and the effect on human behaviors, as well as the bit of mystery.
Many thanks to Simon & Schuster and to Netgalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

This was a slow burn but by the last page I was left with some serious goosebumps. I do wish it was shorter but it was a beautiful and intense read nonetheless.

In this complex, thrilling domestic thriller, ideal for lovers of Laura Dave's, a woman lies to protect her family, and one deception leads to another.

What a fantastic book! At first, this book seemed predictable; the reader got the impression that they understood the structure of a traditional thriller and could guess where the story would go. I was mistaken in this assumption! The divergent viewpoints present various angles on the same issue. John's character is developed well. Is he a jerk or a family man supporting his spouse? There were moments in the novel when I felt like my moral compass changed—after all, don't you do what you have to if a mafia boss is after you? I had a great time reading this book.

It's hard to believe that Ruby Todd's Bright Objects is a debut novel. Todd writes this example of contemporary literary fiction with a sure hand and many talents. The story of Sylvia, a young woman widowed two years ago in a car accident that left her critically injured and on the verge of taking her own life when she meets Theo St. John, discoverer of a comet that in a few months will reach its brightest states right there, over the town of Jericho, brightens and wanes along with the comet. The climax of the novel, into which many themes and subplots are woven, finds Sylvia and Theo unwitting participants in a ritual designed and carried out by Josep, the leader of a small cult. Bright Objects rings with authenticity and raises many questions of spirituality, ethics, and love for readers to ponder. Bright Objects will appeal to lovers of literary fiction, literary mysteries, and lyrical writing.

I was born under the Hale-Bopp comet & so was immediately drawn to the premise of this novel. The writing style is beautiful, & is the star of the book. The characters were good, but I had a hard time connecting to the MC. The plot built up after a slightly slow middle, & although I saw the twist coming, I was still very invested in this book. The main theme of grief did a great job in making me wonder what was reality & what was just the MCs perspective.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for the ARC.

In a message from the editor in this ARC, he describes Bright Objects by Ruby Todd as loosely inspired by the Heaven’s Gate cult. I feel like this might be a little bit of a misstep to associate the two. There are some similarities, in that the book also features a cult that viewed a comet in the 1990s as a sign that they should all kill themselves. But the book only talks about these events at the very end, and it isn’t the driving force behind the novel.

In actuality, Bright Objects is a super slow-burn story about a woman who is still trying to recover from the hit-and-run death of her husband two years prior. She uses her grief from the accident to pursue leads to track down who was responsible, and then finds herself drawn to a mysterious man that shows up to her work. There are threads of the cult that get introduced, but it felt much more like a secondary storyline to me than the prominent one.

This book is definitely not for readers that like a lot of action and twists and turns. Todd’s writing is very pedantic; I did feel like her style was so different that I found myself having to read sentences more than once just to get the hang of what she was trying to say. Maybe this just speaks to my intelligence level, but this made the book a little more challenging to read. That’s not to say this was a bad thing (I certainly learned some new vocab words!), but it could be a turn-off for some readers.

Although I didn’t necessarily enjoy every aspect of this reading experience, I can say that at the end of the book, I felt more warmly towards the characters and the overall plot. Everything was wrapped up nicely in the end (even if it was a tad predictable), and I felt like I understood the characters a lot better by the completion of the story.

All of this to say, there’s only a specific group of readers I’d recommend this to. As an ephemeral view of the world (with lots of astronomy thrown in), it definitely won’t be everyone’s cup of tea. But I’m very glad I read it and would be interested to see what Todd will take on for her second book.

4.25 ⭐️ overall.

Sylvia Knight’s first person narrative comes to us in three parts. I found Dark Skies (part 1) rather slow and even alittle draining to read - but Closer and Departures (parts 2 and 3) really came together and I was hooked me.

I chose to read this book without context of any real world events it was loosely based on so that I could immerse myself in the main character’s world and take the book on face value, and inevitably that allowed me to really enjoy the way it unfolded without feeling like I knew what was coming.

Ruby Todd writes with distinct beauty and I thoroughly enjoyed how she guides us through Sylvia’s journey. .

I was fortunate enough to nab this one as an ARC from both Net Galley as an e-book and through Goodreads as a physical book giveaway. Thanks to Simon & Schuster for the advanced reading opportunities in exchange for an honest review.

WOW. I loved this book! Most of the story is in the narrator's head, the dialogue is limited and even sometimes the dialogue is presented descriptively rather than actively, and yet I found the story easy to follow and steadily placed. Through the whole tale, as you follow the narrator, you wonder about her sanity and what's real, yet I wouldn't label this as an unreliable narrator--it's just grief and the realness of it, presented so honestly in all its ugliness by the author.

The setting and characters are amazing. It was hard to know who to like and root for, and that's exactly as it should be for those gnarly twists to hit. I was surprised how twisty and unpredictable and thrilling this story is as I was expecting something more like literary fiction and drama. But this novel has a rollercoaster of emotions and huge personalities wrapped up in a cult and astrological madness.

This book is thoughtful, creative, emotional, and thrilling. I loved it!

Thank you to Simon and Schuster and NetGalley for an eARC to read and review voluntarily.

Well-written story
of grief, survival, guilt, death,
cults and the cosmos.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️


I write haiku reviews but am happy to provide more feedback.

Bright Objects was a beautifully written novel surrounding grief and hopelessness through our main character Sylvia, while the comet St. John travels across the sky, altering the path of a small Australian town.

I'd recommend this story, that often reads as poetry, to readers who love a combination of astronomy, mystery, and literary fiction.