Lobato’s prose has the same hazy, quiet hue of the twilight hour depicted in the novel’s title. It’s a sad tenderness that coils around your eyes, mouth, limbs as you go on reading inevitably reminiscing on your own distant loves.
I deeply appreciated the softness and calmness that transpired from her prose, the feeling of mute collectedness heightened the description of snowy Vermont to the point of creating a very strong sensation of being present in that landscape; it also made me more attuned to the feelings of fuzzy disorientation that the protagonist was feeling, as she left behind the radically different world of Brazil.
The story in on itself has the delicate tenderness of fresh falling snow, more than a few times I ached at the narration of guilt the protagonist felt in enjoying her time knowing she was leaving her mother behind, at the happiness she was feeling in creating a future so far away from a parent she knew needed her.
The relationship between mother and daughter was also done very nicely as both sides were explored deeply and authentically, both women had their flaws, needs, fears, fragilities; it was quite emotional to read how the mother was insecure in her role, how she longed to still be a daughter in the presence of her own mother.
This novel is a novel of circularities, of deep roots and new constellations in foreign skies ultimately unearthing the love of two women in all its tragic tenderness.
I myself have been living in another country, far away from my family and I saw my own reflection in many passages of this, maybe this is the reason why I loved it so much, why through it I felt a sort of expiation for my own shortcomings as a distant daughter, but also saw how resilient love is.
Overall, I truly enjoyed the story, its cozy details of college life and demure colours, but I also enjoyed it technically speaking in regards to the prose, therefore I will gladly read any next release from the author.

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this! Being Brazilian myself, this was a cozy read that connected me to my own culture. I would recommend!

A lovely, slow novel with strong themes of mother daughter relationships, homesickness, and connection from afar. Not a book with a great amount of plot. But, a good one for lots of feels.

This book made me feel so seen. I've been an exchange student away from my family since I was 15, and I've always struggled to put that experience into words. Bruna Dantas Lobato described it so perfectly.
I love a lot about this book. The two main characters, Daughter and Mother, feel so alive and well-developed. The two worlds they occupy reflect in their characters well. I saw myself and my mother in their little quirks. The daughter slipping up and using English words while they speak their native language, the mother following the news of her child's new home an ocean away. I've lived all of it before.
Another aspect I love is the descriptive language -- everything surrounding the characters came alive. The "laptop screen as a fishbowl" metaphor perfectly describes the mother-daughter relationship in the daughter's first year away, the separation anxiety they both felt and the need they had to always be there for each other even if that meant abandoning the "real life."
The only thing I didn't love as much was the awkward time jumps towards the end of the book. We go from very detailed descriptions of the first year to a 6 months jump, to a 3-year jump. Because of those gaps, I didn't fully see the mother and daughter grow apart which made the big "conflict" of the novel fall a bit short. Still, this book was a warm reassuring hug to those of us who moved away from family but kept the bonds.

I wasn't expecting to love this book as much as I did. Through a beautiful prose, this book explores the feelings of love, longing and homesickness between a mother and a daughter separated by circumstances. An exploration about identity and staying close to your roots.

I read the book in less than twenty-four hours, which is quite unusual for me. I felt deeply attached to both characters and the beautiful bond they shared.

I will definitely keep an eye on Bruna Dantas Lobato's writing career, and I'm so glad I had the opportunity to read her through this book.

One of the books I've read this year.

Thank you to Grove Atlantic for the advanced copy of this book.

This was a quiet book. Lobato takes the everyday things we do with our loved ones and scatters it across time and space. In this story, it’s scattered across two continents between a mother and daughter who miss each other terribly, but who are growing into themselves against the blue light of their computer screens.

Lobato’s descriptions of dorm rooms, ramen, and other international students does a fine job of showing the thin line that we straddle between who we are and who we are becoming. She does this through nightly conversations with her mother over Skype. Conversations that welcome the reader to see the myriad of imperceptible ways that young immigrant students become Americanized through college-campus culture, where there’s all kinds of people, foods, clubs, and classes to choose from.

The themes in Blue Light Hours will be instantly relatable to any immigrant student who has left home to study abroad in America or any first-generation American who has ever gone off to college.

