time for a book review! The Light of the Fireflies by Paul Pen

A book of mournful discovery. And wonder... But what about a happy ending? Could there BE one? 

The entire family of a young boy lives underground. He has never been above ground. He has no idea 'what' is beyond the walls... 

The family consists of grandma, mom and dad, sister, big brother, the young boy. Eventually, a baby. I was RIVETED from the get-go. This young boy tries to understand his very limited world. Mom, who makes carrot soup, from food that appears whenever supplies run low. Grandma cannot see, blinded by the fire, the same that ravaged his sister, who wears a mask to cover horrific damage. His father, who is suddenly very angry with the young boy's sister, now that she has had a baby. His brother, who suffers from a severe limitation that affects his ability to communicate. 

There are sharp twists and turns in this maze of a tale. I loved the fact that no matter how I tried to guess, I could never imagine what was next. It was written brilliantly. 

I thought in the beginning it was going to be a knock-off of "Room". I was happy to be wrong. Dead wrong. It was SO creative, and tragic. The entire tale was woeful, up until the end. And yet... it was a story of love. Sometimes love is painful. 

I finished this book quite a while ago. It was a single sitting type of read, but I simply cannot pull an all-nighter any more, so it took a few days to complete. Way to go Amazon, for choosing this as the March Kindle Firsts book. There's not a week that goes by that my mind does not drift back to the young boy in the tale. I cannot get him out of my mind. If a book has that kind of pull on me, then it's a good one. And I've read a LOT of books since the beginning of the year.  

If there was a book I'd recommend;  at the top of the list, this book would stand. It's perhaps in my top 3 for the year so far.