Shades of Light by Sharon Garlough Brown

I am a huge fan of Sharon Garlough Brown.  I devoured her Sensible Shoes series, loving the fact that they are novels, yet contain such rich spiritual truths.  They stretched me and grew me in wonderful ways.  So it was with great anticipation that I joined the launch team for Sharon's newest book, Shades of Light. Because I am part of the launch team, I received an advance copy of the book  from the publisher in return for my honest review.


Shades of Light is not part of the Sensible Shoes series, yet some of the characters from that series appear in the book, much to my delight. This book is more topical than Sharon's other books.  This book deals with mental illness, specifically depression and anxiety.  A heavy topic to be sure, but one that most surely touches the life of virtually every reader in one shape or form.

Sharon Garlough Brown is a deep thinker and really brings her characters to life, getting inside their heads and hearts.   The two main characters in Shades of Light are Wren, a young woman who deals with both depression and anxiety, and Jamie, Wren's mother who has the difficult task of loving someone who is mentally ill.  Sharon helps the reader see the world through the eyes of both daughter and mother.  I am quite certain that you will be able to identify with one or the other or perhaps both.

If you love someone who struggles with mental illness, you will grow through experiencing life with Wren, who wants to be well but is not.  Who wants to trust and believe that God can heal her but has not yet done so.  Who wants to be an independent, healthy person but who often needs help from others in order to function.

I personally identified most with the mother, Jamie.  Jamie struggles with how to best love and support her daughter without enabling her or smothering her.  She most definitely does not always understand Wren, but she longs to.  Jamie also wrestles with her own guilt: should I have made different choices while raising her?  Are her problems my fault?  How do I balance helping her while not neglecting the rest of my family? And perhaps the biggest question of all: Why God?

Wren is inspired by the art and writings of Vincent VanGogh, so learning about his life was new and fascinating for me.  Van Gogh suffered from depression for years, yet he created beauty in his art that has endured the test of time. It was very emotional to view life through his eyes and from Wren's.  Mental illness is often misunderstood by the Christian community.  That was certainly true in VanGoh's day and sadly is still true today.

This book teaches much about suffering and the importance of finding community in suffering.   God never wants us to suffer alone, he is always with us, yet he also loves to see us surrounded by others who will walk alongside us in suffering.  And that is a beautiful thing, the body of Christ as it is intended to be.

I have much to process yet about this book and look forward to reading it again when the book is released to the public and I receive my pre-ordered copy. I highly recommend getting one for yourself as well!