It’s a reflection on the excitement and embarrassment of learning something new and becoming that new thing, while balancing it against the familiarity of the life you've left behind.

I fell in love with the book as soon as I started it because it reminded me of Whereabouts (i’m sure your ears are burnt with how much I talk about it) and gave me a sense of peace and quietness. I am so glad this book exists because it’s like reading about a big part of my life I want to treasure. I am planning to highlight the whole book when it’s out on October 15th.

This is written from a POV of a girl from Brazil who went to study abroad in US leaving her mother who is the one and only immediate family member of hers and POV of a mother trying to be okay when her daughter left the nest to pursue further education in order to have a better life.

No plot, just vibes with slow go go rhythm. Romanticizing solitude, acknowledging loneliness.

Every little thing is noticed, adored and being grateful for. Moments of every flake of snow in winter turning into water, every mountain of leaves in Fall flying with the wind, every cup of tea shared with a friend who is also from a foreign land and every video call with mother no matter short or long are painted very stunningly.

Somehow, it’s true that quiet people (or introverts) tend to pay attention to small things that are easily peesily overlooked by the majority. Not that a lot of us has tangled yarns of thoughts inside our head, but spending time alone is equivalent as recharging battery after leafing through important papers for exams.

Sometimes, calling mother with a reason of wanting to hear her voice and to confirm our faith that she is healthy and doing well. Oftentimes, we run out of conversations so we could only reminisce the past like a cow chewing grass for 28th time of the day. But most of the times, it’s out of guilt of living in a greater city without her.

When we start living in a different setting, culture-wise and language-wise, it’s hard to switch instantly as how we used to live even though we know how to adjust back. The experience would seem exciting and refreshing for a daughter, although it is sad and lonely for a mother and this book captures this nature beautifully within mundane discourse.

And it makes me smile that even though she had a thousand chances to screw up, she kept going and listened to her mother. However, to be a good daughter in a conservative household is to be able to hide a few unconventional practices behind a mother’s back. But overall, we’re good girls;)))

This book reminds me of the time when I was living alone abroad to pursue a degree. Decided to be closed off, afraid to be open. Pretended to be brave, hid the bitterness. Spent most of so many days alone reading in the middle of campus, walking on the same streets where I was lost years ago and not counting the trees that were obviously older than me.

Rays of sunshine through the leaves higher than my height, ownerless chubby cats, dancing butterflies and full moon once in a month were unpaid friends to my solitude.

In Blue Light Hours, a young woman leaves her home--and her mother--in Brazil and attends college in New England. The mother and daughter communicate with each other via video chat, attempting to maintain their close bond across thousands of miles. The premise is simple; the delivery is stunning.

I am in awe of this novel. Each word feels lovingly chosen. The novel's strong craft is evident in its atmospheric descriptions of the New England college setting. The narrative thoughtfully portrays the complexities of a mother-daughter relationship bound by love, culture, and shared experiences. You can feel the devotion and respect between mother and daughter, as well as their hope for individual and joint growth, even in the face of an uncertain future. The palpable tension between holding on and letting go beautifully illustrates the universal struggle to develop a sense of independence. A moving, standout piece of literature.

This was a beautiful book that evoked feelings of homesickness. Beautifully written, it left me very sad.

I found myself so homesick and missing my mother terribly while reading this book! I think this is a tender, heartfelt novel that perfectly captures the complicated feelings of loneliness and nostalgia when we are living apart from the people we love. I loved the scenes of the daughter, establishing her new life in America, coming into her independence and adulthood. Likewise, I found the scenes of the mother grappling with her own isolation and baring her insecurities (you don't need me anymore!) to her daughter utterly heartbreaking. The prose was quite sparse, almost poetic. At times, I found it a little over-wrought, erring on the side of a Tumblr-esque, punctuation-less, text posts (it takes one to know one). However, I thought that overall, it created a wonderful sense of detachment and nostalgia. I felt somehow like I was reading this novel through a haze of soft blue light!

Thanks to Netgalley and Grove Atlantic for access to this ARC. Publication date: 15th of October, 2024.

I absolutely adored this! Bravo! FYI I was tipped off to this one because it is a staff favourite on the pre-order list at Type books in Toronto. Felt like Elif Batuman’s the idiot a little bit, by way of Katie Kitamura ‘s writing style?

