After a near-death experience, you find yourself suddenly able to sense the energies of other people around you. Not only that but you’re able to manipulate it, draining and giving energy at will. What do you do with this power?
Peter Kassan explores this idea with a great deal of insight and detail in Lightpoints. He draws on different religious and cultural perspectives to explore and explain the “special sauce”, how it affects relationships, and how it can be a corruptive influence on those without conscience.
I liked reading this. I found it had a very formal style in both narrative and dialogue that occasionally had me feeling as though I were reading an essay. I liked it when the terminology about the psychic ability changed as different perspectives and experiences were brought in — new vocabulary relieved the repetitiveness of certain terms. It’s a slow boil, quietly ominous, the plot points disturbing and menacing even with the moments of brightness when the focus was on Amanda — the sense of foreboding created by Kassan overshadowed even that clarity found by the protagonist. The final confrontation between good and evil was incredible, but it was over too quickly. I would have liked to have seen, somehow, an effort by different groups of sensitives to connect, somehow. Like the prayer group making an impact on the psychiatric patients through their collective good intentions…if that phenomenon was in the news, it would have been excellent to see Amanda and Lisa and their friends journey to visit and share their knowledge with them. But maybe that’s part of the point — that the faculty of sensitive awareness is too dangerous when in the wrong hands, in a large group of people.
Even though this is fiction, it reads realistically. It’s believable, both in character development and plot. I could see the visuals clearly, and I was disappointed when it ended.
Tori L. Ridgewood 