My rating:

add to my books

A Northern Light

by Jennifer Donnelly

3.81 · rating details · 10,801 ratings · 1,506 reviews

Mattie Gokey has a word for everything. She collects words, stores them up as a way of fending off the hard truths of her life, the truths that she can't write down in stories.The fresh pain of her mother's death. The burden of raising her sisters while her father struggles over his brokeback farm. The mad welter of feelings Mattie has for handsome but dull Royal Loomis, w...more

Hardcover, 389 pages

Published April 1st 2003 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (first published March 25th 2003)

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

There is a good chance some of your friends read this book. Sign in to see!

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

Best Feminist Young Adult Books

87th out of 551 books — 485 voters

The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera

Light and Dark, Black and White

17th out of 203 books — 15 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 19,942)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Oct 04, 2010

karen rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: and-so-this-is-grad-school, why-yes-i-ya

this monday-morning float is for you, alfonso!

oh, a northern light, you were way better than i expected. i used to get really angry at this book, because it would come up in resort all the time and some people would just shelve it in my section because it looks like a grown-up book, not like teen fiction, and i would always have to be yanking it off the shelves and saying "nooooo, you go downstairs!!" like shooing away a mischievous dog.

while i was reading it, ...morethis monday-morning float is for you, alfonso!

oh, a northern light, you were way better than i expected. i used to get really angry at this book, because it would come up in resort all the time and some people would just shelve it in my section because it looks like a grown-up book, not like teen fiction, and i would always have to be yanking it off the shelves and saying "nooooo, you go downstairs!!" like shooing away a mischievous dog.

while i was reading it, i loved it.

a few days after, i am aware of plenty of weak spots - underwritten parts, the ambition of too many storylines that maybe with a little pruning would have resulted in a fantastic book that i would want to read again and again.

but maybe that is what teen fiction is - a stepping stone to truly great literature. i don't mean this to be disparaging (observe how i have grown in my teen fiction stance), but younger readers lack the literary scope of people who have been around the block a few times with a few books. their critical faculties are not as honed as more experienced readers, and so the soft spots an adult reader picks up on go unnoticed by younger readers who are carried away in the power of the narrative voice and the excitement of "what will happen next". and that is good enough, really, for teen literature - get them engaged in the text, get them hungry for reading, tell them a new and interesting story and teach them some new words along the way. i am totally content with that.

mary k says, somewhat cynically, that books like these are written with the printz award in mind. this was in response, not to this book, but to marcelo in the real world, when i remarked that it would sell quite easily to an adult audience, so i wondered why it was being marketed at teen fiction. this book, as is, i think would not do so well as an adult-fiction title, but the care that went into writing it, and the multilayeredness of it - it is certainly more ambitious than many of the other titles intended for a teen audience, and i say "three cheers".

the voice of this book is excellent. the main character is very well-drawn, for teen audience or otherwise. but tying together race issues, struggles with poverty, women's issues, a true crime story, and a family drama, just makes for a muddled focus, that you don't necessarily notice during the reading, but afterwards, there is a lot of, "hm, wonder what happened to thus-and-such".

it's just too much content. i love that she based this whole story around the murder that inspired an american tragedy, but i think even without that storyline, this would have been a wonderful novel of a girl with aspirations above her gender and financial situation, torn between her family and her ambition, with a strong subplot about her best friend's struggles with racial inequality in his own life. done. call it a day.

i did love the french canadian uncle (very very familiar voice there) - but many other elements seemed too fleeting. i would have liked more resolution with some of the storylines, but overall, this was a very fine novel, and i won't get mad if it tries to sneak onto my shelves again. i won't let it stay, but i won't frown at it, i will give it a soft, "oh, you scamp" kind of look...(less)

like 39 likes

· see review

Sep 01, 2011

Janina rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult-fiction, historic-fiction, books-i-own, beautiful-writing, mystery-thriller-suspense, read-in-2011, bittersweet, quiet-but-awesome, atmospheric

I don’t quite understand why this book hasn’t caught my attention earlier. It is excellently written, features a strong and likable heroine and perfectly captures her hopes and fears in an era so different to our own. It touches on a lot of issues – racial injustice, the situation of women at the beginning of the 20th century, poverty and family ties – and it does so in a very realistic way. It doesn’t look at things through rose-coloured glasses, and it certainly doesn’t offer an ending with a ...moreI don’t quite understand why this book hasn’t caught my attention earlier. It is excellently written, features a strong and likable heroine and perfectly captures her hopes and fears in an era so different to our own. It touches on a lot of issues – racial injustice, the situation of women at the beginning of the 20th century, poverty and family ties – and it does so in a very realistic way. It doesn’t look at things through rose-coloured glasses, and it certainly doesn’t offer an ending with a bow safely tied around all problems, but that is just the way I prefer endings with books like these. Life seldom offers cure-alls.

At its core, though, this book is a book about women and the problems they faced, the restrictions imposed on them, the difficult decisions they had to make in order to fulfil their dreams and the consequences these decisions so often had. It follows Mattie, a sixteen-year-old girl dreaming of going to college in New York City and becoming a famous writer. Unfortunately, Mattie’s family situation doesn’t allow for dreams: Her mother died of cancer, her older brother has run away and her father has lost all his joy of living. Money is tight. Mattie is required to care for her younger sisters and help at the farm and expected to marry soon and become a farmer’s wife. Her father refuses to acknowledge the chances New York offers for her. Mattie is torn between wanting to be there for her family and wanting to make her dreams come true. Working at the Glenmore hotel gives her the chance to earn her tuition, but will she be able to leave everyone she loves behind?

