The Brightness

 

The Brightness by Chad Harbach
10/27/26; 672 pages
Little, Brown and Company 

The Brightness by Chad Harbach is a recommended literary character study following the friendship of two young women. This is a sequel to The Art of Fielding (2011).

At Westish College in a small Wisconsin town, Pella, 27 is a recent college grad, engaged to coach Mike, and helping her friend Owen pull off a destination wedding. Her best friend Irma, 21, has just returned for her senior year. Unknown to Pella, on the night Irma returns to campus, she has plans with her other friends Dahlia and Pammy to institute "The Project," a politically charged prank, at The Parties.

Featuring in-depth character development, the well-written narrative follows the lives and history of these individuals in great depth through five parts. You will generally wonder about what will ultimately happen to them, but in a removed way as it is very slow paced so it was a challenge at times to keep invested in the plot. I was also personally struggling to truly care about these young characters, who at times felt immature for their years. At almost 700 pages there were perhaps too many superfluous details included, certainly too much for me as the pacing became very slow. Admittedly I did not read The Art of Fielding so I had no real investment in continuing the earlier story.

I did think the opening prank was ill conceived and the logical repercussions were not thought out. This did establish a barrier to truly liking any of these young women who all seemed self-absorbed and immature, without logically thinking things through. The whole destination wedding plot was also off-putting for me. I'm becoming an old curmudgeon, but I loss interest and it became a challenge to finish. Perhaps a good edit could have tightened up the story or I'm just an outlier or not the intended audience, but this was just an okay novel. I do like the book cover, though.

The Brightness is recommended for those who enjoy very detailed writing, descriptive character development, and have read The Art of Fielding. Thanks to Little, Brown and Company for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.