Laura's Reviews > Dreaming With The Lights On

If you like Canadian literary fiction that doesn’t always play by the rules, I strongly encourage you to give Dreaming with the Lights on a chance. If you like discovering new authors, definitely check out this debut.
I received an advanced copy to read. I liked it very much: the author essentially told two different stories that followed the same character arc.
For me, one of the strengths of the novel lies in three of its central characters, Danica, Scott and Vincent. Even when I didn’t like what they were doing, I was rooting for them to find their best selves, and hoping that things would go their way. In my mind they became real people, not simply characters.
The treatment of Danica at the hands of her abusive partner was done in a sensitive way with rich metaphors that allowed the reader to fill in much of what wasn’t written. The author knew his subject matter was disturbing and took pains to tell Danica’s story without resorting to anything gratuitous or shocking.
In the end, the author leaves the reader hope for his characters, and that is what I liked the best about the novel. Wanting to see where these characters would end up, and hoping it was good is what kept me reading. I was not disappointed.