Told in alternating chapters – past and present merging towards the end (loved this style), A Gathering Light brilliantly captures the hopes and dreams of a young woman and the general feeling of the era and time. Mattie’s voice is spot on; the language is poetic but not overly so and evokes an overall feeling of nostalgia, of things ending, new ones beginning, of lost hopes and lost chances, with just the right amount of humour and lightness.
The mystery revolving around a young woman drowning in the lake is not so much a mystery, but more so just the most important one of the many episodes Mattie encounters on her way that help her make her decision at the end.

This book is not weighed down by an all-consuming love story, but I would have wished for the romance to be a bit more … romantic and for me to actually be involved in it. It is important to Mattie, but it was pretty clear for me as the reader that her choice would never make her happy – even if she wanted to believe otherwise.

Random things I loved: Mattie’s word-of-the-day ritual and the "word wars" she fought with her friend Weaver, Cook the cook, Miss Wilcox’s library (so jealous) and the way the girls dealt with the guy from table six.

Something I wanted to add: I've only read one other book by Jennifer Donnelly, Revolution, and it's amazing to see how different the two books are in voice. I loved both of them, but I really applaud Jennifer Donnelly for successfully capturing two heroines who are poles apart.(less)

like 11 likes

· see review

Jun 04, 2008

Heather rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult-lit

“I had looked around. I’d seen all the things she’d spoken of and more besides. I’d seen a bear cub lift its face to the drenching spring rains. And the silver moon of winter, so high and blinding. I’d seen the crimson glory of a stand of sugar maple in autumn and the unspeakable stillness of a mountain lake at dawn. I’d seen them and loved them. But I’d also seen the dark of things. The starved carcasses of winter deer. The driving fury of a blizzard wind. And the gloom that broods und...more“I had looked around. I’d seen all the things she’d spoken of and more besides. I’d seen a bear cub lift its face to the drenching spring rains. And the silver moon of winter, so high and blinding. I’d seen the crimson glory of a stand of sugar maple in autumn and the unspeakable stillness of a mountain lake at dawn. I’d seen them and loved them. But I’d also seen the dark of things. The starved carcasses of winter deer. The driving fury of a blizzard wind. And the gloom that broods under the pines always. Even on the brightest of days.”

Mattie’s voice is incredibly poetic and even the simplest descriptions can give goose bumps; however, I think it is also very important to note that her voice is not superfluous or affected. I never cringe with the insincerity of a passage or the discomfort of a moment heavy with artificial contrived descriptions.

The story describes Mattie’s coming of age at the turn of the century, in a family of four girls who have just lost their mother to cancer and whose brother has run away. The backdrop of the narrative is the famous murder that also inspired Theodore Dreiser’s An American Tragedy, although voice is only given to the murdered girl through letters she gave to Mattie and asked to burn. An overarching theme of the novel is the denial of this dead girl’s voice, the loss of her story through murder, and the impact this has on Mattie’s own life decisions. Mattie must decide between fulfilling her dying mother’s plea that she care for her little sisters, marrying the handsome young farmer, and accepting life forever in Herkimer County or going off alone to NYC in order to go to college.

I also enjoyed this novel so much because all of the characters are fully realized and authentic. Mattie has two best friends, Weaver, the only black boy in the entire county and who also has a scholarship for college and Minnie, who has just married and is now pregnant. She also has a new teacher, Miss Wilcox, who supports Mattie’s writing with intensity, and has dark secrets of her own. What is wonderful about these characters is that they are not just props, they have their own conflicts and their own fears that Donnelly explores through the eyes of Mattie. Each of Mattie’s sisters has a personality that comes off the page; and her father is one of the strongest characters in the story. Every individual Mattie comes into contact with is a real person, and it makes the novel so much more meaningful.

Even Mattie’s mother, who has died before the story begins, is given detail and life – she is not just a source of sadness or a plot device. One of my most favorite moments is when Mattie describes a special ritual just the two of them shared:

"Sometimes she would pick a basketful of berries in the afternoon and set them, sun-warmed and fragrant, on the kitchen table, along with a dish of fresh cream and one of maple sugar. We would dip them first into the cream, then in the sugar, and then bite into them greedily. Somehow, they always tasted of more than themselves. They tasted like my pa whistling as he came in from the fields at night, or like a new calf getting to its feet for the first time, or like Lawton telling us ghost stories around the fire. I think that what they tasted of was happiness." (301)

I just love the idea of tasting happiness, what could be lovelier?
(less)

like 20 likes

· see review

Jun 01, 2009

Allison (The Allure of Books) rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: own-it, 2009, loved-it, historical-fiction, historical-fiction-ya

Lyrical. Captivating. Haunting.

All the different facets of this novel add up to make one of the best stories I have ever read. From the very first page, Mattie Gokey's zeal for words makes the pages of the book turn themselves. Weaved throughout Maggie's fictional struggles is the real life story of the death of Grace Brown, as seen through Mattie's brief (and fictional, of course) interaction with her, and letters that she left behind (the letters are real, by the way).

T...moreLyrical. Captivating. Haunting.

