In the Wild Light
In the Wild Light is a 2021 coming-of-age novel by award-winning American author Jeff Zentner. In 2022, In the Wild Light won the Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award for young adult novels. It was also in the 2021 Cybils Young Adult fiction finalists, the 2021 AML award Young Adult Novel finalists, and the 2021 Earphone Award for its audiobook read by Michael Crouch. The Young Adult Library Services Association listed it in the Top Ten Best Fiction for Young Adults in 2022. The novel is described as a spiritual sequel to his previous award-winning book The Serpent King.
The writing of this book, including writing poetry the characters write and reflect on, consequently inspired Zentner to write a novel of verse Sunrise Nights with author Brittany Cavallaro who has a M.F.A in poetry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Plot
Cash Pruitt and Delaney Doyle are in their sophomore year of high school and residents of Sawyer, Tennessee. Delaney, an early science prodigy, discovers mold that feeds on antibiotic-resistant bacteria in a local cave, and is offered a full-ride scholarship to the prestigious Middleford Academy in Connecticut. They are best friends, bonded through love and loss, but once Delaney leaves their small world, it is up to Cash to follow her somewhere new and care for the old town they're leaving while writing his own story.Detailed Plot
In the wild light is a captivating fiction novel by Jeff Zentner. Jeff Zentner - most known for his book The Serpent king- published it in 2021 putting together things he loved: rivers, poems, and stories about boarding schools. The book is narrated by a 16 - year old sophomore from Sawyer, Tennessee named Cash Pruitt. His father abandoned him when Cash was little to go work in the oil fields in Louisiana. His mama was a drug addict who died from an overdose when he was thirteen. Cash then had to live with his grandparents Papaw and Mamaw. He is especially close to Papaw who now has severe emphysema and has to use an oxygen tank. But all this led to meeting best friend and genius Delaney Doyle at a Narateen meeting.Story
After Delaney and Cash go canoeing on the river to a cave, they find mold in a cave and take some samples. Delaney goes to the lab at her school and tests it. She identifies its powerful antibiotic properties that enable it to kill anti - biotic resisting bacteria. The mold is named after her: Pennicilium delanum. As she gains fame she gets an offer from a lady named Adriana Vu to go to a boarding school called Middleford Academy in New Canaan, Connecticut. She only accepts when Vu lets Cash come with her. Now they both have full ride scholarships to one of the top five prep schools in America! Delaney is eager to go, but only if Cash comes too. For Cash it is harder and he struggles to leave his roots, eventually deciding himself after a talk with his grandparents and his Aunt Betsy. They both have to repeat sophomore year which they were told often happened.As the school year begins he is scared to disappoint his grandparents and does not want to let them down. Delaney thrives but Cash feels succumbed by the amount of information given to him every day. He becomes friends with Alex and Vi - short for Viviani. He joins the crew and thanks to Dr.Adkins, his poetry teacher, he discovers that he has a talent: writing poetry. It brings him solace and after his Papaw’s death, he took refuge in his notebook. It happened in December, after his Mamaw called at 3 A.M. Cash took the first flight to Knoxville and went to the hospital where his Papaw had been taken. That evening Delaney rushes in with a jar of Pennicilium delanum to try to save Papaw but a security guard and the doctor holds her back. A few hours later Papaw passes away. Cash and Delaney cry for hours in their sorrow until their hearts are dry of tears. The next day they do everything that Papaw would have loved, so as to remember him. Later that day, after cremating his body, Cash, Delaney, and Mamaw canoe down the river next to their town and pour the ashes of the dead soul into the peaceful waters of eternity of the river. The next day the two best friends return to Middleford. The next few months pass mournfully as he struggles with school. Delaney seems to have left him for her science buddies until one day where Cash discovers a girl unconscious in his room with his roommate Tripp doing inhumane things. He wants to report this but gets knocked against a wall and is taken to the hospital. Delaney comes to see him and tells him she had always been in love with him. He understands that he also was and they kiss. After that, the head of the school - Dr. Archampong - comes in and tells Cash that he is not expelled as he thought he would be but instead he is appreciated by the school for his act of courage. Cash says “I was just trying to do the right thing.” and hadn’t even thought of what could have happened to him during his act of selflessness.