Review of In the Wild Light by Jeff Zentner

Zentner's wonderful young adult story of two Appalachian-born teen best friends plunged into an elite Northeastern boarding school allows for missteps and struggles as well as a satisfying boatload of self-discovery, growth, soaring success, and a path to a fulfilling future.

“You’ll never regret a decision more than the one you make out of fear. Fear tells you to make your life small. Fear tells you to think small. Fear tells you to be small-hearted. Fear seeks to preserve itself, and the bigger you let your life and perspective and heart get, the less air you give fear to survive.”

I recently posted about some of my very favorite young adult books, and I just mentally added In the Wild Light to a future list.

In rural Sawyer, Tennessee, teenaged Cash mows lawns and lives with his beloved grandparents since his mother's death from an opioid overdose. He loves the river, the wilderness, and the quiet of his Appalachian hometown, but he doesn't dare imagine a bright future for himself, here or anywhere else.

This is what you remember of the people you love when they're gone—the ways they knew you that no one else did—even you. In that way, their passing is a death of a piece of yourself.

Cash's best friend Delaney is a genius who daydreams while working at Dairy Queen, and she's always braced for her mother's drug-addled, erratic behavior.

Before the story starts, Delaney's relentless quest for discovery and Cash's knowledge of the outdoors led to an incredible discovery: in a remote cave Cash directed her to, Delaney found a new strain of mold, and it seems capable of killing antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

When Delaney uses this feat to secure full scholarships for her and Cash to attend a boarding school in Connecticut, first she has to convince Cash to go--with the help of his grandparents, his wise aunt, the pull of their deep bond to each other, and her ability to break through his imposter syndrome. Once at the swanky school, they must cope with culture shock, strains on their friendship, and endless new avenues of book knowledge and life experiences.

Cash finds himself well outside his comfort zone, wearing Old Navy versions of the uniform, lost in poetry class, unable to afford to zip home to check on his gravely ill grandfather, with an insufferable roommate who won't let Cash forget that his father is an elected representative and powerful enough to crush someone from nowhere like Cash.

Zentner teeters on the edge of too-good-to-be-true and too-sweet-to-stand, yet he never steps over the line, staying in satisfying-resolution territory. I loved Cash's innocent first crush, his burgeoning love for poetry, and his bonding with his showstopper of a professor. Zentner allows almost all of the developments I was cheering for to occur without presenting any saccharine scenes or too-easy fixes.

Cash's imagery and metaphorical way of seeing the world feels somewhat incongruous with his humble beginnings, but as he dives awkwardly into appreciating and then writing poetry, the poet's eye fits.

I hold every memory of him like a match I let burn down to the end, singeing my fingers until it hurts too much to hold.

Zentner allows complex scenarios to wriggle and twist into something new. Characters stumble, struggle, grieve, and feel alone. They fight, find their inner strength, buck up, and go on. And they care for each other, dare to imagine alternate futures, take big swings, and allow for unanticipated joys and developments.

This ticked all of my boxes for a favorite young adult read.

I listened to In the Wild Light as an audiobook.

More Books from This Author

Jeff Zentner is also the author of Goodbye Days, a book I listed in the Greedy Reading List Six Fantastic Stand-Alone Young Adult Books, The Serpent King, and he has two books scheduled for publication in 2026, Wayfarers and Love, Like Apples.