Sarah's Reviews > So Shines the Night
So Shines the Night (Seven Wonders, #5)
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Sarah's review
bookshelves: adult, all-the-choirs-in-my-head-said-no, almost-gothic-in-a-natural-way, ancient-history, angels-and-demons, bible-times, christianity, dark-eyed-hero, pretty-blue-cover, pretty-purple-cover
Apr 13, 2018
bookshelves: adult, all-the-choirs-in-my-head-said-no, almost-gothic-in-a-natural-way, ancient-history, angels-and-demons, bible-times, christianity, dark-eyed-hero, pretty-blue-cover, pretty-purple-cover
Daria, an educated young widow in a time and place where “respectable” women were not even necessarily literate, has survived by tutoring a rich young girl in Rhodes. Unfortunately, the girl’s father has decided that his daughter is getting too smart, and Daria is on the run.
The night she flees Rhodes, her path crosses with that of the merchant, Lucas, who offers her passage to Ephesus, where he will employ her as his tutor. Lucas is a widower, moody and unpleasant. But handsome, and noble in his mercurial way. Daria cannot help being drawn to him, even as she senses something is very wrong…not only with Lucas, but with the whole city of Ephesus. Cults are clashing in the streets. Young women are turning up brutally murdered. Greeks, Romans and Jews all suspect each other of the worst crimes.
Content Advisory
Violence: There appears to be a serial killer loose in Ephesus who targets young women. His victims are usually found physically broken, with little blood left in their veins. In a flashback, Daria’s husband cuts her with a large knife and tries to kill her; he does successfully kill himself. A woman gets her throat cut. A main character is sentenced to death but saved by irrefutable proof of innocence. Riots break out in the Temple of Artemis/Diana and the city streets. Higley doesn’t wallow in gore, but nor does she skirt around it.
Sex: Hektor appears to have a creepy relationship with every woman who has the misfortune to meet him. His shop and basement are full of drugged-out girls who all seem to be infatuated with him, and are described in a somewhat sensual way. Lucas and Daria kiss a few times. Lucas’ frenemy, Demetrius (a character mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles), makes a few predatory passes at Daria, but she’s having none of that.
Language: Nothing.
Substance Abuse: Hektor distributes hallucinogens to his followers. Lucas tries one of the drugs and…
Nightmare Fuel: …he has a vision and it’s something out of Pink Floyd’s The Wall (which I have never seen more than five minutes of. Five minutes was enough). IT’S TERRIFYING . DO NOT READ THAT PART LATE AT NIGHT. There are also a few demoniacs roaming the streets, raving and trying to throttle anyone who comes near them. We see the moment when a demon takes possession of one character, and he starts acting like Gollum. Gollum, not Sméagol.
Conclusions
Combining Biblical fiction with gothic fiction is an ambitious and improbable goal, but Tracy L. Higley pulls it off with surprising verve in So Shines the Night.
Higley’s prose is fluid and confident, and she paints a vibrant, often lurid, picture of ancient Ephesus. Daria and Lucas are flawed characters trying desperately to hold on to what little light can reach them.
The supporting characters are interesting too, both the creepy ones (Demetrius, Lucas’ servants) and the wholesome ones (St. Paul and his congregation).
Of particular note is the youth, Timothy—yes, that Timothy, Paul’s acolyte. Here Timothy is portrayed as a kind, brave and handsome lad, who is drawn to the sorrow in Daria’s eyes and quickly becomes infatuated with her, before he and some of the other Way-followers are forced to flee the city.
I was annoyed and a little disgusted when the fictional Abigail married St. Stephen in Davis Bunn and Janette Oke’s The Hidden Flame. But Higley seems to understand that an evangelist of this era was unlikely to marry, given the constant peril they lived in, and anyway that would be an awkward fusing of a real person with a fictional one. Timothy is sweet, and his innocent love warms Daria’s gloomy heart, but his destiny called him elsewhere and hers (view spoiler). Timothy is the St. John Rivers to Daria’s Jane Eyre. Guess who Rochester is.
So Shines the Night is a superlatively exciting, scary yet uplifting book. Unlike many Christian books and films, this novel is willing to dive deep into darkness so that the Light may shine the brighter. It’s well-researched historical fiction, with a mood and tropes borrowed from gothic fiction, plotted like a mystery and paced like a thriller. There is definitely a Christian message of redemption in it, but it is so engrossing, twisty, and fun, that I think non-Christian readers who give it a chance will thoroughly enjoy it. Warmly recommended for older teens and adults.
The night she flees Rhodes, her path crosses with that of the merchant, Lucas, who offers her passage to Ephesus, where he will employ her as his tutor. Lucas is a widower, moody and unpleasant. But handsome, and noble in his mercurial way. Daria cannot help being drawn to him, even as she senses something is very wrong…not only with Lucas, but with the whole city of Ephesus. Cults are clashing in the streets. Young women are turning up brutally murdered. Greeks, Romans and Jews all suspect each other of the worst crimes.
