I want to read the sequel right now; I don’t want to wait for it to be written and published. What does the future hold for Lark, Nightingale, Kingfisher and the others? Will Rye survive? Is peace possible? Can Brother Kite be stopped? Can songlight forge a path to peace and reconciliation?

Overall, this was a cool YA post-apocalyptic dystopian with magic elements. I was excited to keep reading most of the way through. There was some interesting politics, discussions of war, prejudice, and revolution, and I am open to continuing the series.
more thoughts:
- I liked the harbor-town setting, and the vibes overall, but I wish there were more descriptive details. I felt like I was often filling in the world from my previous knowledge, but in a post-apocalyptic world, I don't really want to be doing that a lot, I want the world to be different because an apocalypse has happened.
- I liked the characters well enough, but some of the relationships felt underdeveloped, or more told than shown. I was especially not invested in the relationship between Rye and Lark/Elsa, but maybe that's just me.
- I don't mind the use of music-magic, but the music element didn't feel that well incorporated other than using music words to describe the magic sometimes. Much of the real effects of the magic was used to communicate just normal sentences, or to share memories/images which don't necessarily relate to magic
- this is probably just a pet peeve, but the amount of times Elsa/Lark planned an escape and then ended up back in her hometown was frustrating to me. When people build up to an escape I get so excited for them to escape!! Give me the escape!

Songlight is a telepathic power that lets people not just communicate, but also sort of astral project - you can see the other person depending on how deep into the songlight you go. The way that it was describe was absolutely beautiful, which made it all the more jarring when the characters described how "evil" it was. There is a lot of things in this book that have similar contrasts like this. Characters who seem weak physically are very strong in their songlight. Characters that you expect to be warmongers are actually trying to seek peace. I always worry in stories like this that there will be characters that are completely one dimensional, and that was definitely not the case here.

Elsa is a great character. She is stuck within the bounds of her culture and society's expectations, but she is also born with this power that has to stay hidden. Their world is very patriarchal, where women don't get to decide what they do or who they marry, but Elsa does everything she can to rebel within the system while trying to keep her family safe. Rye is the love of her life, but once he is taken away after being outed as an "unhuman," Elsa will do whatever she can to try and find him. Nightingale was also a beautiful character, another girl with songlight who finds herself deep within the heart of the enemy and also finds the extent of her powers.

There's also the Aylish - another country that Brightland is at war with. They embrace those with songlight, calling them Torches, and this makes them all the more abominable in the eyes of the people of Brightland. They are built up to be this evil entity, but again, nothing is quite what it seems and nothing should be taken for granted. Especially when the history that had always been taught may not be what actually happened.

I loved everything about this book. Buffini is a screenwriter and playwright, but this is her first novel. It was wonderful. The only thing I didn't like was that there is no information about when to expect book two. I need it now!

Review will be posted to blog on Monday, September 9th.

This was such a unique book! I loved the characters and felt they really were the driving force of the story! It is a little more mature than YA in my opinion but I think a lot of ages could enjoy this. Only thing stopping it from being 5 stars is the world building - I really wanted some more and to feel more immersed! I will be adding to our library though 100%

➸ 4 stars

“But we’re two songs joined. And there’s a word for that. A harmony.”

— thank you to netgalley, harpercollins and the author for the arc!

— before i start off this review, i’d like to give a warning to the younger readers out there, one of the generes in this book is said to be young adult. however, with the mature themes discussed in this book i would say this is better suited for reader 18 and above.

in this world there are people with telepathic gifts called songlight; but this world is an unforgiving one. a world ruled my men, filled with misogyny, homophobia, violence at every corner and in an ongoing war. people with songlight are forced to hide it, they’re seen as unhuman.

this book had me completely immersed since the very beginning, with five different povs, we see how each one views the world they live in. i found myself constantly rooting for our fmc, i felt infuriated for her, angry for her, for having to live in such a cruel world.

“Her love is the most precious thing in this whole sorry universe.”

“If I die now, I have loved her, and that has to be enough.”

“My whole body aches for everything we could have been.”

one thing i can’t wait to see more of is elsa and rye. their story was cut too short and i can’t wait to see how it continues in the upcoming books! i’ll patiently be waiting for book two and it’s definitely becoming one of my anticipated releases!

“It’s hard to talk, without condemning myself as a traitor because I’ve been taught my whole life that you’re my enemies.”

there was so much at stake, so much violence was constantly happening which still has me processing everything even now. everyone is taught these horrible things from day one, they see the wrong things as right which makes change difficult.

