Series: The Riley Bloom series #1
Published by: Simon Pulse
Pub. Date: February 4th 2011 (originally published: August 2010)
Genre: JUVENILE – fantasy
ISBN read copy: 9780330526913
Source: Bought
Format/pages: Paperback, 244
Date read: March 2011
My rating: 
Brief story-line: “Riley has crossed the bridge into the afterlife—a place called Here, where time is always Now. She’s been assigned a job, Soul Catcher, and a teacher, Bodhi, a possibly cute, seemingly nerdy boy who’s definitely hiding something. They return to earth together for Riley’s first assignment, a Radiant Boy who’s been haunting a castle in England for centuries. Many Soul Catchers have tried to get him to cross the bridge and failed.”
I enjoyed reading “Radiance”, but I enjoyed it more before realizing that it was a series. It’s very clear that this book is a children book and for a children book it touched a very serious theme. The protagonist in the novel is twelve years old and she died in a car accident and is now in “Here” were the time is always “Now.” We meet her while she has to deal with the fact that she’s dead and she slowly learns to cope with the afterlife and the fact that she will never return back home.
In my opinion death is a subject that is often avoided if children bring it up, because we (the older ones) believe they are too young to know. Children should learn that there is something called death; they don’t need to know all the hard facts but the subject shouldn’t be taboo. From my own experience (I was diagnosed with a lethal disease when I was a child, but I recovered) I think children are better than adults to grasp the concept of death.
“Radiance” touches the subject of death in a very delicate way, a little like in “The Brothers Lionheart” by Astrid Lindgren. And a little of the scary part around death is taken away a little as Riley’s family dies with her, her dad, her mum and her dog. The only member of her closest family that survives is Ever, Riley’s sister, who you can meet in Noël’s YA-series The Immortals.
During “Radiance” the protagonist Riley Bloom learns to cope with the fact that she’s dead. In the beginning she thinks it is very unfair, she thinks someone has taken away her right to live. Nobody answers her questions and she is very frustrated but slowly she start to accept the change in her life and she realizes that death is just a transition. Without glorifying death it is slowly shown that in the “Here” is the place where everyone finally can live the life they always wanted, people never live as much as after they are dead.
I believe that the way Alyson approach the concept of death is a way that let children accept death as a natural part (end) of life. Her way is religious neutral and there are no scare tactics and no judgment in the way world religions describes the afterlife.
However the book was very predictable, but that may be because it’s such a youthful book. It was easy to guess what would happen next, but as a children’s book it is no doubt a really good book.
Signed,
Lindea
Radiance can be purchased at Amazon