All the different facets of this novel add up to make one of the best stories I have ever read. From the very first page, Mattie Gokey's zeal for words makes the pages of the book turn themselves. Weaved throughout Maggie's fictional struggles is the real life story of the death of Grace Brown, as seen through Mattie's brief (and fictional, of course) interaction with her, and letters that she left behind (the letters are real, by the way).

This is not an idyllic coming of age story full of flowers and happy, skipping children. It is a story of racism, hatred, marital infedelity and a family left imbittered by the death of their mother from breast cancer.

Jennifer Donnelly doesn't sacrifice real life to make the story more pleasant. Childbirth is described with horrifying detail, sickness and starving children are common threads to the story, and marriage isn't viewed as the grand ideal. In fact...there IS no grand ideal. Just a community of people surviving as best as they can.

Mattie's love for books and writing is one of the best parts of the story. My favorite part of the novel is a scene where Mattie sees her teacher's library for the first time-more books then she has ever seen or heard of that inspires her into a passionate speech about writing.

Well, it seems to me that there are books that tell stories, and then there are books that tell truths...The first kind, they show you life like you want it to be. With villains getting what they deserve and the hero seeing what a fool he's been and marrying the heroine and happy endings and all that. Like Sense and Sensibility or Persuasion. But the second kind, they show you life more like it is. Like in Huckleberry Finn where Huck's pa is a no-good drunk and Jim suffers so. The first kind makes you cheerful and contented, but the second kind shakes you up...

Why don't they tell the truth? Why don't they tell how a pigpen looks after the sow's eaten her children? Or how it is for a girl when her baby won't come out? Or that cancer has a smell to it? All those books...I bet not one of them will tell you what cancer smells like...

I don't mean to be coarse. I just...I don't know why I should care what happens to people in a drawing room in London or Paris or anywhere else when no one in those places cares what happens to people in Eagle Bay."

Her teacher then tells her Make them care, Mattie, and don't you ever be sorry.

I like to think that is what Mattie will end up doing, after the end of the story. Through the reading of the losses Grace Brown suffers before her death, Mattie realizes where her destiny really lies. (less)

like 10 likes

· see review

Aug 17, 2011

Leanne rated it

Shelves: kick-ass-protagonists, why-yes-this-is-ya, i-recommend, ya-historical

This book is an ambitious attempt. "A Northern Light" weaves together a true crime (which inspired An American Tragedy) racism, poverty, feminism, and a young woman's journey to self-discovery. The author also writes about two different time settings, which are Mattie's past memories before coming to the Glenmore hotel, and Mattie's present time. In Mattie's present time, she discovers that a visitor staying in the hotel, Grace Brown, had drowned in very mysterious circumstances. But ...more This book is an ambitious attempt. "A Northern Light" weaves together a true crime (which inspired An American Tragedy) racism, poverty, feminism, and a young woman's journey to self-discovery. The author also writes about two different time settings, which are Mattie's past memories before coming to the Glenmore hotel, and Mattie's present time. In Mattie's present time, she discovers that a visitor staying in the hotel, Grace Brown, had drowned in very mysterious circumstances. But most mysterious of all, Grace had given Mattie a stack of letters- with the firm request that she burn them. Unable to resist the temptation of reading Grace's letters, Mattie soon discovers who Grace Brown was- the secrets she kept, and who Grace's murderer was.

The author has many plot lines that she tries to blend together to create this novel. Unfortunately, I don't think she quite succeeded, because the transitions were sometimes jarring and awkward, and I received the impression that this novel just didn't know what it wanted to be. Truthfully, it would have worked if the Grace Brown murder wasn't even included in the book at all. That way, the author could focus more on Mattie Gokey and her journey towards self-discovery, and to become a writer and go to the college, without the murder aspect getting in the way. Personally, I don't think the murder furthered the plot.

However, I still really enjoyed reading this book. Mattie Gokey's difficult home life on the farm is interesting, and I like how there is poverty, pregnancy, death, alcoholism and adultery to really make the novel more realistic and absorbing to read about. Mattie was a strong heroine, defiant, caring and responsible, but she was also a young 16 year old girl who simply desired the love and guidance she can no longer receive after her mother's death. I think her road to finding herself, to discovering what she really wanted to do with her life was incredibly honest and touching. Surprisingly, the ending did not leave me unsatisfied. I was content with knowing that Mattie had her whole future ahead with many possibilities, even if the reader may not have any knowledge of them.

As well, the writing was magnificent- beautiful, haunting, and lyrical, truly a book for the word-lover's soul. This book will touch teenagers (and adults), and they will sympathize, cheer on, and even relate to Mattie's many plights and issues she faces. Throw away that Gossip Girl book girls, and pick up this instead.
(less)

like 7 likes

· see review

Jun 01, 2009

Becky rated it

Shelves: library, young-adult, historical-fiction, reviewed, 2009

I love books about booklovers. I love the feeling of connection that I have with people who appreciate books and words the same way that I do. I felt this especially with Mattie, because she loves words and language and writing, but doesn't know exactly how to use those words... they are just built up inside her, preparing her for when she will be able to express herself.

When I started this book, I wasn't sure if I would Love it (with a capital "L") as some of my friends h...moreI love books about booklovers. I love the feeling of connection that I have with people who appreciate books and words the same way that I do. I felt this especially with Mattie, because she loves words and language and writing, but doesn't know exactly how to use those words... they are just built up inside her, preparing her for when she will be able to express herself.

