The book "Blue Light Hours" is not about a major crisis or a major event, but a very unique moment in the relationship between mother and daughter: when the girl moves away to study in another country. There is cultural change, the difference between Brazil and the United States, but the focus is on family relationships, and treated in an indirect, tangential way.

The climax I expected didn't occur, but the story sounds so real, that I really imagined it was the life of the author Bruna Dantas Lobato, who we know is a Brazilian living in the United States - but from the Acknowledgment part, it's possible to see that she may have been inspired by her own life, but it's not exactly the same. Isn't that one of the talents of the best writers: transporting us into a fake universe?

Thank you Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for the opportunity to review this book.

A beautiful story about the relationship of a mother and daughter separated by geography and opportunity. I enjoyed the author’s focus on the small details of every day life and how it causes tiny fractures in our relationships even when we cling to each other. As a first generation college graduate I related to many of the ways the MC tried to not change but in the end she couldn’t resist it. I look forward to reading Bruno’s future writing. She is a gifted writer!

Publication Date: October 15, 2024

Sweet story about a Portuguese student who travels to America for university and the relationship she has with her mother. The late night Skypes as the daughter creates a new life for herself and the mother who feels simultaneously left behind and so proud. I felt this book needed a bit more meat to chew on. Kept waiting for a left turn but never got one.

Blue Light Hours by Bruna Dantas Lobato is a welcome addition to what I lovingly call quiet books–books that are more introspective, books that highlight the mundane and the little things that typically go unnoticed, books where not a lot happens but really, you can feel something happening. Blue Light Hours is that kind of book.

We have a daughter, who moves from Brazil to attend a liberal arts college in Vermont. Leaving the only home she’s ever known, she now has to navigate this new life, new place, new language, new people. But home is never far from her mind. In the evenings she Skypes with her mother, and through a small screen and spotty internet connection, mother and daughter update each other about their lives. Both grapple with this huge change and how it shifts their identities. A daughter far away and growing into a new person, a mother alone at home facing a daughter-shaped gap that she must now fill with something else.

Although their paths seem to diverge, they never lose the deep connection and love that they have for each other.

Dantas Lobato’s writing here is quite pared down, which might feel cold to some, but to me, goes perfectly with the daughter’s feeling of being a stranger in a new land. She is simultaneously grateful for the opportunity to study abroad, but also feeling homesick and unmoored from everything she has ever known. There are passages in the book where mother and daughter talk about how they now only exist on a screen. It’s a running joke between them that they are hosts to their own show, reporting the news of their lives. And isn’t that both happy and sad?

The novel is full of mundane observations, simple little things that don’t really add up to something in the grand scheme of things, but in loneliness take on a poignant light. Piles of dirty laundry shoved out of view from the computer screen. Watching the snow fall outside the window. Seeing a familiar vase in the background of a Skype call. Giving the mother a dorm tour through the laptop, then asking to be shown the view from outside the window back at home. The blue light from the laptop screen while waiting on a video call late at night.Making a cup to tea to keep you company. These moments reminded me of passages from Beautiful World, Where Are You. Think Sally Rooney writing about the light in Simon’s sad, empty apartment, with his dirty dishes in the sink, which is then contrasted at the end of the chapter when Eileen comes over and the apartment feels brighter. These still life scenes feel like a visual treat, as well as a deceptively simple way to portray that life keeps happening no matter what.

Literary nerds who love the discourse of why the curtains are blue would love the title Blue Light Hours and how blue light appears throughout the novel. I get it, I love it too. Blue light, often considered clinical, cold, or lonely, in this novel becomes the color of warmth, of security, of a deep and enduring connection. Of home.

I was at a cafe when I started reading this book, and in the table next to me was a mother and daughter spending some quality time together. I couldn’t hear their conversation, but there were tears shed, and lots of laughter in the end. This must be the type of relationship the mother and daughter had in the book, before she left study abroad. This was the type of relationship my mother and I had before I too, moved away for college. I knew that this book would be a very emotional read for me because of how much I could relate to the daughter. And my goodness, this book made me feel so seen.

This is for the daughters of single mothers. For daughters with a complicated/okay/good relationship with their mothers. For daughters who view their mothers as friends. For the daughters who moved away, but still hold home in their hearts.

I’m so excited for this book to come out, and for more people to read it. Mark your calendars for the Blue Light Hours release day on October 15.
Many, many thanks to NetGalley, Grove Atlantic, and Bruna Dantas Lobato for the ARC!

this debut novel explores the relationship between a mother and daughter when the daughter moves to a different country to study. the mother is left home alone, and skype becomes their only means of communication.

reading a book about the mundane aspects of life really resonates with me, especially when the writing has a melancholic tone, and this book is one of those. it portrays the relationship between a mother and daughter who are thousands of miles apart. because of their situation, the blue light from the screen becomes a significant element in their relationship.

the real question here is, as a mother, how long will you hold your child's hand? how long will you continue to be afraid to let them go? until when will you fight with your feelings that are torn between wanting them to fly and explore the world and wanting to keep them in your arms so they will be safe in the cruel world? annd lastly, are you willing to accept the fact that as your child gets older, they are not only physically changing but also their mind and soul?

on the other side, as a daughter, as a loving and understanding daughter, how long can you consistently be there for your mother? you don't want her to be disappointed by the changes you are facing. you want her to be proud of you because you are becoming the person you want to be while still remaining the daughter your mother used to know.

they are both trying.

as a daughter who has now lost her mother, I wish I had been like the daughter in this book. i didn't move to a different country, but I once wanted to fly and leave them behind. now, I'm regretting it because as I was starting to get away, she was gone. i just wish i had been more patient and appreciated the slow flow of my life so i could have spent more time with her. and now, as a mother, i understand her—the fear of losing your child, both literally and metaphorically.

