Under the Lights: A Daylight Falls Novel

Gr 10 Up—This Hollywood coming-of-age story follows two secondary characters from Adler's Behind the Scenes (Spencer Hill, 2014) as they encounter personal turmoil that leads to self-discovery. Josh Chester, fast-living playboy, and Vanessa Park, squeaky-clean Korean American star of a popular teen drama, become unlikely allies as they reconcile the demands of life in the public eye with shifting personal desires. Josh reveals a level of vulnerability as the high life palls and his dysfunctional family disintegrates, while Vanessa careens from contemplating a purity pledge with her boy-band sweetheart to coming out as lesbian. While the author laudably highlights racial bias in Hollywood and offers a rare portrayal of a gay Asian teen, these positives are offset by the insubstantial and inauthentic feel of the Park parents who speak in a strangely stilted manner. They and other background characters never feel fully fleshed out. Many early chapters consist of repetitive interpersonal conflicts and internal dialogue; reluctant readers may not persist to the later chapters where the action picks up. The book suffers from few sensory descriptions of the physical setting, leaving it bereft of a sense of place. The strong language, drinking, drugs, and explicit sexual content generally feel appropriate for the context.