Bright Objects by Ruby Todd

Bright Objects follows Sylvia Knight, a young widow on a uniquely believable journey. Two years after her husband's unresolved hit-and-run death, Sylvia’s grief coincides with the arrival of a rare comet. Intrigued by the comet’s timing, she meets Theo St. John, its discoverer, and is drawn into the beliefs of local mystic Joseph Evans, who sees the comet as a divine message.

As the comet grows brighter, emotions heighten in her town, and Sylvia's quest to uncover her husband's killer deepens. Todd brings this chaos to life in a blend of mystery, romance, and a healthy dose of astronomy and science. The comet, a celestial object whose very existence throughout history inspires assignations of meaning, reflects the fleeting nature of life. In and out of our lives these bright objects — people, events, places — arrive, leaving behind lasting impressions or brief flashes before fading away.

The only downside for me, preventing a 5-star rating, was the overlay of real-life events from 1997, which I found distracting. I had a similar issue with Euphoria by Lily King ("too similar to Margaret Mead to be anyone else, yet too dissimilar to be a biography"), though Todd handled it better, so it didn't impact my reading quite as much.

Bright Objects is one of those gorgeous debuts that has you repeatedly reminding yourself it's a debut. Between the excellent writing, the beautifully paced, careful unfolding of the plot, and the characterizations that strikingly balance the benign and the extreme, Todd already has me on board with whatever she publishes next.

I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This affected neither my opinion of the book nor the content of my review.