This was beautiful, capturing the essence of girlhood, grief, the conditionings of motherhood through 20th century England--while divulging in a post world-war II narrative. Although, it didn't succinctly cover the war dynamics, it was able to fall back in on the mundanity of lives and the innate sense of longing for a world where our main character, Ivy, would have "preferred to live as a tree or a flower--never expected to move or create beyond her natural cycle."

There were moments in the book which felt reading poetry, and the way it restructured an ordinary day to have wishful promise of something ladened with fierceness of love and tumultuousness of calm. Chaos moves as silence, whereas calm is two siblings disfiguring themselves into finding solitude over their adulthood and the recklessness of childhood, and the untimely death of it.

The queer dynamic between Ivy and Frances, was beautifully portrayed, even though I had hoped for a little more. The disengagement of trying to secure one's love, sexuality, while grasping different facets of motherhood and personhood, was a nice touch to it.

Halfway through, it did fell flat. The anticipation of a new day was becoming more and more tiresome, even though it did spark itself in some places, cobwebs started to form when there was deliberate trace of too much show and tell, where as a reader I felt disoriented. There was carefully conceived character development for most of them, but it all felt very picture-perfect: even when they talk about how quickly these characters changed, with a sort of "violent rapidity."

The ending was wholesome, I couldn't imagine a better ending than that. Striving to find the light through love, enmeshed with grief and loss, is what the days had resurrected itself to be. Also, Ivy turning to God, the moment she thought she lost the love of her life? SO REAL, I laughed a bit, won't lie.

The writing style was difficult to get used to, as was the speech style. But once I did get used to it, it was an amazing novel that was very thoughtful provoking and moving. The writing itself was strong and makes me excited for more works from this author.

In Days of Light we follow Ivy through her life by witnessing 6 single days that define the course of her entire being. How monumental are these days if they shape the form of an entire existence? How exciting!
Each chapter is dedicated to one of these days; starting with Ivy in her youth and progressing all the way through her life.
The style of writing is stunning in this book, the author manages to pull the reader into the scenery and even if sometimes outside events are rare, still keep readers engaged and enthralled by the story of a character that slowly starts taking shape throughout the entirety of this book.
To me the pace was fitting for the setting and the aspiration to fit an entire life into six chapters of single days, although in some parts the derivation from the original timeline by jumping to even more settings by means of memories it did drag a little bit.
As I truly enjoyed the descriptive style of writing and the story kept me fascinated through all of its chapters, this was a really good 4 out of 5 stars read for me.
Thank you to the publisher, the author and NetGalley for providing me with an early copy in exchange for an honest review.

i struggled with this one a little bit, because the style was too meandering at times for my liking. i think the characters could have been developed in a more nuanced way, too; however, the writing was really strong and i am looking forward to reading hunter’s upcoming works.

This is a luminous and thought-provoking novel that explores the resilience of the human spirit in the face of adversity. Hunter’s poetic prose and vivid imagery create an immersive experience, making every page a work of art. A deeply moving story that lingers in your heart long after you’ve finished.

At first I found the writing style a little difficult to focus on. The style the author used for speech did take some time to adjust too but once I got going I found my rhythm.