I can't decide how I feel about this book. On one end, it was a great story telling - easy to read, mysterious, with a bit of teenage angst and a romance trope. But at the same time it didn't feel like there was enough stakes in this story for me to make it such a big deal. I felt like the feelings over the candies was a bit exagerated, as it didn't show how using them was bad. In the end, all we got is that we're holding people hostage, keeping them repeating loops, not letting time slip by, but it's not true, is it? And I felt like the boys needed a bigger "bad thing" for it to be so so important. Maybe killing or stealing, or gambling, something. It felt like that part was maybe hinted at, but never confirmed nor denied. The whole anticipation of finding out about candies just died. It didn't have that explosive confrontation. It was more about people and the relationships, and who chooses who or why they choose to act one way or another. Which was good, but I wanted more drama, per se.

Overall a very unique time travel book for YA. I enjoyed it, just can't say I loved it. Would definitely pick another book by this author, because the writing style is superb.

I really enjoyed the concept of this books, especially the magical time traveling bit of it all. The overall vibes of the book were great and the secret-club nature of the IV Boys was so well-done. The pacing felt a bit all over the place, but I can appreciate that it might have been related to the nature of the constant time traveling and resetting that was happening. I really enjoyed the diverse cast of characters, but found that due to the pacing I had some difficulty truly getting into this story. Due to the writing, the characters, and the sheer creativity of this concept, I think a lot of people will really enjoy this.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC. All thoughts are my own.

This novel was a new spin on the "secret society" trope, blending it together with time travel.

While I did appreciate the fresh take and much of the story, overall there were a couple of issues that kept me from fully enjoying this novel. The first is the time travel itself. Time travel is inherently difficult to pull off, and for me, there were too many gaps in the logic of the way time travel worked in this story. I also had trouble with both narrators. Both narrators present as believable and honest, but around the 75% percent mark, we learn that both have been lying to the reader. To me, this felt very dishonest, especially as both points of view were in first person and there was no reason for either narrator to have lied in the ways they did. It made me feel cheated by the story.

I also felt a bit cheated by the ending, which didn't really wrap up most of the story threads.

Overall, while there was potential in this novel, it didn't quite land for me.

4.5 stars rounded up

This is not a fast-paced book. It takes its time in slowly building up the characters, the relationships, and what is going on in this strange and sharply divided small town with secrets. Kady has lived her whole life in Streetlight, and it's a small town that most people know nothing about. But there are clear lines between the wealthy and mostly white kids who go to Iverson prep, and everyone else. Kady is Black from a working class family, but her boyfriend goes to Iverson and is part of an exclusive social club known as the IV's.

For years she's dealt with being ignored or subtly slighted by the rest of the IV boys because she loves Nik. But now, he's in college while she's still a senior and there are nasty rumors being spread about her. She wants him to bring her as a date to the mysterious IV Ball and finally prove that she's something lasting in his life, but he has always refused. The social pressure ratchets up, and things start to get strange...

I don't want to spoil things but while I think the pacing could have been a little bit faster, I really liked this book. It's dealing with race, class, and microaggressions in a small town called "a little bit Twin Peaks" which feels apt. Things get weird, but at its heart this is a book about relationships, privilege, and the things people will do or put up with to have or keep power. Really great novel. I received a copy of this book for review via Netgalley, all opinions are my own.

I mostly enjoyed this book but I found the main character's choices frustrating and towards the end I felt that although it wasn't a case of unreliable narrator, it came very close to falling into this category.

There were some lovely character developments and interactions and the reading experience would be greatly improved with more of this and less of the toxic relationships and deceptions.

What if during a Halloween fair, you could win a game and the prize is not one but 67 new chances to go back in time? This is a creative take on time-traveling second chances with paranormal themes. A creative small-town tale with horror, tension, and social issues we are used to fighting back. There is also a relationship focus.

Rated 3.5 really.