When I started this book, I wasn't sure if I would Love it (with a capital "L") as some of my friends here Loved it. It is very beautifully written, and the descriptions of Mattie's life are poetic, yet very bare and simple. About halfway through, I found myself turning the pages almost without realizing it. Somewhere along the line, I went from saying, "Yes, this is a nice coming-of-age story" to forgetting it was a story at all. And it is very nice to be sucked into a book like that.

The characters are wonderfully real.
Mattie is the awkward "eldest" child for all intents and purposes (which makes me think of certain unlucky eldest child and all her adventures chasing after a moving castle... but that's another story entirely), and is forced into a position of grudging submission to a promise she made her dying mother to stay and take care of her family. Doing this means denying the very essence of who Mattie is and all of her dreams and aspirations and goals.

Weaver, I must say, is my favorite character. I loved him from the moment I met him out-wording Mattie in the field and getting to read The Count of Monte Cristo (one of the best books I've ever read) to her as a reward. I loved his courage, and his tenacity, and his spunk. I loved his linguistic kinship with Mattie, and that they were able to relate so well with each other. (To be perfectly honest, I hope that they actually end up together, and damn the social repercussions of their era! They are meant for each other.)

Miss Wilcox is a headstrong, forward-thinking, women's rights activist in her own, special, very unappreciated way. She bolsters Mattie's love of writing and shows her how to be courageous in order to achieve her goal, even though Mattie doesn't realize that she's learned anything.

Royal is the good-looking, business-minded, but selfish and hard-hearted farmer-to-be. I had hoped that he would maybe play a different hand, but alas, no happy endings here.

I realize that I haven't even mentioned the mystery yet. To me, that was, surprisingly, the least important aspect of the story. True, that is what appealed to me most, thinking of the mysterious contents of a bundle of letters and the finger-pointing that they must surely contain. That aspect was interesting yes, I love true crime and I especially love dramatizations showing what most likely happened, but the real joy of this book was in the scenes between the dramatic lake-side mystery. Mattie and her family and her life.

I have to say that she, and Weaver, touched me. This really was a lovely story. (less)

like 8 likes

· see review

Sep 13, 2010

Tatiana rated it

Recommends it for: fans of historical YA fiction

Recommended to Tatiana by: Printz

Shelves: printz, ala-ya-2004, ya, 2010, historical, rc-back-to-school

An excellent YA novel. It didn't make me bawl my eyes out however, therefore only 4 stars.

Set in 1906, the book follows an important period in a 16-year old girl's life, when she faces the dilemma of what her future will be. Mattie is an aspiring writer and yearns to attend university, but her family responsibilities hinder her dreams. Will she choose to risk it all and try to find her own independence or will she succumb to her family's wishes and abandon her aspirations to instead...more

like 8 likes

· see review

Jun 18, 2007

Amy rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: everyone

This book is a delightful read full of thoughtful and realistic characters. The setting is loosely based on the murder of a women in Upstate New York that also inspired Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy. The main story revolves around a young girl who desperately wants to go to college and whose family is desperately poor. The story creates a vivid portrait of rural life in the Adirondacks and the sharp distinction of pursuing your dreams and being loyal to your family and sometimes having ...more

like 3 likes

· see review

Sep 12, 2007

Laura rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: borrowed-from-public-library

I hated to be away from this book and I was sad to finish it. Mattie is an enchanting character and the story is all the stuff Little House by Laura Ingalls Wilder doesn't mention. The terror of watching a woman you love have a difficult birth, the disgusting things that happen to those with grippe, the pain of losing a mother to an illness.

like 2 likes

· see review

Jul 28, 2011

Monique rated it

· review of another edition

Recommended to Monique by: Tintin

Shelves: 2011, historical-fiction, award-winners, drama, mystery, young-adult

I was set to giving this book a three-star rating when I happened to read on the Author's Note part that the characters of Grace Brown and Chester Gillette, as well as the facts of Grace's murder in the Adirondacks and the fishing out of her body from the waters of the Big Moose Lake, are actually real people and events. Thus, although the book's main protagonist, Mattie Gokey, was fictional, the novel was actually constructed upon and based on history.

And I have a certain penchant fo...moreI was set to giving this book a three-star rating when I happened to read on the Author's Note part that the characters of Grace Brown and Chester Gillette, as well as the facts of Grace's murder in the Adirondacks and the fishing out of her body from the waters of the Big Moose Lake, are actually real people and events. Thus, although the book's main protagonist, Mattie Gokey, was fictional, the novel was actually constructed upon and based on history.

And I have a certain penchant for historical fiction.

Mattie is a sixteen-year-old bookish girl who works at the Glenmore Hotel to help make ends meet for her family; since her mother's death and her elder brother Lawton's departure years before, she was tasked, as the next oldest child, to take care of her three younger sisters, and to help their Pa with farm and house chores. Despite their poverty, however, Mattie does excellently in school; her teacher, Miss Wilcox, sees her potential, and helps her in every way she can in order for Mattie to win a scholarship to a New York University and continue her college education.

At the Glenmore, Mattie earns her wages by doing odd jobs in the kitchen and serving food to the hotel guests. It was there that her path crosses with Grace Brown's: the latter, on the day before her body was fished out from the murky waters of the nearby lake, entrusts a bunch of letters in Mattie's care, leaving behind specific instructions to burn them. Grace then goes boating with her beau, Carl Grahm, and never returns. With this unexpected turn of events, Mattie is a loss as to what should be done to Grace's letters.

