The Light We Lost by Jill Santopolo
I recall that when I first saw this book at my bookstore, I fell in love with the cover. Although I love books, I am a terrible bookworm and I admit that I tend to judge books by their covers. The Light We Lost was a story that I knew from the beginning that I had to read because it was going to be emotional and very fun and intriguing at the same time, and I was right.
As soon as I started reading, I was hooked and I was unable to stop reading. The way the memories were narrated and the way the narrator was recalling everything that she was feeling and seeing was empowering and it really dragged the reader for the journey that she was about to tell to the world.
The Light We Lost tells the story Gabe and Lucy, two college students from Columbia University that meet in a class on September 11, 2001. We all know that our world drastically took a turn that day, but for Gabe and Lucy, 9/11 not only signifies a day where the world surrounding them changed, it was the day they fell in love and understood and maybe the love of your life is not meant to be with you.
After our main characters meet for the first time in class, they spend the day together and they even kiss, but everything goes downhill when Gabe receives a phone call from his ex-girlfriend and before Gabe and Lucy can understand and figure out that what they have or what they would have had was special, Gabe and his ex are back together and our two main characters are forced to say goodbye to each other and not meet again until their graduation day, where they simply congratulate each other and Gabe refers to Lucy as a simple “friend.”
Years pass and our characters meet again a year after their encounter at the graduation. Their relationship is fast and surprisingly steady and before they can understand what they are doing, they decide to move in together. That choice may seem very immature and maybe even a little too fast, but Gabe and Lucy are certain that no other feeling could replace what they feel for each other and it seems to be proven true as the novel goes on.
Although their relationship is great, our characters are still young and trying to discover themselves and as a consequence, Gabe decides that he really wants to start taking pictures. Pictures that evoke an emotional reaction, pictures that would make anyone change their perspectives over something, pictures that could change the world. Lucy is extremely happy for Gabe, who even gets his pictures at the New York Times, but his dreams don’t seem to stop there. He wants to change the world, not get his name famous, so he has to take the most important decision in his life. Gabe is asked to go to Middle East and take pictures of the war and he is forced to choose between his dreams or his true love, and as an aspiring photographer, he chooses his dreams and as a consequence, he asks Lucy instead to forget about her dreams and go with him, but Lucy being an aspiring TV producer is unable to let go of her aspirations and is forced to let Gabe go.
The novel continues more about the lives of the main characters, we learn how Gabe is doing through phone calls and we even meet Darren, Lucy’s husband, and as readers, we are able to understand the feelings that Lucy is feeling along the way.
As you can notice, The Light We Lost tells a very emotional story. It was interesting for me to read a book where characters are forced to choose between their dreams and love because that is something that is affecting a lot of people in real life today. Young people, especially women, don’t want to stay home, they want to work and hold very prestigious positions in their industries. I thought that by having characters forget about each other and choose their dreams was very realistic and this novel was able to portray the harsh reality and how people are still able to move forward, unlike some books or movies where characters are simply caught up in their broken love story.
On the other hand, I loved the plot! I loved how to it follows its main characters for a long time and how we are able to notice their developments and how they are feeling from time to time. I also loved how it told the story of a love that someone can’t forget and that holds their memories as if they were something sacred and extremely powerful, which they are.
As you can notice, I really liked the characters because they were very realistic, each of them went through the things that many of us go through in our lives and they were people that were really strong while trying to hold onto the reality where they were now living in and also, the way Lucy doubts and asks herself these series of questions that anyone asks to themselves in life was very empowering. I LOVED Gabe! Gabe is one of the characters that I am never going to get over because I found him to be very precious. He is a character that has a lot of scars and at the same time he was someone that didn’t like being associated with others and could totally understand that. In addition, I found him to be adorable with the way he was never able to forget about his love for Lucy and it was interesting to see how he moves on, but goes back to the same place, like Lucy. Now, I just had to mention that I absolutely hated Darren! And that had nothing to do with my love for Gabe. Darren was just too annoying and he was sexist. All of the small comments he makes and the way he acts as if he was the big person in the relationship was absolutely disgusting for me! I can understand that Gabe left Lucy and that he was selfish, but I believe that every human being in selfish in a way and there was absolutely no reason for Lucy to be spending her life with Darren, who was only holding her down.
With The Light We Lost, I absolutely fell in love with Santopolo’s writing. She has a way of writing this love story like no one else. It was absolutely beautiful and I truly believe that one of the main reasons why this novel was so special was because of the beautiful and empowering writing.
This novel includes a lot of drama and it will take you on a rollercoaster of drama and emotions. And The Light We Lost will make you cry a lot. Honestly, I started crying since the beginning because it was very emotional and I couldn’t take it anymore.
The Light We Lost is a novel that will have you hooked since the beginning and it will make you feel all sort of emotions and it will inspire you to get out there and find someone that is special just like Gabe or Lucy. You will be charmed by the characters and the writing and you will feel the desire for more inspiring and empowering stories of love like this one.