First off...DISCLAIMER: this title was up for grabs on NetGalley (in the Read Now section). Thanks to Penguin Random House/Dutton Books for providing a temporary ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.

This was a clever book that managed to keep its secrets well until it was time to disclose them. Told in the dual perspective of Black teens Kady (a girl from the disadvantaged side of Streetlight) and Aaron (her boyfriend's best pal, born outside of town but part of the "in" crowd due to his stepmother's connections), Streetlight People has a lot to say about privilege/elitism - and to an extent, racism - by way of a quirky story about the ability to bend time to relive (or erase) your best (or worst) moments. Kady and Aaron's points of view are very distinct, and if you pay attention, their peculiarities will give you some clues about what's on going on (which I mostly wasn't able to interpretate, if not in retrospect)...but you still won't be ready for the big reveal. I have to say that Aaron's narration worked better for me, while I was a bit annoyed by Kady's dependency from her boyfriend and her putting up with his toxic loyalty to the "in" clique, though it will probably ring true with readers in the right demographic, or who have done the same in their teens. Ultimately, Streetlight People is a fresh, provocative twist on the time-travel trope (by way of magic/magical realism, as opposed to sci-fi) coupled with a strong coming-of-age theme, tackling social inequality, and with a focus on friendship vs. "exclusive clubs". The ending doesn't come in a pretty bow, but regardless, you won't be at loss for answers.

A teen angst story with a time-travel twist. Rich people not accepting not rich people. An overly attached girl who cannot exits outside of the light of her boyfriend. People willing to time travel to both escape reality and the chance to grow and basically just to mess with people. It was interesting, but I wasn’t its audience.

This is such a bold exploration of power, privilege, and the unspoken divisions that run deep within society, especially in small towns. Kady learns the true cost of power through her entanglement with the influential IV Boys. These boys, protected by family legacy and wealth, embody the rigid social structure of Streetlight—a town where some people have everything and others have nothing.

The way Charlene Thomas intertwines Kady’s obsession with time manipulation and her desperate love for Nik highlights how intoxicating power can be, especially when it feels just out of reach. Kady’s journey from passive to someone who dares to alter reality and take her own power is deeply compelling. The supernatural elements, especially the time travel, create a compelling metaphor for how far some people will go to maintain control.

The atmosphere here is dense with unease, and the small-town vibe is unsettlingly realistic. The fast pacing, rising dread, and that perfect, ambiguous ending pack a punch. This book doesn’t just tell a story; it’s a powerful commentary on race, privilege, and complicity that feels all too relevant today. Highly recommended for anyone looking for an intense, thought-provoking read that uplifts Black voices in a genre-bending tale of dark secrets and even darker truths.

Thanks so much to TBR and Beyond Tours and the author for the complimentary copy and the opportunity to read and review. This review is voluntary and all opinions are my own.

Streetlight People by Charlene Thomas is a riveting story, exploring power dynamics, addiction, and morality in a story that is one of the most brilliant time travel stories I’ve read. As the author begins the narrative, the story seems simple, about a girl whose boyfriend has gone away to college and who isn’t truly accepted by his friends. But as Charlene Thomas slowly unpeels the layers of the narrative, the reader sees just how complex the novel truly is.
Kady is a compelling character and when she receives the candies, the relationship dynamics between her, Aaron and Nik slowly shift. We also see the deepening of the harassment by the other IV boys and how much of an outsider she has remained in Nik’s world. There are subtle shifts of power and how the rich view those who aren’t in their world. Aaron’s point of view adds to the layers of the story and the travel in time adds an additional element to the abuses of the rich. What is truly brilliant is the twists in the story and the reality of the town.
If you like a riveting story with time travel elements and mystery, this story is for you. The relationship dynamics and the power imbalances are brilliantly written with an ending that will blow you away. I loved Kady, her friends and Aaron as we see how different they are from the IV boys, including Nik.

