“A Certain Slant of Light”, Laura Whitcomb
Published September 21, 2005 • Book 1 of Light
In the class of the high school English teacher she has been haunting, Helen feels them: for the first time in 130 years, human eyes are looking at her. They belong to a boy, a boy who has not seemed remarkable until now. And Helen—terrified, but intrigued—is drawn to him. The fact that he is in a body and she is not presents this unlikely couple with their first challenge. But as the lovers struggle to find a way to be together, they begin to discover the secrets of their former lives and of the young people they come to possess.
“Someone was looking at me, a disturbing sensation if you’re dead.”
For year, A Certain Slant of Light was my go-to whenever I was asked what my favorite book was. I’ve since discovered new loves, but this book holds a special place in my hear still.
This is a haunting (pun intended) story that blends the supernatural with deeply human emotion. At its core, it’s about ghosts—but not in the traditional, horror-tinged sense. Instead, the story follows Helen, a spirit bound to the living world, unseen and unheard for over a century, until she encounters James, another spirit who has found a way to inhabit the living body of a boy in the classroom she haunts. What begins as a revelation for Helen—finally being noticed after so long—evolves into a story about love, identity, and the fragile, painful beauty of being alive (…or dead).
The book has an almost ethereal quality, perfectly suited to the liminal space its characters occupy. It’s sunlight filtered through a lacy curtain. It’s a book about longing. Not just romantic longing, though Helen and James’s connection is poignant and aching, but also the longing to belong, to be seen, and to experience the physical and emotional intensity of life and life after life.
Yet under that beauty lies darkness. I’ve read reviews of people finding some themes of the book problematic. Themes of possession, abuse, and morality thread through the story. As with any body hijacking story (Touch by Claire North; Every Day by David Levithan), there are consequences to choices made in desperation, and this book covers that. The effect is both tender and unsettling, leaving you with the sense that love, even in its most transcendent forms, can be complicated and costly. At 18, the themes in this book really hit me hard.
Content Warnings
Note: This is not an exhaustive list of content and trigger warnings.
death • suicide attempt • religious bigotry • possession
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Owned: thrifted paperback