“I’m in a whirlwind of confusion because, for the first time in my life. I feel like I belong.”

the “enemies” in this book are painted as these horrible and cruel people but in reality they are the good ones. I can’t wait to see how this story progresses and i will be rooting for them and a free world every step of the way.

“Something extraordinary is happening. We are no longer powerless.”

While I enjoyed this book, I would have liked to see the world built out a little more. I felt like I was dropped in the middle of an already established story line.

I felt like I had to push through at first to oversee the lack of world building. But it paid off! The characters for sure carry this story. I loved all of the intersecting stories.

I would recommend this book and cannot wait for the sequel.

Thanks for NetGalley for an early eARC of this book.

This was so good! Songlight gave me 2010-YA vibes, which I adored. It's been a while since I've read a YA book - I tend to stay away from the genre because I often feel like I've outgrown it, but this is a perfect example of why I still love this genre. The dystopian vibe to this was something I have missed in recent years, but I thought it was done perfect. I loved the characters in this and really appreciated Elsa. I connected and rooted for her throughout the entire book. I also loved the side characters in, which doesn't always happen. I can see this getting big, and I hope it does. Bring on book 2!

This story was different than others. It is like Telepathy and in singing. Even able to "talk" to someone you have never met or lives miles away. How the world outcasts them and call them unhumans and is punishable.
Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins for the ebook to review.

I’ve started and restarted this review multiple times. I’m just having a really hard time trying to decide how to describe this one. While Songlight has the feel of many dystopian YA books I’ve read over the years, it most definitely does NOT feel generic. This is something fresh and engaging. There is a small percentage of the world’s population that has a special ability, Songlight, it allows telepathic communication. And while this might sound incredible, it is an ability the government fears, tries to control. The people with this ability must keep it hidden. (Or work for the government as Sirens) They are considered unhuman. I loved the world building in this book. The society and politics of this world made for an engaging story. As with my YA books, it features strong female characters, and you can’t help but sympathize with this struggle against the rigged/controlling society. 4.5 stars. Bring on book 2! Thanks so much to HarperCollins Children's Books and NetGalley for the the chance to read an ARC of Moira Buffini’s Songlight.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/songlight-moira-buffini/1144213869?ean=9780063358218&bvnotificationId=83c0244a-6a2b-11ef-a668-0affdb6b2ef5&bvmessageType=REVIEW_APPROVED&bvrecipientDomain=gmail.com#review/318014577

Songlight is a beautifully written story about finding the strength in yourself to stand up and do what is right despite your upbringing, despite the society expectations around, despite the possibility that you could very well lose everything. Moira Buffini’s writing paints vivid, and almost visceral imagery as we follow the characters in their different points of view through their lives and watch as everything they were taught and everything they believed shatters. Despite all odds we also watch them overcome.

I found this book challenging to read, not because it wasn’t interesting, but because I felt so deeply for the characters and the things they were going through. A lot of the time we like to think the world we live in is better than it actually is, and seeing that sentiment brought to life on the page had me reeling in thought. This was a great start to a trilogy and I cannot wait to see what comes next.

Songlight By Moira Buffini is the first in The Torch Trilogy. This series is a YA dystopian fantasy. My first thought when I was reading is that it reminded me of The Handmaid's Tale with a fantasy twist.
Elsa lives in a world that forces her to hide everything she is. She fell in love with a Rye and they bonded over their shared gift of songlight. If anyone finds out about their gifts they will hated and turned into lobotomized slaves and labeled unhuman. When the worst happens in a moment of anguish her songlight reaches another girl and they start communicating using their abilities..
What I enjoyed most about Songlight was the characters. Not just Elsa and Rye, but all the people she meets along the way and the villains as well; I could not put this book down. I'm excited to see what else happens in this series.
Thank you to Netgalley for this arc. All views expressed are my own.

Songlight is book one in The Torch Trilogy by Moira Buffini.
Such a captivating story. I was in awe here and loved every single second of this book.
A stunning YA debut novel.
The world building is phenomenal and written so well.
A page turner that sucked me in and held me captive.
A heartbreaking, thought-provoking and epic journey I did not want to end.

Recommended: yes!!
For a story where EVERY character is interesting, for telepathic powers that feel full of love and kindness, for painful failures and never-ending hope

Thoughts:
My first two observations about this book may sound negative at first but I promise they are not: the characters fail at their goals all the time, and everything happens in one small town for most of the book. And yet, I love seeing them fail because their responses to it show so much about who they are. It also cultivates an atmosphere I believe in, where things won't necessarily turn out okay just because I'm reading a story. Bad shit can and will actually happen in this book. Good people have terrible things done to them, and people doing evil things will come out on top over and over again. But what brings me heart is that the good people just keep getting back up with hope and love in their hearts, and in a time where I often feel overwhelmed by the pain and dread and hate in the world... I honestly really needed this.