STREETLIGHT PEOPLE by Charlene Thomas is a compulsively readable, speculative teen contemporary novel. Perhaps it was the nefarious atmosphere of the town of Streetlight. Or the desire to know the secret hidden from the “have nots” by the “have lots.” Maybe I just wanted to see Kady get out from under the gaslighting influence of her boyfriend, Nik. Probably all these factors combined had me flipping pages and driving to the book’s conclusion.

I’m afraid to say much more, because the fun of Streetlight People relies on the mystery and suspense.

Share this book with a teen reader who enjoys:
*Twisty plots
*Secret societies
*Time loops
*Cheering for the underdog

This is one of the best books I've read ALL YEAR!

Charlene Thomas has left all of my flabbers, gasted. Streetlight People is a masterpiece and it deserves all the accolades. For fans of stories that play with time and surreal settings, this book is a speculative journey with a twisty ending!

Kady and Aaron both navigate a world of privilege, greed, and power they were never meant to have access to. And while time spins on, trying to right itself, it spins these characters with it. But the twists....the twists were twisting.

This book is a speculative triumph about time, who has more of if, what we do with it, and how far we're willing to go to hold on to what we love most. If you loved The Raven Cycle, or (deep cut) The Covenant, dark academia vibes (vibes only), time travel, and all around enjoyable stories, you should pick up a copy of Streetlight People!

I love blended genre books! Charlene Thomas excels at merging mystery, dark academia, fantasy, and romance with supernatural elements, creating a truly atmospheric read. Kady, our FMC, wins a carnival game, and her prize—“candies”—allows her to time travel. Soon, she uncovers secrets that unravel the mysteries of this small town.

In this story, Thomas thoughtfully explores the dynamics of power, class, deep-rooted wealth, and privilege between the “have-nots” and “have-alot.“ But she also emphasizes the importance of friendships and their potential to influence and uplift individuals - I loved Kady and Aaron!

I loved the audio format! All three narrators brought the story to life. Sandra Okuboyejo captured Kady's flawed bravery, Christopher Ian Grant highlighted the essence of friendship through Aaron’s POV, and Dominic Hoffman delivered a soulful narration as the TimeKeeper. Truly a fantastic experience!

I can't help but shout out the title - Streetlight People!! If you're a true 80s music fan, you know exactly where that iconic line comes from! And let me tell you, my girl, Kady, plays it on repeat throughout the story!

The people who live in the small town of Streetlight have no idea that the wealthy families who pretty much run the town have a secret, and boy is it a doozy. Some of them have "the power to twist and hold time." Kady is a girl from town in a relationship with Nik from one of the wealthy families, who discovers the secret, and decides to use it to keep reliving special days with Nik when he is home from college, so they can spend more time together. Of course, things can't be that simple, and as you can imagine, problems ensue.

I really wanted to love this book because it's filled with my favorite things, but I never quite got there. It was a good book, and it was well-written, but it didn't grab me and make it hard for me to put the book down. I kept waiting for everything to tie in together and for some big reveal or big conclusion, but I didn't feel that it ever got there. It was confusing and meandering at times, which made it hard to get excited to see what came next.

This wasn't a bad book, I just didn't connect with it.

3/5 stars.

*** I would like to thank NetGalley, Penguin Young Readers Group, and Charlene Thomas for the opportunity to read and review Streetlight People.

A teen finds a way to turn back time and relive moments with the boy of her dreams. The longer she engages in her time travels, however, the more she realizes she’s not the only one with the power to go back to the past. Author Charlene Thomas presents an interesting premise that sprawls uncontrollably in her newest book Streetlight People.

Kady Dixon knows she’s one of the “Have-Nots” of Streetlight. Her family doesn’t live in a mansion, they don’t have gobs of money, and she goes to public school. But Kady’s boyfriend, Nik, has made it clear those things don’t matter. Even if he’s in his first year of college now, Nik says he loves Kady and will always be there for her.

