The Great Camps of the Adirondacks, now only shadows of their former selves, bring back a time when getting away meant actually leaving the everyday, and recreation was gracious and restful. Opening with a perfect description “When summer comes to the North Woods, time slows down.” Jennifer Donnelly’s novel A Northern Light pulls the reader into the early twentieth century in the area around Big Moose Lake.
When I was a young teen, a family hired me to accompany them and their two small girls on vacation to Eagle Bay. In a time before satellite television and computers, taking a vacation in the North Country meant time away from civilization. Then it was still possible to imagine the women in their white sweeping dresses on wide lawns, men oaring across a lake in the afternoon quiet, the bustle of the servants getting everything prepared.
The story is told in first person narrative by Mattie, a 16 year old girl, whose promise to her mother on her death bed was to take care of the family. She escapes the tedious work on their poor farm to a paying job at a nearby camp. She has been accepted to college, unusual for her time, and is torn between her obligation to her family, the expectation that she will marry a local man, and her desire to become a writer. Each chapter opens with her “word of the day”, and she finds encouragement from a local teacher, and her friend Weaver, the only black man in Eagle Bay, to follow her dreams.
Mattie questions her world constantly, looking at her married friends, the women she meets at the camp, the man she may marry and her family. When a young woman is drowned by a wealthy man (The Great American Tragedy) she wonders about a woman’s place, her place and how the world may change.
This has been one of my favorite books as I connect with both Mattie’s struggle to understand the traditional role of women (less restrictive than my seventies recollections, but still woven firmly into my understanding of life) and with the beautiful Adirondack backdrop against which this heroic story is set. ( )

The story was pretty good and the writing was good. The constant shift between time lines was irritating and often served no purpose. As a plot device it was only beneficial twice in the entire book. It is apparent that the author had no confidence in the strength of her story so wanted to hook the reader in by using events from the end (chronologically) in the story that she saw as more exciting/intriguing. The story would have been excellent told straight through chronologically and much less confusing. There were times the author drifted from the story just to show off the research she did. The descriptions did flesh out the environment some, but it was not done very smoothly and got old really fast. ( )

A brilliant work of historical fiction. Not only are the characters vividly human, their world is vividly turn of the century. Donnelly's depth of research and attention to accuracy clearly shine through her descriptions but in a natural, unobtrusive, and well-rounded way. And the modesty of the heroine is something to be admired in YA writing today, where too often heroines are confident to the point of arrogance and ballsy to the point of self-importance. Matty, on the other hand, is unsure of herself but sure of her ambitions, generous but not so much that she is willing to give all of herself up, and courageous in a world where courage was simply taking one step farther down a road you've never walked. An inspiring, intriguing read for YA and A(dults) alike. If you like this, you'll probably also enjoy Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson.

WOW. What a pleasant surprise. It didn't take long to get sucked into the two stories, one based on real events in the Andirondack mountains. At times a little graphic but riveting reading. The use of Mattie's 'word of the day' is at times contrived, yet a thoroughly compelling read, that will have you experiencing a range of emotions as you empathise with Mattie's plight. ( )

From http://booknerds.net

This is by far one of my favourite books, for so many reasons!

My second favourite thing about A Northern Light is Mattie. I love Mattie, she is a very rare type of person (I’ve come to find out) which I have been blessed with of having plenty of in my family. The type of person that will do anything within their power for their family, even though it’s not exactly what they want to do with their life. Mattie puts her dreams aside to help her father and her family until she finally meets a tutor that lets her know that it is okay for her to follow her dreams, and pushes her to do exactly that! Donnelly also managed to tug on my heartstrings with Mattie’s struggle with how to deal with Grace, and the secret that only the two of them, and one other person the police can’t find, share. Throw in a cute boy who isn’t so smart, and doesn’t expect much of her, a black best-friend (remember: this was 1906), and a pack of friends whose mother deals with some extreme problems, and you have one little girl with a big weight on her shoulders. Yet, Mattie manages to handle it all in stride, grace, and with hope for the future. Mattie is honestly one of the strongest, most believable, honest, likable, and well written characters I have ever had the pleasure of reading.

My third favourite thing about the book is Mattie and Weaver’s word games. Often times when they’re throwing words back and forth, I found myself trying to play along – choosing words neither of them had said yet – and often times I also failed. I love reading, I love writing, but a large vocabulary of words has never been my strongest suit. Therefore it was awesome being able to read an amazing story as well as learn some new things (words) along the way, more-so than usual.

The number one thing that I absolutely love the most is actually a combination of two things: 1, the fact that Grace Brown was once a real person, and her story really happened; 2, the writing. Grace’s story is so utterly heartbreaking (maybe more so cause I’ve read anything I could find on it), and Jennifer Donnelly did such an amazing job of combining something she wasn’t even alive for into a world she never got to see so authentically. I never questioned what she described, any of the language, people, settings, etc. While reading the book for all I know, she HAD been alive and HAD witnessed the horrific incident on Big Moose Lake. ( )