Although the majority of the story takes place in one town for the first bulk of it, it does start to spread as we meet other characters into their pockets of the world. And of course, the connections they form through their songlight give it the feeling that we can be anywhere at anytime. The overall presentation of the songlight (not from the perspective of the bad folks anyway) is so full of love and connection and understanding that it made me feel lovely just reading about it. It made me have a sort of wistful feeling, hoping I could feel something similar in my life at some point.

And the characters? This is the most shocking part: I was fully interested in all of them, all the time. There are multiple perspectives, and characters come in and out throughout the book. I was never mad to leave someone's story line because I was equally as excited about whomever I was moving to. The fact that they were often connected literally via songlight helped as well to see from another angle of what had occurred. This is such an accomplishment because usually some character or story is less interesting than the others, especially with more than 2 perspectives used.

Oh! I almost forgot to mention: romance is a footnote in here. Friendship is the real winner in this, and I am all about it.

Overall I'm so pleased I read this one as it sounded right up my alley but also could have been handled in a generic way that would have made it just okay. Instead it was robust and hopeful and dark and gripping. I'm really excited for the next book as it feels like there's SO MUCH about to happen! I'm so nervous but also hyped because it has not let me down so far.

Thanks to Sparkpoint Studio for a free advanced copy. This is my honest review!

There's only so many ways for me to say something is mid, but I always try when it comes to these reviews.

I'll start with a positive: I like how telepathy is portrayed here. Songlight and the people who have it, called Torches, is very much X-Men-esque (I think it is implied it was a mutation/evolutionary trait, too), but Songlight felt more personable. I liked the connection Elsa and Kaira had because of it; them bonding through their powers and the admiration they had for each other's hometowns got kinda sweet at times.

Other than that, I genuinely don't have that much to say about Songlight.

I can really feel how passionate Buffini was about her worldbuilding and the story she wanted to tell, but the execution was just - less than stellar. Despite the things they had to go through under their country's patriarchy, Elsa and Kaira didn't pull any emotion from me on their own. In fact, I kind of found them stupid sometimes, and not in the 'oh, they're teenagers so it makes sense' sort of way. Kaira had a plan to run away for the second time, but instead of doing that, she literally slept on the perfect opportunity and got caught the next morning; even Elsa chided her for doing that in her POV. Elsa doesn't get a pass, though. She got to the enemy country but decided to go back with them because she wanted to friend Kaira and her boyfriend, but the "enemy" (They're really the good guys) wanted to go to attempt a peace talk. She then proceeded to get mad because she, a woman living a rigid patriarchal system, got mad when she got excluded from the politic talk. Like, girl, you chose this; you cannot get mad when you perfectly know women are treated as a subclass in your nation.

There are also three characters who also had a POV, two of which I found unnecessary and one I thought wasn't done as well as it could have. Elsa's brother and boyfriend have a POV, and while I do get that they're supposed to provide deeper insight of toxic masculinity, military propaganda, and the depth of prejudice against the other (Songlights, the gays, cheaters, thieves, etc.), I still found them boring or straight up annoying. Piper, the brother, particularly, because he caused so much problems for everyone else, and the exploration of homophobia in this world is so surface level that is feels so unnecessary. The last POV, Swan, is a Torch who's under control of a military general(?), aka a Siren, and though her story shows how even the spared, or "good", Torches are mistreated due to them being what they are, there wasn't much depth beyond 'She's a terrible person, but it's sad because she was forced to become that.' She still exploited (what is essentially) lobotomized women as slaves and, eventually, Kaira for her own needs. Again, her story should have been more interesting, but the writing just made her irritable to me.

The worldbuilding also felt uninspired to me. It's just dystopian Britain vs. Ireland again, and this time the patriarchy demands men to make two wives rather than one! The sexism of this world was shoved to much down your throat repeatedly without any subtly, and the only characters who question it are Elsa and Kaira because they're ~the main characters~. It got so old so fast; I started skimming after part three or so because I felt like I was wasting time reading this.

All in all, I just didn't care about this book, nor do I care to read the next one when it comes out. Reading this made me wish I devoted my time to other, and possibly much better, books I could have read, instead.