A solid 5 stars. I loved this!

My heart hurts and feel so melancholic about countries and cities I don't even know after finishing this.

This short but satisfying novel follows a young Brazilian woman’s first year in America, a continent away from her lonely mother, and the relationship they build over Skype calls across borders. Although this book doesn't necessarily have the most plot the vibes are delicious and everything I wanted from a novel (very aptly) named Blue Light Hours! The lighting and atmosphere of this book plays a really large part, almost as if it's a character itself which made you feel like you were there with the mother and daughter.

I really liked the almost outside-looking-in vibe of the novel, you get to hear thoughts and musings from the characters but a with a few degrees of separation much like the two characters are separated. I did love hearing about the daughters life in America and her friends and college life were well fleshed out here, but it was a very pleasant surprise when it switched POV's for the last. bit of the book.

This book is so melancholic and so descriptive of growing up and realising your mum is also just a girl and doesn't know everything or have everything sorted like you assume her too. It made me miss my mum and want to talk to her about her life and how she sees the world, and how it feels to have a daughter grow up in front of her eyes without knowing the depth of the life shes living.

Loved the glimpses into language barriers, cultural barriers, the massive undertaking that is immigrating to a new country and all the pressures that come along with that, being an only child and the expectations that surround that, the shifting relationship of you needing to take care of your mother rather than her taking care of you.

I loved the ponderous tone of this book, the way every small thing is romantisiced like the way the light creeps into the room of both the mum and the daughter is so romantic and important. It poetic and shows how every little thing we do holds so much importance and can and should be romantisced. It's so full of longing, and guilt and love and the feeling of looking back and feeling like we've suddenly grown up and can look behind us at all the decisions we've made along the way that make us who we are. I'm an absolute sucker for vibes and a lyrical prose so if you're also into that I think you'll love this.

Blue Light Hours was the perfect length. It felt meandering but hopeful but also sharp and to the point.

“Blue Light Hours” is a quick and heartwarming story about a Brazilian woman navigating her first year in America, while staying connected to her mother in Brazil through Skype calls. It delves into the themes of loneliness and adulthood, and the evolving mother-daughter relationship all held promise.

I wanted to like this book– I was excited about the premise of the book. I wouldn’t say this is a bad book; it just lacked depth. While I enjoy reading mundane narratives and melancholic slices of life, this book felt flat. The characters, despite the focus on their connection, felt one-dimensional. The dialogue between them that was intended to be natural came across as forced rather than authentic. The complexity of mother-daughter relationships and the inner turmoils of the characters could have been explored better. While the prompts did spark a reflection on the importance of the small moments– the mundane– in our lives, it didn’t deliver the emotional depth I wanted. Nevertheless, I am still excited to explore more books written by the author in the future. This book will be out on October 15, 2024. Thanks to Netgalley, Grove Atlantic, and the author for the advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review!

Link to Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6655554296
Also posted on my Instagram story.

A beautiful, "quiet" debut that charts the relationship of a mother and her daughter, miles away, through video calls. There was something so melancholic, aching, to the prose here, Lobato rendering the mother/daughter dynamic so well, so vividly on the page. Thanks to the publisher for the e-galley.

Solid four star review for this concise novel following a daughter leaving her single mother behind in Brazil to go study in Vermont, USA
Written in three parts we start with the daughter, who feels so keenly what and who she's left behind, focusing on studies, on making sure she won't be sent back, on comforting her mother via daily Skype calls.
But for anyone who's been anywhere once, it will be clear that one cannot live in the past. The daughter makes friends, not too many being a foreigner with a funny accent and all, and slowly starts living.
Part two is the mother, all of a sudden alone -for the first time in her life she lives alone- and for a while without purpose. Days are long and filled with waiting for the call. At some point though she starts adjusting.
The last part is 5 years from the initial departure. The mother is visiting the daughter in NYC. Will they still know each other?

So very little action, one could argue. The beauty of the book is how it implies, and shows, a letting go. A natural process of a child growing up, of a parent letting go, but extrapolated to a child moving abroad, a clean cut. Lots of the initial denial and the following growth, adjusting and acceptance is shown through what is left out, small sentences referring to a life lived in between calls. All very cleverly revealing.

As a recovering expat, with some postings under her belt, I felt this book keenly. The first time my mother, in the throws of Alzheimers, wandered off during our call. Also it made me marvel at how full of trust my parents let me go.

A mother and daughter separated by thousands of miles connect over Skype to share the mundanity and the excitement of their lives.

I can’t speak personally to attending school in a different country but the experience written here certainly felt authentic. I enjoyed certain aspects of the mother-daughter relationship such as the clear comfortability the two women feel with each other.

My qualms with this story are few but large, I suppose. One being that the writing seemed to glaze over a lot in the story and it made for abrupt and confusing time jumps in the narrative. Two being that while the words were there, the feelings and emotional connection were not. The premise promises an intimate story and while it was there at times it mostly felt detached, never truly allowing the reader in to the hearts of these two women.

I understand the point of this book and while it certainly has the potential to elicit many feelings—hopelessness, longing, anxiety, love—in the end, it only left me wanting more.

Thank you Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for the digital copy in exchange for an honest review. Available 10/15/2024!

Heartwarming and melancholic at the same time, this novel isn't an extraordinary multifaceted work that makes your brain go "poof." Instead it's a quiet story dealing with things that might seem mundane to others, but occasionally these makes the book feel more authentic. Coupled with the fact that the book is very relatable to me, I think my enjoyment was much greater.
4.25/5

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.