The novel shifted between time frames: from the time Mattie was at home with her family, pitching in with the farm chores and various errands around their house, to the time when she had started work at the Glenmore as a waitress/kitchen hand. It took some getting used to at first, and yes, I was also confused at first, but eventually the story unfolded, and beautifully. I liked how the author wrote the novel; simple, straightforward, and as vivid as she can make it, such that it wasn't so hard to imagine that you were right there, among the characters themselves.

However, the novel felt like a collection of stories that weren't inter-connected with each other. The story of Miss Wilcox, Mattie's teacher, her personal battles and her secret identity, had no connection with the mystery of Grace Brown's death, which is, of course, another story by itself. At first, I thought that Miss Wilcox would also figure, somehow, in the investigation of Grace Brown's murder, but the story took on a different angle somewhere. So there were parts in the novel when I felt like I didn't know where the storyline was going.

That aside, I enjoyed the book for its historical value (although the realization of that came much later), and more. I loved how Mattie challenged herself to learn new words everyday by consulting a dictionary, picking a word, and attempting to use it for that day. I also loved how she and Weaver would have word duels, throwing back similar words to the other until the other runs out. Back when I was a student, my friends and I used to play the same game, although it wasn't synonyms we'd be "dueling" on; it was just random stuff like one-title songs, one-name artists, etc. I also loved the ending; why, however, I will not elaborate lest I spoil the book for anyone.

Having said all those, I know that the book deserves more than just 3 stars from me. Although it took me a while to finish this (as I read this simultaneously with A Passage To India, a very difficult read), I realize now that the slow but steady reading pace that I kept made me appreciate the beauty of this book all the better. It would be a shame to breeze through this book and fail to see its true value. (less)

like 7 likes

· see review

Jan 17, 2008

Melissa rated it

Shelves: young-adult

I have mixed feelings about this book. Parts were written well; other parts were more of a stretch. Some of the events were extremely predictable; others were a total surprise. Some events and characters seem to have no point in the overall plot, and others that have a greater role in the plot hardly appear at all. Having taken a number of creative writing classes, I know these things to be things most writers avoid. I wouldn’t call this great writing. It is overall an engaging book, but not gre...more

like 3 likes

· see review

Jan 05, 2008

Laura rated it

· review of another edition

I can’t even begin to summarize this book. It’s so complex, but I’ll try my best.

It’s 1906 and Mattie Gokey wants to go to college in New York City. There’s only one problem- she’s a girl. Mattie works at the hotel, and Grace Brown gives her a packet of letters to burn. Mattie forgets, and the next day Grace’s body is found drowned at the bottom of the pond.

The story alternates between the present and the future until they meet up. I found this book very intriguing, thou...more

like 5 likes

· see review

Aug 21, 2007

Caroline rated it

· review of another edition

Recommended to Caroline by: Karina

Shelves: young-adult, read-in-2007, historical-fiction

A co-worker of mine had been telling me to read this book for years, but I kept putting it off, thinking it didn't look all that interesting. I finally picked it up, and just couldn't stop reading it! The narration style is very powerful, told from the point of view of a young girl that is trying to make a decision between staying on her family's farm like she promised her mother she would, or to go to New York City to go to college.

At the same time, she is also reading the letters o...more

like 4 likes

· see review

Aug 18, 2011

Beth rated it

· review of another edition

"I know it is a bad thing to break a promise, but I think now that it is a worse thing to let a promise break you."

I've often wondered about what goes on in the lives surrounding a horrific tragedy. We get to know the victims story so very well through the newspaper and court records. What we don't know is what was it really like in that time period, era, location.

Jennifer Donnelly transported me to 1906 to the "North Woods" into the lives of the pe...more

like 2 likes

· see review

Jan 04, 2008

Rosianna rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: every girl I know

It wasn't until the very end of this book that I realised exactly how much I loved it. I am unsure if I would call it enjoyable, more like a very well written, intelligent and absorbing read rather than something I would call uplifting. It's definitely haunting, and definitely something everyone should read.

like 6 likes

· see review

Dec 30, 2009

Sarah-Greenbeanteenqueen rated it

· review of another edition

Sometimes there are books that draw you in so completely to the story and the characters you don't want to let go. This was one of those reads. I loved this book.

A Northern Light is a richly layered character driven novel that is a joy to read. The great thing about Jennifer Donnelly is that I never felt she bogged down in the details as some writers do, especially when it comes to historical fiction. I would give this one to readers who might shy away from that genre because Mattie...more

like 1 like

· see review

Jun 15, 2011

Margo Berendsen rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: 2011-my-reads, ya-classic, historical-fiction, literary, recommend-with-caveat

Top notch YA literature, just as fast to read as the best action-packed stories, but with richly layered subplots and themes and skillful, graceful writing.

I am very, very impressed. This is a book I could easily re-read a dozen times and still find new wonderful things inside of it.