Which is why she can’t understand why Nik won’t take her to the annual holiday ball held by The Iverson Club. Nik is one of The IVs, which should grant special status to Kady too. But it doesn’t, and she ignores the way the other IVs look at her. She has Nik; she doesn’t need the approval of The IVs.

Except for the ball. Kady’s been begging Nik to go, and every year he has an excuse. It was one thing when Nik lived in Streetlight too, but now that he’s at college Kady feels like he’s pulling away. Going to the ball would cement their relationship for the rest of The IVs and shut them up for good. Yet still, Nik won’t say yes.

On the night of the Halloween carnival, known as Spooks, Kady meets a man at a sideshow who calls himself the Timekeeper or TK. Kady wins an incredible prize at TK’s game: the ability to travel back in time. Kady gets to pick what point to return to and how many times she goes back to each one, and she uses her new power to relive dates with Nik but also moments with her friends. Maybe, she thinks, if she can reexamine recent situations, she can figure out how to get Nik to say yes to taking her to the ball. Maybe she’ll finally figure out a way to make all of The IVs accept her.

Except Kady makes a horrifying discovery. She’s not the only one who won TK’s prize, and she’s definitely not the only one using it. Now she’ll have to decide what she’s going to do with the information and whether she’ll let all of Streetlight continue to stay stuck in the time loops created by the other users or whether she’ll stand up for herself once and for all.

Author Charlene Thomas writes with a gravity that will resonate with YA readers who are grappling with inequalities of all types. There are hints of racial inequality in the book, although it’s never explicitly stated, but the socioeconomic inequality rings through loud and clear. In those things, the book is an insightful look at the insecurities that arise because of factors out of one’s control.
While the premise of Kady’s ability to time travel the book is an intriguing one, the power itself is never fully realized. Instead of moving toward her goal of convincing Nik to take her to the ball, Kady fritters away her resources to relive kisses and favorite dates. The teen’s aim early in the book is clear, yet later on it seems as if she’s become drunk enough with her own power to remain happy in that inebriated state.

Scenes in the book seem set next to one another without any clear connection. Several times Kady walks away from an encounter with someone else confused about what just happened. Readers may feel exactly the same about those scenes. Rather than move from one big moment to the next, author Thomas chooses to let Kady focus on what feel like inconsequential instances so that eventually the point of the power is lost.

By the time readers get to the big reveal of why Nik won’t let Kady go to the ball, its dramatic impact is lost among the reshuffling of timelines. While giving Kady’s friend, Aaron, a voice on the page makes the story richer, it also makes it somewhat more confusing. At the end, the book itself seems confused about what it’s trying to say and what story it wants to tell.

Streetlight, a small town with a visible dividing line, money, and a boy's club that sets the rules for the rest of the town's young adults. When the girl from the wrong side of town falls for the boy with all the perks, the story line seems recycled. But Charlene Thomas gives this plot a few wicked twists that set Streetlight into Stephen King territory.
Our intrepid young woman, Kady, has been one half of the mismatched couple. She's in love with Nik, but his world is not hers. Enter magic that allows Kady to bend time to fit her wants. When the POVs change, we find that maybe she's not using the magic entirely for good. The changes that her time twists affects set the stage for a show down that draws lines that no one knew existed. Lots of great characters struggling through changing landscapes who will come to realize they may be on the wrong side of those lines.

Don’t Stop Believing: Charlene Thomas’ Streetlight People
Kady lives in the small but prosperous town of Streetlight. It’s claim to fame is the IV Boys, a fraternity of boys who come from old money, all attend the private Iverson high school, and have the future at their fingertips. Their families control the town and therefore control the livelihoods of all the people in it. The place might not have a rep outside of its boundaries, but everyone who lives in it knows the score. Kady’s family is not billionaire level prosperous, but she has a shot. Her boyfriend Nik Rios is one of the IVs, but of a nicer breed. And if her luck holds out, he might be bringing her to the biggest event of the year. Forget Prom. The IV bash known as “The Ball,” which takes place midway through December is the place she wants to be. Few if any townies ever see the splendors, though rumors run wild ...

