We Light Up the Sky

About the Book

Should you save a world that doesn’t want to save you?
Award-winning author Lilliam Rivera explores the haunting story of an alien invasion from the perspective of three Latinx teens.

Pedro, Luna, and Rafa may attend Fairfax High School together in Los Angeles, but they run in separate spheres. Pedro is often told that he’s “too much” and seeks refuge from his home life in a local drag bar. Luna is pretending to go along with the popular crowd but is still grieving the unexpected passing of her beloved cousin Tasha. Then there’s Rafa, the quiet new kid who is hiding the fact that his family is homeless.

But Pedro, Luna, and Rafa find themselves thrown together when an extraterrestrial visitor lands in their city and takes the form of Luna’s cousin Tasha. As the Visitor causes destruction wherever it goes, the three teens struggle to survive and warn others of what’s coming--because this Visitor is only the first of many. But who is their true enemy--this alien, or their fellow humans?

Pura Belpré Honor-winning author Lilliam Rivera examines the days before a War of the Worlds-inspired alien invasion in this captivating and chilling new novel.

About the Author :

Lilliam Rivera is an award-winning writer and author of the young adult novels Never Look Back, a Pura Belpré Honor winner, Dealing in Dreams, and The Education of Margot Sanchez, as well as the middle grade Goldie Vance series. Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, The New York Times, and Elle, to name a few. Lilliam grew up in the Bronx and currently lives in Los Angeles.
www.lilliamrivera.com
@lilliamr

Review :
A brilliant, powerful, and yet tender and healing story. . . . Lilliam’s words filled me with hope and light, even in the darkest times. This book is for right now, especially for teenagers navigating losses from COVID-19, seeing the injustices of our current systems, feeling the planet change, needing so much more from schools and community, learning to fight for the future they deserve through their grief. The monsters are structural racism and poverty, and the aliens are here to remind us what matters. We Light Up the Sky is an unflinching look at a Los Angeles that already feels dystopian to marginalized communities. Rivera’s expert hand guides science fiction and the contemporary lives of three teens in a race for survival. A triumphant work of sci-fi and heart. A marvelous story about how we are all being flung into the future unprepared, and have to hang together as best we can.

Skillfully crafted and absorbing, We Light Up the Sky is a fresh, complex take on the alien invasion story. Deeply poignant,
and not to be missed.

Rivera offers an eerie, immersive page-turner that immediately grips readers in large part because of her skilled characterization that adds emotional richness to an engaging extraterrestrial mystery. . . . An engrossing and exceptionally relevant pre-apocalyptic tale that begs for a sequel. A layered tale of modern-day and sci-fi problems, woven together as a likable teen trio tries to save the day. Rivera portrays contemporary teenage life with empathy, using a mix of pop culture and social-justice politics to flesh out her characters. Sharp social commentary, on-point humor (“I’m not mentally prepared for this part of the dystopia”), and a tender exploration of grief add heart and depth to a novel that’s just right for fans of Attack the Block. More than just a riveting alien-invasion story, though, this novel deftly weaves commentary on colonialism, police violence, and racial injustice into the chaos, leaving the main characters to wonder if the only people worth saving may be one another. Early threads of friendship, meanwhile, bind the story, ultimately becoming the trio’s salvation. The novel’s end chooses hope and a moment of calm over easy human victory and aliens routed. A heart-pounding, eccentric and emotionally complex sci-fi. . . . haunting, emotional and socially relevant. Rivera’s (Pura Belpré honoree for Never Look Back) complex characterization and artful dialogue bring to life a near-contemporary world on the precipice of annihilation. . . . Fans of alien invasion novels grounded in the real world, such as Dow’s The Sound of Stars and Yancey’s The 5th Wave, will enjoy this engrossing story. A revitalized and layered retelling that expertly blends reality and fantasy to explore what's behind love and loss, what it takes to heal. Haunting and richly detailed, this is a beautiful re-imagining that will hurt and heal, sometimes on the same page. Never Look Back reimagines the Orpheus myth into a bold creation that only Lilliam Rivera could breathe into life. A strange, unsettling love song of a book. Seamlessly blends Caribbean and Greek myth into a contemporary teen novel, exploring realistic aspects of identity, stereotypes, trauma, and romance. Honors the Afro Latinx music, language, heritage and history of its characters. . . . Defying expectation and categorization, Never Look Back is a book not to be read with the mind but to be experienced with the soul. It is a revelation. This isn't a note-for-note retelling. It's something else altogether: a pensive exploration of the deep trauma historically suffered by colonized and enslaved peoples and how that entwines with more recent hardships, like Hurricane Maria, whose damage is worsened by the remnants of those same institutions. . . Never Looks Back sings its own love song to the world.