This book reminds us that humanity has faced darkness time and time again, but that hope is always a choice. I needed this book. You need this book.
The First Bright Thing is like the embodiment of “history repeats itself,” but Dawson shows how it doesn’t just have to be the bad that is carried forward. The characters wrestle with their pasts, with an unfair and scary world, with discrimination, and with their own futures. They are forced to face the many evils of this world including war, abuse, genocide, and our own mistakes.
But what makes this story special, more than any I’ve read in the last few years, is that at the end of the day Dawson concludes with the idea that, in a world of darkness, we can choose to light the way. That the darkness of this world cannot erase who we are. Our queerness, our faith, our culture, our values, our love, all the things that make up our souls, those things are so much more than the hate and darkness that try to snuff them out.
I can’t recommend this book enough.