Only one family ever defied the IVs, leaving their ranks with a hope of using their power and prestige to do some good in the world. The Jack-Laurence family still resides in town and still harbor irritations with the IVs, even though Aaron is a part of the group for the moment. He doesn’t intend to follow the IV tradition of going to Barnes for university. His sights are set on Vanderbilt. He also happens to be Kady’s best friend and her boyfriend’s “blood brother,” a new IV Boy who is effectively learning the ropes from an established, older one.

When rumors start to circulate that Kady and Aaron have kissed and maybe gotten even more intimate, they threaten her relationship as well as her chance of getting to The Ball. Kady knows only too well what kind of jerk is reciting them. Hendricks has hated her ever since she started dating Nik, and he’s entitled enough not to care about the effects such rumors and the subsequent cruelties might cause to her. She’s not IV, just a townie, so what does she matter?

Well, Kady gets an opportunity to settle the scores when she wins an overlooked game at the Halloween-themed Spooks carnival and nets herself a bag of special candies. The weirdo but nevertheless believable barker claims that if she thinks hard about a certain date while letting one melt in her mouth, then she will actually return to that time with intact memories about what did and would happen to the point she ate the candy, but with the ability to alter the past. What about other people? Well, some will retain their memories of the alternate future she came from, others won’t, it’s hard to say. Quite the prize. Of course, it comes with a few rules: do not go back before the Halloween she earned them, and never, ever use them outside of Streetlight.

Can she use these to quell the rumor mill and correct any mistakes she might make? Will these level the playing field between herself and her rivals on and in league with the IVs? Perhaps. However, the more she uses them the more she becomes convinced that she might not be the only one with access … Kady might be biting off more than she cares to, messing with things best left un-messed with. Charlene Thomas weaves secret societies, magic, and time travel in a story about a Have-Not bucking the Have-Lots and their well-established system with the low-key but suspenseful YA thriller Streetlight People.

The disparity, expectations, and rivalries between socio-economic strata are mental traps that will never go away. Like it or not, the mindset gets established early on, and it lingers. America is supposedly a land of opportunity where anyone can become a success, and while there is some truth to that (depending on a variety of factors, including luck), there are successes and there are Successes. The lineages that have had insane amounts of wealth and power will always, as F. Scott Fitzgerald once noted, be different than the rest of us.

This is one of the themes bubbling under the surface of Streetlight People, which gives its YA readership a look at the crazy things that go on in a town that has little to no middle ground between the uber wealthy and the regular folks. Of course, it’s ultimately the story of people who are not accustomed to that decadent or at least self-indulgent lifestyle dreaming and scheming and reacting to the uglier truths surrounding it, but it grapples with those ugly truths as well as the unrealistic dreams the non-wealthy have about how better life would be like with insane wealth.

Charlene Thomas invokes quite a few literary predecessors in the thriller. We have a bit of Fitzgerald (with specific mention of The Great Gatsby via an adaptation starring Leonardo DiCaprio) as well as the nightmarish visions of Bret Easton Ellis. We have a touch of Lynchian creepiness that finds eerie unnatural powers woven into a Nice Little Town. Mostly, we have two point of view characters coming of age and discovering that she will never really fit in.

Thomas’s novel is divided into numerous first-person sections, each titled with a date, a countdown timer to The Ball, and the point of view character. A lion’s share of these come from Kady’s perspective, but a good number belong to Aaron, the African-American kid whose father married into one of the prestigious families and who has been associating with the IV Boys despite his adopting family’s longstanding dislike of their ways.

The writing style is clean and well-composed. The sections move along at a brisk pace. There are few textual aspirations to either lyrical or literary turns. While some of the characters are self-indulgent, the prose never is. It presents its various scenarios and then moves along.