Set in 1906 in the Adirondack Mountains of New York, the story is billed on the back cover as a murder mystery: 17 year old Mattie works at the resort hotel where a girl just a year older th...more

like 2 likes

· see review

Mar 28, 2011

Aleeza Rauf rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: absolute-favorite, 2011-read, reread

Last year, I used to go every day to the library of the bank where my dad works at—I was homeschooled, and it was the perfect place to study for upcomin’ exams. There I stumbled upon a Reader’s Digest Condensed Version book, which basically features ¾ abridged books in one volume, and one of the novels it featured was A Gathering Light by Jennifer Donnelly (which I later found out was called A Northern Light in the states). Since I am the queen of procrastination, I began reading it and soon was...more

like 9 likes

· see review

Apr 09, 2011

Tina rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, historical, best-2011, gifts, ya

Original post at One More Page

I was never a big fan of historical novels because in my mind, they're equivalent to classics: slow reading and oftentimes, hard to read. I tend to shy away from any novel set in any part of history that isn't a classic because...well, classics are classics for a reason that's why I feel the need to read them. Historicals are just that, and it doesn't really call my name.

That's just me being a book snob, excuse me there.

But the go...more

like 7 likes

· see review

Apr 21, 2010

Karla rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: crime, historical-romantic-fiction, mystery, ya, 2010, favorites

A timeless comeing of age story set in the early 1900's told thru Matie Gokey who at 16 years old, is a promising young writter with an independent heart and a love for books, who with help of a teacher with new ideas unwelcome in that day and age, sees a spark in Mattie to push her to apply herself. She is given a opportunity to accept a scholarship to Barnard college or stay in the North woods and marry a handsome farmer with his own dreams.
The true love letters of the 1906 Grace Brown ...more

like 2 likes

· see review

Jan 18, 2010

Kelly rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: 2006

[I would consider this one book that I should have given a review on ages ago:]

Nothing reaches historical fiction reader's hearts more drastically than a woman who is locked up inside a world she no longer feels she is a part of. A Northern Light is a perfect example of that type of plight, and an award-winning example at that. Mattie Gokey (I love that last name, it's like a cross between a poky cheese and an alpaca) is tangled up in her feelings for Royal, a handsome but u...more

like 1 like

· see review

May 19, 2008

Kirsti rated it

· review of another edition

I rate one star not because "I didn't like it" but because there is a nauseating amount of this genre book in existence. The genre of a bookish, misunderstood girl who fights against the strictures of society so that she can be a liberated woman. The genre of book where the author tries to set the world straight on what a girl should do with her life and how she should be treated. The most galling is that the author writes the protagonist (Mattie) as disliking books with "happy e...more

like 9 likes

· see review

Apr 29, 2008

Rachael rated it

· review of another edition

The year is 1906. Mattie Gokey is only sixteen years old. She is fascinated by books and words and desperately wants to go to college. She has the brains, but not the means. Her family has been struggling financially ever since the death of her mother. Mattie feels that she’ll be trapped in Eagle Bay until an interesting set of circumstances permits her to take a job at the Glenmore Hotel. With this opportunity, Mattie plans to save up as much money as she can so that she can make it to college....moreThe year is 1906. Mattie Gokey is only sixteen years old. She is fascinated by books and words and desperately wants to go to college. She has the brains, but not the means. Her family has been struggling financially ever since the death of her mother. Mattie feels that she’ll be trapped in Eagle Bay until an interesting set of circumstances permits her to take a job at the Glenmore Hotel. With this opportunity, Mattie plans to save up as much money as she can so that she can make it to college.

But the death of a hotel guest, Grace Brown, leads Mattie to question everything in her life. Right before Grace’s death, Grace asked Mattie to burn a packet of her letters. Going against Grace’s wishes, Mattie reads the letters and learns the truth behind Grace’s death. Other events, such as a marriage proposal, discovering that her idolized teacher is not who she says she is, and new that a poor neighbor’s land is being auctioned, make Mattie reconsider her life choices.

A Northern Light was a simply amazing novel. it was so much more than I expected. It was a wonderful retelling of an actual historical occurrence, the murder of Grace Brown, and this made the story all the more interesting. I also enjoyed the incorporation of romance and Mattie’s love of books. I see so much of myself in her because we are bother obsessed with books and want to go far in the world, and I think this made it easy for me to relate to her. There isn’t much seen of the other characters because the novel is told from Mattie’s perspective, but Mattie’s interaction or descriptions of them made them realistic. I also liked how everything was tied up nicely at the end. What was a little confusing was how the story jumped around a bit. The story starts from after Grace’s death, then goes before the event, and jumps around again. This made the story a little confusing to read, but in a way, it helped me understand the story better.

I definitely recommend A Northern Light to all readers, especially fans of historical fiction. This amazing novel definitely makes me look forward to more exciting historical novels.

reposted from http://thebookmuncher.blogspot.com (less)

like 2 likes

· see review

Feb 10, 2008

Rai rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: Lovers of Historical Fiction

Recommended to Rai by: Renee

I really enjoyed this book. It took until the third or fourth chapter to get me into it, though. It starts out written in the present-tense/first-person style that I really can't stand. But only a few chapters are written that way and I learned to get along with them.

The book is based on the true story of Grace Brown's murder in 1906, seen through the eyes of a fictional character named Mathilda Gokey. The telling switches from the past to the present of Mattie's life leading up to ...more

like 1 like

· see review

Mar 24, 2009

Brittany Mangus rated it

· review of another edition

This book is a fictional, coming-of-age tale that revolves around the real 1906 death of Grace Brown that took place in rural New York state. (See An American Tragedy and its 1951 film adaptation A Place in the Sun starring Elizabeth Taylor).

