Abducted by First Light

THE HEADLINE: When Peter agrees to go with his father on a research trip to study glaciers in Greenland, he is unprepared for what he might find below the ice.

THE ABDUCTOR: To be perfectly honest, no one in this book really stuck out to me. I mean, if I had to pick an abductor I guess I would say the character of Thea because her world was unique. But all of the characters were just basic good characters. I didn’t hate anyone in the book, which is good, but I didn’t love anyone either.

TIME IN CAPTIVITY: The novel First Light is told through alternating perspectives between two kids in their early teens, Peter and Thea.

Peter lives in New York City with his parents who are both scientist, and his father studies glaciers. When he gets an opportunity to go to Greenland for the summer he decides to bring the whole family with him.

Thea lives in a village called Gracehope which is located inside the ice. Thea believes that it is time for her people to migrate to the wider world but is met with some opposition from the elders. One day, Thea suspects that she might have found a path to the surface and takes her cousin Mattias along with her to investigate.

They reach the surface at the same time that Peter is out for walk. These two worlds collide in a moment of climactic circumstances and the stakes are raised as they begin to realize that this chance meeting may have been destined before either of them were even born.

Like I said before, the world that Thea comes from is very unique and I enjoyed the creativity that came from it. In a way it was almost steampunk because even without technology they found ways to power their devices that could be considered modern, using the rustic natural means that they had. However, they did not use actual steam, because since they live inside a glacier that would be bad.

I appreciated the myths and legends that were found in Thea's world but found Peter's world to be somewhat bland. A lot of the dialogue felt forced and unnatural and because both of Peter's parents are scientist there was a lot of exposition about what research they were doing that just seemed unnecessary.

PICK UP LINE:

But every person has to learn to accept what has happened in the past. Without bitterness. Or there is no point in continuing with life. 

POINT OF ABDUCTION: I struggled with this book in the beginning so it felt like it took me a long time to finally become abducted. However, the moment when it did finally happen was last Sunday when I read the part where Mattais and Thea were making their way through to the surface, and water started rushing into the tunnel.

ABDUCTION RATING: My abduction rating for First Light will be…

It was good but not great. It took a while to get into it but once I did I finished it pretty fast. But Rebecca Stead was so completely charming when I met her last October that I can’t wait to read her other two novels.