This Raging Light is such a meaningful title and you won’t even understand until you read this book which should be reason enough to read this book.

*Disclaimer: This Raging Light by Estelle Laure was sent to me for free via the Kindle App, through NetGalley. I did not pay for this book and I am not being paid to review it, all opinions are mine and my thoughts have not been influenced in any way.*

The Raging Light by Estelle Laura is about the traumatic and eventful life of seventeen-year-old Lucille, who has lost both her parents and has to look after her younger sister, Wren, whilst looking after the house, working long hours and trying to keep up with school work. On top of this, she is in love with her best friend’s brother who is in a long-term relationship and people are starting to get suspicious as to where her parents are.

This Raging Light paperback is set to be available for purchase on Amazon for £7.99 on 30th June 2016; the hardcover has already been released and is £12.08 on Amazon.

The Blurb – (taken from Goodreads)

“How is it that you suddenly notice a person? How is it that one day Digby was my best friend’s admittedly cute twin brother, and then the next he stole air, gave jitters, and twisted my insides up? Lucille has bigger problems that falling for her best friend’s unavailable brother. Her mom has gone, leaving her to look after her sister, Wren. With bills mounting up and appearances to keep, Lucille is raging against her life but holding it together – just.”

The quotes are what made this book; little anecdotes and snippets of carefully crafted vocabulary, ordered in such a way to make you feel something.

The Quotes –

“I notice her now. I notice her isn’t. I notice her doesn’t.”

“Trust. What does it even mean? You hand somebody the knife to stab you with when you trust them. I know this much is true… My hand may have been shaking, but I had to give that stranger-girl the knife, even knowing how sharp it might be. Digby holds one knife. Eden another. And now Shane. That’s a lot of knife. I feel the prickle-tickle of the blades at my throat and hope the hands holding them are steady.”

“That’s the trouble with letting people help. It always costs somebody something.”

“Just because the crack doesn’t show doesn’t mean it’s not there.”

“Even though she is so sturdy, she looks infinitely breakable.”

“Eternity lives in pauses.”

“Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”

“Everything is more than one thing.”

“What man is such a coward he would rather not fall once than stand forever tottering? Most people totter their whole lives. They never let themselves fall, never take the hit. They just go along, trying to do what they think they’re supposed to. They never try to find out what’s true for them, because that would mean being brave in a way people aren’t.”

“He’s hobbled by his own good heart.”

“My scream gets sucked up by the night’s black.”

“Thoughts are hard to catch. Everything drifts.”

“Potential hypothetical death is way less scary that actual maybe really soon death.”

“The crack inside me turns to a fissure turns to a split.”

“I am a hell-breathing fire monster and I will not totter.”

“Explain to me what the point of living is if you aren’t willing to fight for the truths in your heart, to risk getting hurt. You have to rage.”

I really loved the twists and turns of this book, it reminds me of every creative writing lesson I’ve ever had – ‘remember to add a plot twist near the end, that’s what makes it good.’ But who really does that? It’s just one of those things that makes a half-decent book that everyone collectively ignores because, at the end of the day, it’s really hard to do. But This Raging Light definitely has a few of those plot-twists whirled in there, and I take my hat off to Estelle Laure because I haven’t read many authors who are able to pull it off.

Some of the writing in this book doesn’t make sense. Some of the writing is absolutely awful. Some of the writing makes me question the sanity of the editors who worked on this book. But some of the writing is beautiful. And that is why you should read this book. Because it makes you feel something and a lot of people go a very long time in their lives without feeling anything. I gave this book 4/5 stars on Goodreads because the writing was terrible but beautiful. It was paradoxical and even when I had put it down I still didn’t return to reality. I made a home inside this book and I stayed inside it because it was comfortable and confusing and messy but strangely it was perfect. This book was an escape for me, and I am nervous about starting my next book after this one because I’m worried I might not find that again. You should read this book, if not for the story then for the beautiful quotes in between the really awful writing.

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This Raging Light by Estelle Laure - Hardcover on Amazon

Okay, the re-vamp is in progress, and the ‘My Imagination on Paper shut-down’ is complete. I’m nowhere near where I want this blog to be, but we’re getting there.