Sixteen-year-old Mattie Gokey and her family are left nearly destitute by her mother's death and her father's inability to care for the younger children and run the family farm by himself. Mattie is at a personal crossroads when, at a hotel where...moreThis book is a fictional, coming-of-age tale that revolves around the real 1906 death of Grace Brown that took place in rural New York state. (See An American Tragedy and its 1951 film adaptation A Place in the Sun starring Elizabeth Taylor).

Sixteen-year-old Mattie Gokey and her family are left nearly destitute by her mother's death and her father's inability to care for the younger children and run the family farm by himself. Mattie is at a personal crossroads when, at a hotel where she works, a young woman named Grace Brown gives her a bundle of letters with instructions to burn them. Grace's body is soon dredged from the nearby lake.

This book is more about Mattie and how she finds her voice as a young woman at the turn-of-the-twentieth-century, rather than finding out who, or what, caused the death of Grace Brown. Mattie deals with racism, sexism, poverty and the choice between staying in her rural community and becoming a wife or going to college to study literature.

Mattie's friend Minnie (who is also in her teens) serves as the example of teen aged marriage and motherhood to Mattie. Her experiences with Minnie serve to lift the veil of romanticism that often covers marriage and motherhood, and shows Mattie the harsh reality of having to deal with them both, while still a teenager. (Mattie feels that her beloved books have betrayed her on this subject and calls the authors "liars".)

Mattie deals with many situations that today's teens will most likely not encounter; situations that would cause a 16 yr. old to mature significantly, however it is refreshing and realistic to read that Mattie still shows immaturity and inexperience in many ways.

I enjoyed this book thoroughly and I do recommend it. However, this book says it's for young adults, "8th grade and up", but I'm not so sure that I would recommend someone that young read it on their own. If someone that young did wish to read it, I would suggest that an adult read this book beforehand, and help to explain the motivations of the characters and the situations they find themselves in.(less)

· see review

Mar 13, 2009

Barky rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: 1900s, 2009-abe-lincoln-nominee, audio-edition, young-adult-fiction, realistic, historical-fiction, mystery, coming-of-age, college, gutsy-girls, murder, borrowed-from-the-library

Mattie Gokey is a teen girl living in the Adirondacks in the 1900's. She's intelligent and has a flair for telling a story, which gets her a scholarship to Barnard College in New York City. But it doesn't seem that she'll ever be able to go. Her mama's passed away and she's struggling to take care of her 3 little sisters and her pa in addition to finishing her schooling. Plus, her pa would never understand. And even if he did, how is Mattie ever going to find the money to get her to NYC, and pay...moreMattie Gokey is a teen girl living in the Adirondacks in the 1900's. She's intelligent and has a flair for telling a story, which gets her a scholarship to Barnard College in New York City. But it doesn't seem that she'll ever be able to go. Her mama's passed away and she's struggling to take care of her 3 little sisters and her pa in addition to finishing her schooling. Plus, her pa would never understand. And even if he did, how is Mattie ever going to find the money to get her to NYC, and pay for room and board and books, and everything else she's going to need while she's in college? She's got some ideas about this - the main one being working at the Glenmore Hotel over the summer. Not that pa will let her do that either...Then something happens that she never expected. The most handsome young man in town starts calling for her and he seems pretty serious. If they are to marry, she won't go to college at all.

In addition to Mattie's story, there is the story of Grace Brown, who is close to Mattie in age. She is a guest at the Glenmore who is found drowned in the lake - and her male companion is nowhere to be found. Just before she turned up dead, she hands Mattie a parcel of letters, telling her to BURN THEM. And because she's so busy, Mattie does not. These letters are the key to understanding Grace's tenuous position and eventually suggesting someone put an end to Grace before her time.

This was so good. I'm a fan of the Laura Ingalls Wilder books about frontier life. So, A Northern Light was right up my alley. Mattie has so much standing in her way, so much between her and the future. Her life could be so much more than it is when we meet her. And yet, it seems like she will never get to stretch her wings or her mind because of how hard her life has been and how hard it will be. And although she has difficulties with her family, she still loves them. Leaving them for college feels like she's also abandoning them. Mattie is such a strong and determined and likable character. She also has some powerful influences in her life that help her to make the decision she finally makes. But Grace Brown is ultimately the one who best demonstrates to Mattie that life is precious and is not to be wasted.

I listened to this on audio and was riveted. At the end, there's a short afterword explaining that Grace Brown was a real person and her murder and the eventual trial of her false lover actually came to pass, was a big deal in New York back in the day. Her letters were instrumental in the case - particularly in establishing her desperation and in identifying her probable murderer. Chester Gillette, her lover, was sentenced to death and was executed some time after the trial.

Theodore Dreiser also wrote about this famous trial in An American Tragedy. I hope to read that some time soon. (less)

like 2 likes

· see review

Jan 24, 2009

Jeanne rated it

· review of another edition

Recommended by one of my 6th grade students, it is part murder mystery, part historical-fiction, part coming of age story. I really enjoyed the main character, Mattie, and the attention the author gave to all the characters. She brought the time and place, the Adirondacks in 1906, to life. She also gives young readers (the book is labeled as young adult fiction) a realistic sense of the dilemma of women in a time and place when marriage and homemaking were not seen as choices, but as obligations...more