The fantastical elements are enjoyably mysterious. We get the rules and a sense that those enigmatic candies are being used, but for three quarters of the book, much of that is done off the page. We get Kady’s reportage of using the candies to extend certain moments or alter the rumor mill. She remembers the things she’s been trying to change or relive and then gently quizzes others to see what they recall about changed timelines, but the narrative itself doesn’t jump into the past more directly until the final third of the book. It’s a strange power, intriguing in its implications, but Kady is not really aware of its usefulness outside of her own prurient and immediate interests.

She’s a teenager, of course. Learning is what she’s doing, and there is a big lesson to come in the form of a new perspective about magic power’s dehumanizing effects. While the characters discuss moral implications of things, the narrative lets these remain mostly in dialogue or in individual perspective. We never feel preached at.

The result is an intriguing read with plenty of things to say about social and societal issues that also happens to be wise enough to couch these musings in an engaging story. It’s an enjoyable, layered read.

Also, if you can read the title without instantly hearing the Journey Song, “Don’t Stop Believing,” then you are a better person than I. One too many bouts of karaoke, Rock Band video game singing, or Glee soundtrack listen has embedded that ditty in the old memory banks forever. The song even gets a shoutout in the text itself, as one that Kady listens to on repeat (which is something I imagine the author wound up doing at least once during the writing process).

The quick cut: A girl living in a small town finds her life turned upside down when she's given a way to bend time.

A real review:
Thank you to Dutton Books for providing the arc for an honest review.

It never feels like we have enough time. If you had a way to relive the best moments though, would you? This is a question for Kady.

Kady has always felt rejected by the elite IV guys. Although her boyfriend is one of them, they've never accepted her presence in his life for some unknown reason. When his college life takes him away from town, she discovers a way to relive moments from the past. Will this power be a gift? Or come with a cost?

I typically love stories with magical realism because they're fantastical enough to inspire you, but close enough to reality to put you in the story. This book had a lot of those elements, but the characters were completely unlikable to me by the end. They were too selfish to see the reality of their lives and it ticked me off.

Kady comes off as this sweet girl who lives on the poor side of town, but she's not that good. She is definitely an unreliable narrator and by the end, she's a terrible person too. It's clear that she is leading on Aaron and that Nik isn't as devoted a boyfriend as she pretends he is. So maybe she deserves the end she got.

The only other narrator is Aaron and I wish his chapters were more important because most of the time his perspective didn't reveal any essential elements of the story. I enjoy dual perspective, but make it important. He's the most likeable character and he has good intentions at least.

Nik is a jerk and that only becomes more obvious over time. He lives in a fantasy land and lies to himself about how much his life works. Your friends actively hate on your girlfriend and you blow it off as no issue? That's weird on every level.

A fascinating concept with poor characters to support it.

My rating: 3 out of 5

This book didn’t resonate with me as much as I was hoping that it would. I didn’t really find myself enjoying it until right at the end where stuff finally was coming together. The ending is fantastic, getting to it is a bit of a long haul.
Thank you to Penguin Group Young Readers Group and Netgalley for allowing me to read an advance copy of this title.

Have you ever wondered what would happen if you were able to alter time? Even just a little bit? Maybe you wanted to go back to the day before, when you and your friends had fun at the state fair and you never wanted it to end. Or maybe you wanted to go back to the weekend, before your best friend went back to college and you were stuck at home.

Streetlight people is a genre bending book that combines YA elements, thriller elements, and a little bit of magic. Told between two perspectives, Streetlight People tells a story of a small town divided by those who have it all, and those who don't. And underneath it all, a sort of magic that could change so many things, if only in their little town.

I loved this plot and how fast the pacing one. From one second to the next, we're finding out things and conflicts that just keep hitting our main character. The way this book was written was impeccable, and I genuinely could not put it down. The concept and execution was amazing, and I honestly could have read 20 more chapters of this book.

Big thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the early copy!