I got this as an eARC from NetGalley. I LOVED this book. It reminded me a lot of the YA dystopian novels from 10-15 years ago (think Hunger Games or Divergent) with fantasy themes. I’m giving it 4 stars and am seriously debating changing it to 5 stars. I love the way their power, Songlight, works and can’t wait to learn more about it. The history behind the book is interesting too! At this point the author could easily write a prequel to explain how things got to where they are. The only thing I don’t like about the book is that it ends on a cliffhanger and since I got it as an ARC I have to wait even longer for the sequels!

Songlight by Moira Buffini is a captivating tale of identity, acceptance, all types of love full of mystery, intricate politics, heartbreak, and betrayals that will have you captivated from beginning to end. Buffini manages to capture all that makes us humans, all of the emotions and their nuances in under 400 pages.

Set in a dystopian world-at-war, we meet Elsa and Rya, who are both blessed/cursed with Songlight and know of no one else with it - a telepathic form of communication. People with Songlight are considered to be "unhumans." They are hunted and imprisoned, turned into mindless slaves. To keep themselves safe, they have to keep their gift a secret from absolutely everyone. When something terrible happens that leaves Elsa full of anguish: "In songlight, I roar in white, inchohate pain." Which allows another person with songlight to find her, someone quite far away, whose songlight is even more powerful than Elsa's. From there, it dives into friendships and found family, political intrigue, actual truth vs trusting what you were always told is true, right vs wrong, fighting a war for victory vs fighting a war for freedom, and so much more. It may sound like too much, but I don't think it was - at all.

📖 The plot is phenomenal. Intricately woven with big important topics, full of emotions (I got actual chills reading one part) and depth. I love that the plot mimics issues we have in our world in 2024. It encourages readers to look at their beliefs, to search deeper for the truth, to look more deeply at your own beliefs. It also gives you glimpses as to how and why some can have the beliefs and opinions they do, what could lead them to be so dogmatic. That doesn't mean those beliefs are right, or even ok - just providing insight as to some things that could cause a person to hold such parochial beliefs.

It has multiple POVs (5 as I recall), which I know some aren't fans of. Buffini does am excellent job of giving each POV character a distinct voice, making it easy for me to remember whose POV I was in. I enjoyed the multi-POVs and felt it enriched the story a lot.

⏳️ The pacing is great. I read it in a day, and would've read it in one sitting if life had allowed. I couldn't put it down. It has action, mystery, intrigue, and tension - I can't imagine anyone being bored reading this.

The ending had me full on Michael Scott, "No! God! Please! NO!" and panic-swiping. Book 2 can't be in my hands soon enough. 😆 While I love and appreciate the way it ended, I think so many not love the semi-open ending (if they read it before book 2 is out).

✍️ Buffini writes eloquently. It's smooth, and I learned a few new words. The dialogue reads as natural. She imbues so much emotion that it's visceral at times.

🗺 The world building is excellent. Buffini encapsulates all of your senses, and you'll feel like you're there with the cast. Orienting yourself is a breeze. It's written in a way that made it almost cinematic.

🔮 The magic (or gift, rather) is well explained and developed. I found this specific form of telepathy to be unique and quite interesting.

👥️ The characters are nuanced and dimensional. I love them all, except the ones I love to hate. She shows the good and bad in everyone, which really brings out their humanity. She made me cry a number of times, plus the time I got chills reading a passage. The cast is diverse, LGBTQ+ and trauma rep.

If you're someone who has (or is) struggling with your identity and/or coming out, I feel like this book could be a great read for you. I think it could help you feel more confident in yourself and who you are inside. However, I feel like it could be a rough read for a tiny group of people who are struggling with their identity and/or coming out. For those reasons, especially, please, please look up content and trigger warnings. ⚠️ some CW/TW: racism, sexism, homophobia, slavery, talk of forced sex work, violence (including 🔫), and death.

It didn't feel YA to me. It read as New Adult, or maybe even Adult. As much as I enjoy YA, I appreciated that it reads as older.

I personally wouldn't say this is a romantasy. It's a fantasy that has some very light romance aspects as more of a footnote. I love that about this book. I think if there had been a stronger focus on romance, it would've pulled the focus away from the very big, important topics.

If you enjoyed: The Hunger Games, Divergent, The Handmaid's Tale, and/or Shadow and Bone - I think you would enjoy this.

Thank you to Moira Buffini @HarperCollins and @netgalley for the opportunity to read this eARC. I'm choosing to leave this unbiased review.

This is a world where humans, or what they call unhumans, can communicate telepathically with what is called Songlight. If you are found out, you are enslaved and turned into a Siren who hunts for unhumans.