· see review

Jan 18, 2009

Lauren rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

I bought this book at a Target in North Carolina on my way to my first NASCAR racing experience. I thought I would get bored, so I bought this book to read during the race. Turns out, I got so wrapped up in the flying cars that I never cracked the book, but I did read it after returning home. The first read-through didn't impress me much. But this was my own fault, not Jennifer Donnelly's. I was too ignorant, at the time, to realize the book in my hands was a piece of art, masterful, and poignan...more

like 2 likes

· see review

Jan 05, 2009

60rd1$3_76 rated it

· review of another edition

A Northern Light is a very interesting book!! The way the author uses their details the way she makes your mind slip into the book it is just MIND BLOWING!! Jennifer Donnelly makes you feel like your actually in the book!! the book is about a girl named Mathilda Goeky and she lives on a farm with her father and her two sisters. Matt is what everyone calls her for short, Matt is stuck doing the chores and hard work her mother should be doing but unfortunately her mother died of cancer. She loves ...more

like 1 like

· see review

Feb 08, 2012

Beth Bonini rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: children-s-book-club

This novel was published as "A Gathering Light" in England, and having pondered both titles, I'm not sure that either is quite right for this coming-of-age novel. Mattie Gokey is narrator and protagonist both; over the course of the summer that she turns 17, a chance exposure with a young girl who is murdered becomes the catalyst for a huge choice that she has to make. In brief, Maggie is torn between the demands of family (her mother has recently died, and as the oldest daughter she...moreThis novel was published as "A Gathering Light" in England, and having pondered both titles, I'm not sure that either is quite right for this coming-of-age novel. Mattie Gokey is narrator and protagonist both; over the course of the summer that she turns 17, a chance exposure with a young girl who is murdered becomes the catalyst for a huge choice that she has to make. In brief, Maggie is torn between the demands of family (her mother has recently died, and as the oldest daughter she is expected to step into that role) and her own dreams (going to college in New York City; becoming a writer).

The novel is set in the poor agricultural Adirondacks of 1906, just as the place is being developed as a summer "tourist" destination. It is described as an historical novel, and that billing is accurate in all sorts of ways. Donnelly manages to include a strong feeling of place (with descriptions of the farmers and loggers who've settled the area), a real-life murder (the one which inspired Dreiser's An American Tragedy), class and race issues, and not incidentally, a sense of turn-of-the-century feminism. Mattie's English teacher, who is both advocate and inspiration, has to flee to Paris because her husband threatens to institutionalize her. Her crime? Writing poetry "that tells the truth" of what it is to be a woman. (This is not the only example of "truth-telling" in the novel. There is also an extremely graphic birth scene; breast cancer; a description of dealing with menstrual periods; sexual awakening; not to mention the lesson that pregnancy can ruin a young woman's life.) This description makes the book sound grim; which it is not, at least not entirely. I found it really compelling, actually, but I wouldn't recommend it for a reader under the age of 13/14 -- and even at that age, I would carefully consider the maturity of the reader.

Donnelly, like her narrator, clearly has a love of words -- and the novel is filled with poetic writing (maybe just the teensiest bit ostentatiously so). Mattie sets herself the task of learning a new word every day, and each chapter is headed by a vocabulary word -- which get threaded into the story. It might be a bit gimmicky, but it worked for me, and it endeared me to this young heroine is so determined to improve herself -- and her lot in life. (less)

· see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 664 665 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
Wild Things: YA G...: June: A Northern Light/A Gathering Light - Jennifer Donnelly (SPOILERS POSSIBLE)	56	154	Sep 06, 2010 05:08am

combine
Other Editions (27)

More editions...

Genres

Young Adult

523 users

Historical Fiction

499 users

Mystery

153 users

Young Adult > Teen

72 users

Young Adult > Coming Of Age

39 users

Romance

38 users

Book Club

27 users

Adult

18 users

Mystery > Crime

17 users

Young Adult > Young Adult Historical Fiction

14 users

See top shelves...

Readers Also Enjoyed

About Jennifer Donnelly

Jennifer Donnelly is the author of four novels: Revolution, A Northern Light, The Tea Rose, The Winter Rose, and Humble Pie, a picture book for children. She grew up in New York State, in Lewis and Westchester counties, and attended the University of Rochester.

Jennifer’s first novel, The Tea Rose, an epic historical novel set in London and New York in the late 19th century, was called...more

More about Jennifer Donnelly...

Books by Jennifer Donnelly

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Pin It

Trivia About A Northern Light

5 trivia questions

More quizzes & trivia...

Quotes from A Northern Light

“Right now I want a word that describes the feeling that you get--a cold sick feeling, deep down inside--when you know something is happening that will change you, and you don't want it to, but you cant stop it. And you know, for the first time, for the very first time, that there will now be a before and an after, a was and a will be. And that you will never again quite be the same person you were.” — 197 people liked it

“I know it is a bad thing to break a promise, but I think now that it is a worse thing to let a promise break you.” — 131 people liked it

More quotes…

Groups That Shelved A Northern Light

The Young Adult Historica...

315 members

last activity 5 hours, 8 min ago

shelf: currently-reading

What's The Name of That B...

3602 members

last activity 1 minute ago

shelf: read

Wild Things: YA Grown-Up

1796 members

last activity 11 hours, 40 min ago

shelf: read

title link	preview: A Northern Light
avg rating	preview: A Northern Light Goodreads rating: 3.81 (10801 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/889653.A_Northern_Light?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1328876270m/889653.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/889653.A_Northern_Light?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly[/url]

A Northern Light

Friend Reviews

Community Reviews

Readers Also Enjoyed

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website