I still have no blogging schedule, which I’m actually quite liking at the moment. I still have no new blogger button and no social media icons and the layout isn’t quite right just yet. But if I postpone blogging until after all that has been sussed… well, we’d be waiting a very long time.

I have a few ideas as to where I want this blog to go. Well I don’t really. I have no sense of direction whatsoever and I don’t know what I’m doing, But I mean that I have a few ideas for blog posts, and I suppose at the very least it’s a start.

I’m currently enjoying my Easter Holidays, about to go on Study Leave for GCSE’s, so you can expect a bunch of posts relating to that; although hopefully they’ll be a little more vibrant that what my life is like at the moment. I’m also trying to get back into reading and writing, so you can expect a few book relating posts to be popping up. I’ve also visited a lot of new places in London, and taken quite a few artsy/travel type photos which I’m hoping to turn into something. So all in all, although I don’t know what I’m doing, I have a sort of idea of what I think I want to be doing, I think…

Having two blogs is quite strange. The main idea behind it, was so I could separate my interests in order to discuss them on two social platforms. I didn’t create two blogs for people with different interests to look at either one or the other. I didn’t create two blogs because I feared people would think my blog covered too many topics. I didn’t create two blogs for anyone but myself, and I have never cared about what anyone else thought of me having two blogs. But I created two blogs for a very simple, yet slightly strange reason. I like the order, the categories, the segregation of interests. The labels, the themes, the topics, all separated into two. Almost giving myself a dual identity online, because writing about so many topics on my blog created a minefield that I was afraid of. As if writing about such a wide range of things and keeping it all in one place was somehow very tempestuous in my mind, and so the only logical solution was to separate, divide, half. Creating to blogs; the creative, and the introvert.

But there were crossovers. Where does travel fit in for example – beauty, fashion and lifestyle, or thoughts, short stories and books? One blog is much more developed than the other, and has a bigger audience, how on earth do I get the other blog to catch up?

Having two blogs has been great. I like separating my thoughts into two different sides, and although it satisfies my need for order and neatness, it isn’t logical and the separation is only going to get bigger and bigger to create some sort of a gap that I won’t know how to deal with.

So the solution, two becomes one. My Imagination on Paper will still be up on the internet and none of my previous blog posts will be deleted. However from now on, I will only be posting on Paint the Roses Red; and here is where things will get shaken up a bit.

I’m going to start with a new design, a new blogger button and a new blog title header. Then I’m going to move onto the content. Like My Imagination on Paper, no previous posts will be taken down, but from now on I will be writing differently.

I will write about whatever I want to. I’m not going to conform to write within the limits of certain genres, topics or styles. I will write about anything I wish to. I have never really paid much attention to my audience, or lack thereof, and I don’t plan on starting to do so. If the readers of my blog don’t like my posts about books, there is no obligation to read them. If my readers don’t like this little shake up, then there are plenty other blogs worth reading instead of mine. I’m going to do what I want, and hopefully, from there I will start to gain an audience who appreciate that and don’t mind that.

As for a blogging schedule… I don’t know yet. I have always followed one and I have always found it easy to follow one, but I don’t want to fall into the trap of publishing blog posts because I feel I have to, because it’s a Sunday and I haven’t posted all week. I don’t want to blog for the sake of it and I don’t want to feel pressured into publishing a certain number of blog posts each month. However at the same time, what if I naturally slip into a makeshift schedule, as I have always followed one and can’t tear myself away from it. I’m also aware that blogs tend to get more traffic if the blog follows a schedule or at least publishes blog posts regularly, and although I don’t care about page views, it would be nice if more people could read my blog, as from now on I plan to only publish what I have worked hard on and what I am really passionate about. So I don’t know yet. And it’s bugging me that I don’t know. But if you have an idea, please comment because I don’t like not knowing and it’s starting to drive me up the wall…

So that’s the update. My Imagination on Paper is going to merge with Paint the Roses Red to become one blog, rather than two. But Paint the Roses Red will from now on consist of anything and everything I want it to, because although it doesn’t have much direction, I don’t want it to be bound by blogging convention.

Adios xx "

My Imagination on Paper: My Imagination on Paper, an end; a beginning