#light boxes

Author: Shane Jones

Published: 2009

How does one fight the cold apathy of winter?

In Shane Jones’s debut novel Light Boxes, a small town is cursed with eternal winter by a jealous spirit named February, who bans everything related to flight, from books about birds to kites and hot air balloons. When several of the town’s children disappear, a group of former balloonists known as The Solution convinces one of the grieving fathers, Thaddeus Lowe, to help them lead a war against February.

What most readers will take away from this novel is Jones’s experimental writing and formatting. Various fonts and font sizes are employed to add emphasis or indicate that a certain character is speaking. This adds an extra layer of personality to the text, which is already brimming with wild imagery. From underground tunnels built by lost children to moss devouring horses from the inside out to the kites and balloons Thaddeus and his wife Selah paint on their daughter’s arms as a reminder of the warmer days.

With such an experimental style, however, problems are bound to arise...

https://etsy.me/3kdef3N