Sundress Reads: Review of Child of Light

Child of Light by Jesi Bender (Whisk(e)y Tit, 2025) is a complex and gripping story that explores identity, language, and family dynamics as Ambrétte Memenon journeys through discovering who she is and her supposed role in her family and society. To connect with her family members, Ambrétte learns the language of their interests, including Spiritualism and electricity—two seemingly different ideas that are more similar than she realizes.

Ambrétte tries to answer four questions about Spiritualism throughout the novel:

“What is Man?

What is Soul?

What is Spirit?

& What is Life?” (Bender 18)

As the story takes place mainly in 1896, thirteen-year-old Ambrétte is considered to be a woman. She learns that she needs to act differently and speak only when she is allowed. Her Maman and older brother Modeste Georges, especially, remind her constantly that she has more responsibilities and must act how society wants her to act. Her main goal should be to find a husband. Ambrétte questions this new role and not only what it means to be a woman, but also what it means to leave childhood. She thinks that “maybe childhood was for yourself and maturity was for someone else” because she does not feel like she has a say in anything (Bender 11-12).

However, because Ambrétte is “mature” now, she is excited to have more interactions with her Maman, who thinks Ambrétte is now smart enough to converse with her. Even after years of neglect, Ambrétte is thrilled her mother is acknowledging her because at her core, she just wants to be loved and keep the family together. The only reason Maman is interacting with her is because of Ambrétte’s supposed special gift that links her to spirits. She takes this as an opportunity to learn the language of Spiritualism to please her mother. She wants to master it because “more than anything, Ambrétte [wants] to be able to see these things for her Maman. To be able to give her some peace” (Bender 11). Instead of feeling used, Ambrétte is happy that she feels needed.

Ambrétte also works hard to comprehend the complex idea of electricity to not only understand her absent engineer Papa but also to help mend her parents’ relationship. Ambrétte’s Maman and Papa have an unstable dynamic and do not understand each other at all. Maman is passionate about Spiritualism while Papa is passionate about electricity. It seems like they have absolutely nothing in common with one another. As Ambrétte does her best to grasp both ideas, however, she discovers how Spiritualism and electricity are more similar than they seem. They both involve the persistence of life and energy. She wants to help bridge the gap between her parents by being that link in helping them understand each other.

Language, including French, Spiritualism, and electricity, is a significant theme throughout the novel and Ambrétte strives to understand all of them and their relationship with each other. She must do this because these are the languages of her parents. She thinks:

“When I was young, I never realized that everything has its own language. Music is a language just as French is a language, paintings and movements, a table full of elements—maybe spirituality is the same. Maybe I need to learn how to read your body like its own specific text” (Bender 59).

Ambrétte only knows how to speak English while Papa speaks French. Papa does not make the effort to learn English so she takes on the challenge of learning French instead to dig deeper into understanding the root of her parents’ relationship and to embrace another aspect of her own identity.

Bender demonstrates how Ambrétte also becomes fluent in French through the English translations that Bender adds in the passages. Her parents converse in French and when Ambrétte is translating in her head, she cannot make out some of the words. In the novel, the dialogue is written in French and then below that is as much of an English translation as Ambrétte could comprehend. There are many blanks in between the few words that she does understand. As the story progresses, Ambrétte becomes more fluent in the language and therefore, the English translations become clearer with no blanks. She understands everything and this understanding of French is parallel to how Ambrétte becomes fluent in the languages of her parents as well.

Ambrétte spends her days trying to learn different concepts to better connect with her family, even if it is unreciprocated. She wants to be the bridge connecting humans and spirits like Maman wants, but she also wants to be the bridge to connecting her parents with each other. She wants to save her family. She wants to be loved and feel needed. But as much as Ambrétte is trying to do the saving, who will save her?

Child of Light is available from Whisk(e)y Tit

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Marian Kohng (she/her/hers) is a proud Korean American and an Editorial Intern at Sundress Publications and a Traffic Copy Editor at a local news station in Tucson, AZ. She also has a Bachelor’s in Neuroscience and Cognitive Science and a Master’s in Marketing. She loves to get lost in a good book and will read just about anything, including the back of the shampoo bottle.