The Season of Light and Darkness / Jillian Cantor / Book Review

THE SEASON OF LIGHT AND DARKNESS

Ten years.

That's how long Ellie was meant to be asleep. Ellie and her brother and her mother and her father. Kept in a cryogenic stasis to escape the tyrannical anti-science regime that has taken over the United States and threatened the lives of every scientific-minded individual in the U.S. People like doctors, nurses, researchers. People like Ellie's grandmother, who invented a vaccine for the common cold. People like Ellie's father, who has a lab at the nearby university.

Ten years was supposed to be enough time for the country to sort itself out, but here Ellie is, awake. Awake, early and alone. Only three years have passed since she froze, and while the government "saved" her from her cryogenic slumber, her family wasn't so lucky. Which means she's all alone facing ReAdmittance into proper society...

THOUGHTS

You know what? I really liked this book to start with, and then it... just didn't go anywhere. It didn't do anything. It wasted my time, and I'm irritated.

PROS

Updated Critique	Dystopia has been out of style recently, and so you don't see a lot of it (especially in YA). The few pieces that the publishers have dared to put out have been rather stuck in the past, reminiscing about the big YA boom of the 2010s by playing up similar themes. Their political critiques (politics being of utmost importance if you're writing good dystopia) all feel rather... stale. But not this book. Jillian Cantor takes universal dystopian themes and updates them, bends them into shapes that rhyme with current world affairs. And that careful balance, the timeless with the timely, is done really well here to create both a parody and a chilling critique (as dystopia should do).
Engaging Characters	The best part of this book is the characters. Their unique voices really draw you in from the start. That's what hooked me (and the fact that these voices are written so well is what made the serious flaws in this book so much more difficult to read). I liked all of our perspective characters, but I was especially drawn to the siblings, Ellie and her brother, as they reckon with the "science terrorism" that changed the trajectory of their lives.
Horribly Possible	This book doesn't deal with some of the bigger, bloodier horrors of other hallmarks of dystopia. Death, gore, and rituals of sexual assault aren't part of this book (or even, really, alluded to, though I'm sure a deep reading could lead there eventually). It's a book of smaller horrors, but they're potent horrors nonetheless. This is a book where an anti-science regime has taken over, and all science (medical science included) is really off the board. And that means... a lot. Human history is plagued by, well, plagues, and the fact that we live so long these days is due to scientific and medical advancements. Taking those advancements off the board means dying. Dying younger. Dying rougher. It means a broken bone, an infected cut, an allergic reaction can be a death sentence. A completely preventable death sentence. And that preventability is the horror here, and it's also... something you see, again and again, in this current age of science denialism. Because people have choices, in this age of freedom, and sometimes they choose not to avail themselves of the options that could save their lives. So it's a stretch, to get here, but also... not so much.

CONS

As much as I liked the political extrapolation happening in this book, it did start to get a little... messy. And by that, I mean we added some interpersonal entanglements to the politics. I don't know the full extent of "he knew her back in the day, and that changed everything!" because this is Book 1. There aren't real answers here. But adding that interpersonal drama doesn't strengthen the political critique. It in fact really hurt that political commentary. There are times when adding the human element can make a critique stronger, messier, because people are people on top of being political players. But here, the implication turns out to be that the political horrors here are in fact entirely (or at least primarily) rooted in personal drama instead of pure ideology. And that doesn't make for a good political commentary. Good dystopia requires good political commentary. Sorry.	Too Messy
Nothing these characters did had any real effect on anything. And sometimes that pointlessness is the point, right? Like, sometimes a narrative is built up around trying your best and ending up with nothing. Futility can be a major theme. I'm not opposed to that. But this book doesn't engage with futility in any meaningful way. It hardly even mentions it. The uselessness of the characters doesn't feel intentional. They just keep doing things, and they even manage to do those things more often than not. And the things that they do don't do anything. That's a lot of "do," I know, but I hope reading that sentence was frustrating. Because I was frustrated reading this book, since nothing meant anything. We were just doing stuff.	No Agency
This book is Book 1. It is clearly Book 1, because nothing wraps up in this book. Absolutely nothing. No plot arcs. No character arcs. Nothing.	No Ending

Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐
4/10

Those who liked dissecting the Christo-fascist regime of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale but thought those women were missing bottle-blonde hair and spray tans should check out this book. Those who liked Caryl Lewis's The Danger of Small Things will like this world of small horrors and little resistances.

Details Publisher: Simon Pulse Date: August 4, 2026 Series: N/A Add to Goodreads Buy it HERE

Note: I was provided with an ARC by the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions here are my own.