Content Advisory
Violence: There appears to be a serial killer loose in Ephesus who targets young women. His victims are usually found physically broken, with little blood left in their veins. In a flashback, Daria’s husband cuts her with a large knife and tries to kill her; he does successfully kill himself. A woman gets her throat cut. A main character is sentenced to death but saved by irrefutable proof of innocence. Riots break out in the Temple of Artemis/Diana and the city streets. Higley doesn’t wallow in gore, but nor does she skirt around it.
Sex: Hektor appears to have a creepy relationship with every woman who has the misfortune to meet him. His shop and basement are full of drugged-out girls who all seem to be infatuated with him, and are described in a somewhat sensual way. Lucas and Daria kiss a few times. Lucas’ frenemy, Demetrius (a character mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles), makes a few predatory passes at Daria, but she’s having none of that.
Language: Nothing.
Substance Abuse: Hektor distributes hallucinogens to his followers. Lucas tries one of the drugs and…
Nightmare Fuel: …he has a vision and it’s something out of Pink Floyd’s The Wall (which I have never seen more than five minutes of. Five minutes was enough). IT’S TERRIFYING . DO NOT READ THAT PART LATE AT NIGHT. There are also a few demoniacs roaming the streets, raving and trying to throttle anyone who comes near them. We see the moment when a demon takes possession of one character, and he starts acting like Gollum. Gollum, not Sméagol.
Conclusions
Combining Biblical fiction with gothic fiction is an ambitious and improbable goal, but Tracy L. Higley pulls it off with surprising verve in So Shines the Night.
Higley’s prose is fluid and confident, and she paints a vibrant, often lurid, picture of ancient Ephesus. Daria and Lucas are flawed characters trying desperately to hold on to what little light can reach them.
The supporting characters are interesting too, both the creepy ones (Demetrius, Lucas’ servants) and the wholesome ones (St. Paul and his congregation).
Of particular note is the youth, Timothy—yes, that Timothy, Paul’s acolyte. Here Timothy is portrayed as a kind, brave and handsome lad, who is drawn to the sorrow in Daria’s eyes and quickly becomes infatuated with her, before he and some of the other Way-followers are forced to flee the city.
I was annoyed and a little disgusted when the fictional Abigail married St. Stephen in Davis Bunn and Janette Oke’s The Hidden Flame. But Higley seems to understand that an evangelist of this era was unlikely to marry, given the constant peril they lived in, and anyway that would be an awkward fusing of a real person with a fictional one. Timothy is sweet, and his innocent love warms Daria’s gloomy heart, but his destiny called him elsewhere and hers (view spoiler). Timothy is the St. John Rivers to Daria’s Jane Eyre. Guess who Rochester is.
So Shines the Night is a superlatively exciting, scary yet uplifting book. Unlike many Christian books and films, this novel is willing to dive deep into darkness so that the Light may shine the brighter. It’s well-researched historical fiction, with a mood and tropes borrowed from gothic fiction, plotted like a mystery and paced like a thriller. There is definitely a Christian message of redemption in it, but it is so engrossing, twisty, and fun, that I think non-Christian readers who give it a chance will thoroughly enjoy it. Warmly recommended for older teens and adults.
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Reading Progress
February 21, 2017
– Shelved
February 21, 2017
– Shelved as:
to-read
April 8, 2018
–
Started Reading
April 13, 2018
–
21.5%
"So this is a Biblical gothic novel. I didn't know you could do that."
page
86
April 13, 2018
–
50.25%
"She cultivated life wherever she went. She had no choice.
An allusion to Persephone in a book about the corruption of ancient Greek religion and the fictiousness of their gods. These two sentences are so meta and I'm here for them."
page
201
An allusion to Persephone in a book about the corruption of ancient Greek religion and the fictiousness of their gods. These two sentences are so meta and I'm here for them."
April 13, 2018
– Shelved as:
adult
April 13, 2018
– Shelved as:
all-the-choirs-in-my-head-said-no
April 13, 2018
– Shelved as:
almost-gothic-in-a-natural-way
April 13, 2018
– Shelved as:
ancient-history
April 13, 2018
– Shelved as:
angels-and-demons
April 13, 2018
– Shelved as:
bible-times
April 13, 2018
– Shelved as:
christianity
April 13, 2018
– Shelved as:
dark-eyed-hero
April 13, 2018
–
Finished Reading
May 10, 2018
– Shelved as:
pretty-blue-cover
May 10, 2018
– Shelved as:
pretty-purple-cover
Comments Showing 1-2 of 2 (2 new)
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Marlene
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May 10, 2018 07:38AM
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It's a standalone. I hope your husband enjoys it - it has a lot of action and mystery, very few "sappy" moments, and probably has a lot more appeal for male readers than the average historical romance. :-)