Radiance – Alyson Noel

Middle Grade Fiction

Release Date: August 31st, 2010

Synopsis (from Amazon.com):

Riley has crossed the bridge into the afterlife—a place called Here, where time is always Now. She has picked up life where she left off when she was alive, living with her parents and dog in a nice house in a nice neighborhood. When she’s summoned before The Council, she learns that the afterlife isn’t just an eternity of leisure. She’s been assigned a job, Soul Catcher, and a teacher, Bodhi, a possibly cute, seemingly nerdy boy who’s definitely hiding something. They return to earth together for Riley’s first assignment, a Radiant Boy who’s been haunting a castle in England for centuries. Many Soul Catchers have tried to get him to cross the bridge and failed. But all of that was before he met Riley . . .

I’ll start off by saying that I’ve never read anything by Alyson Noel before, but I adore Middle Grade fiction. The cover of Radiance is also gorgeous… so props to the department that put it together. Very eye-catching.

But for me, the cover was one of the best aspects of the book. Gasp, horror, I know, how could I say such a thing? Well… I didn’t really like the main character, and I found the voice a little inconsistent. I wanted more development in Riley, more emotion. I think there was more emotion from her dog. But it’s not all bad! It’s a sweet book, with some notable flaws.

The sentences in the story are brief, choppy (in a good way!), and Riley definitely comes across as a snarky 12-year-old who thinks she knows everything. I get that – I was twelve once, and while I definitely didn’t have the confidence that Riley has, it’s clear that Noel has spent time with young girls and knows how they speak and think. This is great!

However… 12-year-old girls are also very squeal-y, are deeply affected by their emotions (it’s the hormones that start to come out around this time), and struggle to balance themselves between still being a young girl and becoming an adult. Now, since I haven’t read Evermore, I don’t know whether we see this in Riley elsewhere (Radiance is a spin-off MG novel from a YA series). But here, I found it strange that Riley accepted her death so easily, and took to being dead without much fuss.

Riley also had odd moments of rather extensive vocabulary that pulled away from her voice… that was a bit distracting. However, I loved the fact that she had her dog with her during the whole story, and the anecdotes about the dog getting used to the afterlife were adorable.

Finally, I found that the main plot took too long to get going… by the time Riley and Bodhi got going with their assignments, we were halfway through the book. Then we whipped through the main plot (Riley’s assignment and then Radiant Boy) faster than you could say ‘Boo!’ and the issue was resolved literally without hindrance. I kept thinking ‘it couldn’t have been that easy… it’s all going to go wrong on the next page and she’ll have to really work for it’ but… that didn’t happen.

For me, the lack of development in Riley and then the rushed resolution spoiled the story for me. At the end, I got the sense that this is intended to be a series, so maybe Noel plans to further explore Riley’s character in future books. As I said, I’ve not read Noel’s previous YA series where Riley is also featured, so I didn’t come into this one with any background knowledge. Maybe that would have helped.

Ultimately, I’m disappointed that I didn’t enjoy this one more… but I’ve seen many other good reviews for it, so I think it may be a matter of personal preference for the author. If you’ve enjoyed her other series, pick this one up and give it a shot. Otherwise, maybe you’ll like it if the description piques your interest, but it just wasn’t for me.

About the Author: Alyson Noel is the #1 New York Times, and USA Today and Publisher’s Weekly bestselling, award-winning, author of FAKING 19, ART GEEKS AND PROM QUEENS, LAGUNA COVE, FLY ME TO THE MOON, KISS & BLOG, SAVING ZOE, CRUEL SUMMER, FIRST KISS (THEN TELL)- an anthology, and the IMMORTALS series including: EVERMORE, BLUE MOON (July 09), SHADOWLAND (Jan 2010), and more to come in 2010/11/12. Her books have won the National Reader’s Choice Award, NYLA Book of Winter Award, NYPL Books for the Teenage, TeenReads Best Books of 2007, Reviewer’s Choice 2007 Top Ten, nominated for YALSA’s Teen’s Top Ten Award, chosen for the CBS Early Show’s "Give the Gift of Reading" segment, and selected for Seventeen Magazine’s "Hot List" and Beach Book Club Pick. She was born and raised in The OC and has lived in both Mykonos and Manhattan, but now finds herself settled right back in California where she lives and writes full time.

(I received an ARC of this book for review from the publisher, they were not guaranteed a positive review and all opinions expressed are my own.)