THE LIGHTNESS is Emily Temple’s debut coming-of-age novel. It is sprinkled with Buddhist philosophy, high school drama, crushes who appear to be unattainable, and repressed memories from the past bubbling to the surface.

Olivia is the book’s 15-year-old protagonist. After her father abandons her, she attends a summer retreat for troubled girls at the Levitation Center, a place so magical that people actually go there to levitate. Olivia spends much of the novel lamenting over the loss of her father and his whereabouts, believing that he was at the Center the summer before. She inquires about him, searches through pictures on the walls, and remembers meditating with him --- and her mother complaining about it. Olivia also recalls a trip where she and her father bonded, thinking it was the beginning of something special, but it was actually the end. He was soon gone, and she became determined to find him.

"This is a book about seduction and magic tricks, charlatans, being young, wanting to be pretty, judging others’ appearances and yearning to belong, even if it puts you in peril."

Serena, a cool girl who has been going to the Center for so long she doesn’t have to abide by rules, takes an interest in Olivia. She ropes her into her world in a seductive way. A lot of repressed sexual tension is shown throughout the novel via the girls analyzing each other, competing with each other, massaging each other, and doing body work on each other, all in an attempt to bring them closer to their goal: levitation.

There is also a cute guy named Luke. He hardly talks to any girls, except Olivia, who even gardens with him. Yet it appears that there’s something more to his relationship with Serena. This mystery --- coupled with the dynamic among the women at the Center, and their complicated desire for enlightenment and purpose, along with Olivia’s anecdotes about history and other tales --- propels us forward.

This is a book about seduction and magic tricks, charlatans, being young, wanting to be pretty, judging others’ appearances and yearning to belong, even if it puts you in peril. It’s about abandonment and a need to fit in because of the void inside you, yet ignoring all the signs that those who claim to want to help you might not have the best intentions. The moral of the story is to watch what you worship, as what you seek to enlighten yourself might very well be what tricks you in the end.