If homesickness was a book, it’s Blue Light Hours. Throughout the entire book the yearning was palpable, and anyone who has ever left something behind to pursue something else can place themselves into this narrative. This mood-driven narrative explores a geographically distant mother/daughter relationship, with themes of growing independence, navigating academic pressures, and familial sacrifice. This story was so intimate and bittersweet; it’s one that will stick with me for awhile.

Thank you to NetGalley for the eARC

I loved this book. The concept is great. I think it would be better to focus a little on the negativity and guilt-tripping the mother seems to inflict on her daughter at times though and how that makes the daughter feel. It happens a lot but the daughter takes no notice which seems unrealistic.

I resonated very much with this book, and I felt special, understanding a relationship that can be this close with a mother, even if sometimes deeply sad and boundary-less. This was a great spin on the classic "campus novel" except the experiences on campus were not the ones of significance, but the memories left behind in the main character's home country and left behind in her mother. There were many moments that I feel Dantas Lobato captured with such simple, subtle language, perfectly pinning down what it feels like to watch a parent age, to have one's aged parent as a guest--small, vulnerable, not at all right. These are moments that will stick with me. My main critique of this book is that I wish we saw more resolution between daughter and mother, and more growth of each character. I was sad to see the end of the daughter's "portion" of the book/narrative. What are the ways in which these relationships with our parents hold us back? Especially when it is us parenting them, and worrying about them in a way a child never should? Maybe these are the hard questions Dantas Lobato wants us to sit with, and to be okay with. That sometimes, this is how things are and will be.

I started this book slowly, enjoying the unfolding of the story much as it’s told, easing in and discovering. It’s tender, melancholy at times, bittersweet in others. About halfway through, my mother died unexpectedly. It was a stunning loss, crippling me emotionally, physically. It took a few weeks before I could pick up this story again - and when I did I found it nurturing me instead of leaving me gutted. It’s so beautiful, and beautifully written. No false promises, no easy answers. Just being, understanding and love. It’s taken me now a while to write this review. This story will always be a part of my own, and writing this I feel the loss.

Okay, I’m sure why I requested this. Maybe because of the title and the cover. But I couldn't finish it. This book seems like a nicely composed, but dull everyday diary entry. There's no vivid descriptions as I expected (for some reason), just a monotonous soliloquy. Also, the dialogues (minimal though) without quotation marks were a little disturbing.
Thank you for the copy. Sorry it didn't work for me.

I requested this arc on netgalley with the knowledge of it being a book about a mother-daughter relationship. I feel like with novels like these you can either do a deep dive into the complex relationship or choose to leave a lot in the unsaid and I’m afraid this one did neither.

I wouldn’t say that this is a bad book but i just felt like it missed any depth. The majority of this book is about the daughter sitting in her college dorm skyping with her mom but their conversations are very superficial. Nothing really interesting happens in either of their lives that could’ve spiced up the dialogue. Any relations with her friends there feel very dry and none of the characters are very interesting. I think this has potential and usually I love a character study but then the character does actually need to have some character. This all felt very bland to me, sorry:(

I absolutely loved this. Coming from a Latino household, I absolutely get her inner struggles and the overall new found world she's discovering. One of the most touching? not sure if that was the right word, was the code switch or rather language switch she had to do to her roommate while on the face chat call with her mother. It's just such a relatable book and I adored it.

Blue Light Hours is a novel about a young girl who moves from Brazil to the United States to attend university. Back home, her mother experiences a feeling of abandonment and loneliness, simultaneously feeling proud of her daughter's accomplishments. They connect through Skype calls and texts and update each other on their daily lives and new experiences or feelings. The novel explores their mother-daughter relationship, loneliness, and the guilt of leaving someone behind while trying to adapt to a new place.

This debut novel by Bruna Dantas Lobato uses meditative prose to reflect on the characters through glimpses of their lives.

Thanks to NetGalley, Grove Atlantic, and the author for this ARC.

Thanks NetGalley for my copy. I don’t enjoy giving bad reviews but this booked me to tears. The writing style left much to be desired and really there was no story. It was more a diary and a boring one at that. I would not recommend this book. Sorry