The Lightness

A Novel

By: Emily Temple

Narrated by: Brittany Pressley

Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins

Publisher's summary

"The Lightness could be the love child of Donna Tartt and Tana French, but its savage, glittering magic is all Emily Temple's own." (Chloe Benjamin, New York Times best-selling author of The Immortalists)

A Most Anticipated Novel by Marie Claire • Elle • WSJ Magazine • Glamour • Vulture • Bustle • Buzzfeed • The Millions • The Philadelphia Inquirer • The Daily Beast • Refinery 29 • Publishers Weekly • Literary Hub • Electric Literature • and more!

A stylish, stunningly precise, and suspenseful meditation on adolescent desire, female friendship, and the female body that shimmers with rage, wit, and fierce longing - an audacious, darkly observant, and mordantly funny literary debut for fans of Emma Cline, Ottessa Moshfegh, and Jenny Offill.

One year ago, the person Olivia adores most in the world, her father, left home for a meditation retreat in the mountains and never returned. Yearning to make sense of his shocking departure and to escape her overbearing mother - a woman as grounded as her father is mercurial - Olivia runs away from home and retraces his path to a place known as the Levitation Center.

Once there, she enrolls in their summer program for troubled teens, which Olivia refers to as “Buddhist Boot Camp for Bad Girls”. Soon, she finds herself drawn into the company of a close-knit trio of girls determined to transcend their circumstances, by any means necessary. Led by the elusive and beautiful Serena and her aloof, secretive acolytes, Janet and Laurel, the girls decide this is the summer they will finally achieve enlightenment - and learn to levitate, to defy the weight of their bodies, to experience ultimate lightness. But as desire and danger intertwine, and Olivia comes ever closer to discovering what a body - and a girl - is capable of, it becomes increasingly clear that this is an advanced and perilous practice, and there’s a chance not all of them will survive.

Set over the course of one fateful summer that unfolds like a fever dream, The Lightness juxtaposes fairy tales with quantum physics, cognitive science with religious fervor, and the passions and obsessions of youth with all of these, to explore concepts as complex as faith and as simple as loving people - even though you don’t, and can’t, know them at all.

©2020 Emily Temple (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers

Perfect combination

This book is the best thing i've listened/read since Circe, and I listen to a lot of books. The writing is truly intoxicating. it makes you think and question. It digs in deep about topics we all touch upon sometimes but don't take the time to unravel ourselves. I would pause and rewind certain parts just hear them again and soak them into my brain. This is a very talented writer and the narrator does an exceptional job as well, the combination is perfect. You wont be sorry using a credit on this.

Troubles in River City

People with problems trying to find enlightenment, trying to raise children, but instilling either no values or a lack of values so mixed up on their quest to become Buddha they often know less then when they started their journey.

The young heroine’s angst caused me to want to shake her by the shoulders, trying to get her to think about the consequences of her decisions of her lack thereof.

A friend of mine who read over 200 books during the pandemic year has this in her top three for the year, I was much less enthusiastic to the point of not putting it on any “best” list.

Quirky / engaging. Big themes on a small stage

Author managed to capture teenage angst and connect it to universal themes in a tightly told tale.

Stunning and Deliciously Dark

‘The Lightness’ is a stunningly well-written and perfectly-paced story about events that unfold at a Buddhist summer camp for teen girls. It is deliciously dark and luscious descriptions abound. The story is told in Olivia’s perspective, a 16 year old who has a troubled relationship with her mother and a father who has recently disappeared and was last seen at the Buddhist retreat center where the story is set. Olivia immediately becomes entranced by a small group of mysterious and enigmatic girls and is welcomed into their fold. Most mesmerizing and inscrutable is their leader, Serena, who desires to levitate. What I found most fascinating was how well Temple captures the heightened emotions and perceptions of teenagers. I adored this book and can’t wait to see what Emily Temple writes next.

Struggle

I really struggled with this book. I should not have read it. I’m not saying the book is bad...I’m saying my experience was.

Is this a YA book?

I really tried with this book, but, between the narrators over acting, the surface level take on Buddhism, and the overall plot I found this audio-book very frustrating and a waste of time.

Awful!

I couldn’t even finish this I stopped listening after only a few chapters
Annoying storyline. Annoying characters and annoying narrator to boot Sorry I wasted my credit on this