Elsa has Songlight and has had to keep it secret all her life, except from Rye Tern, the only other human she knows who has Songlight. They fall in love, and with Elsa’s forced marriage ceremony approaching, Rye says they should run away. Elsa asks for one more night to prepare, but then the inevitable happens. Rye is found out and captured. To protect Elsa, he spews lies about who he was communicating with and is taken away.

Elsa is determined to save him and to stop being a coward, realizing the true monsters may be right among them, in her own home.

This is a riveting story. In this world, this community, they tell their children the enemies are the Aylish and those who have Songlight. When, really, the true enemy is the leaders amongst them who twist their words and manipulate those who blindly follow them to continue to listen and follow these supposed leaders who supposedly care for the people and want to protect them from the Aylish and those with Songlight.

This is an oppressive world, not just against those who have Songlight, but towards women. It made me angry at times how they treated the women and how they expected the women to always be. Then these women who just blindly listen and are convinced these leaders are right and true and must be followed. It’s saddening and sickening. Such a manipulative world.

It’s a slow moving book at the start. The true action and moving of events occurs about 50% into the book and then the rest of the book is just very fast and, not necessarily action packed, but a lot of exciting events occur and move forward quickly that you can’t help but just read until you finish to see what happens.

There are quite a few POVs. For the most part, I think it was well done, I didn’t feel overwhelmed with all the POVs, but one of them, I would sometimes forget and suddenly remember and wonder what’s going with them. Which I think might have been the point because I have a feeling they’ll be playing a pivotal role in the next book.

I loved the friendship that developed between Lark and Nightingale. These two are so different and yet so similar in their plight. It was amazing how much they helped each other via Songlight, no matter how far away they were from each other.

The relationship between Lark and her family also changed in a drastic way. I think she was always rather far from her brother Piper and poor Piper is so set on their world’s ideals that their relationship suffers. But, Lark’s relationship with her mother grows significantly and I loved it for them.

There’s not really any romance in here. I mean there is between Lark and Rye, but from the get-go, they lose each other and the entire point of this story is Lark saving Rye that just happens to turn into something more and that’s saving all the people, especially those with Songlight and having peace. There are hints of other romances developing, and I’m sure they’ll be expounded on in the next book.

Lark went through a lot of growth in this book. She already hated her community and wanted a change, and yet is unsurprisingly scared. And so when she finally speaks up and tries to make changes, it starts a domino effect that you try to keep up with, but also see her change some views that have stuck with her strongly, like the Aylish being the enemy versus her leaders being the true enemy.

I really enjoyed this book. It put me through a lot of different kinds of emotions, and the ending of the first book left me feeling liberated and I look forward to seeing how this story will continue to play out.

I received a gifted e-ARC to read, thank you NetGalley and the publisher. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I found this book sad in the way that the main characters were so oppressed in their society and had so many forces attacked against them. The politics and lack of knowledge made my chest tight with wanting to fight against the injustice for them. Then as they began to find ways to begin fighting back against their government I wanted to cheer. The full gamut of emotions led up to the final chapters, where knowing this is the beginning of a trilogy, I knew not to expect a full resolution, but was still satisfied emotionally with where the author stopped. I will look forward to reading the rest of the story. (4.5 stars)

2.5. Thank you NetGalley for the E-ARC!

🕊️💖🎶

I think this book had a lot of potential. But that's were it stops, potential.

I loved the idea of the songlight and I love Elsa's relationship with Kaira and Rye.

But, I felt like with this story, we really ended up doing nothing with it until the end. We also had certain character POV's that felt unnecessary, like the point of Piper, Elsa's older brother, who I felt was only in the story so we could see his internal struggle with being gay, which in this world is illegal and punishable by death, but it felt unneeded. I would have loved to see more from Rye's point of view, which we got few and far between but I always found his chapters the most enjoyable and normally the most action would happen.

I did feel as though there was a fifty fifty chance that the character would either be lovable or not fully fleshed out, and the pacing of the book could be strange at times. I feel like there were so many times where we talked about doing something but never did, it was a lot of tell and not show.

I think a future installment could do really well with how we set up this first book.

🕊️💖🎶

Rating: 2.5 ⭐️

Unfortunately, this one wasn't a hit for me.

While I do think the story has good bones, the world building was lacking, and the alternating perspectives felt a little choppy.

The "Handmaid's tale"-esque plot, where the people are kept ignorant of government corruption and women are raised to serve their husbands by giving them babies, was more cringe to me than impactful.

I did enjoy the idea of the telepathic connections bringing people from different lands together to try and end wars and corruption, however, I probably won't be continuing the story to see what happens next.

Overall this was a book that, for me, had potential it didn't live up to.