'Even edgier, if less ethereal, is How the Light Gets In, which charts the progress of Lou, a bright teenager from a poor suburb of Sydney who wins a place on an exchange programme in the United States…There’s drink, drugs, teenage fumbling and a dark undertow as Hyland throws a harsh spotlight on the turmoil of growing up.' Daily Telegraph
'Yearning for whatever adults don't want you to have, while tormented by visions of being able to grab it with no need to say please or thank you, is the essence of the teenage state. How the Light Gets In is one of the best evocations of that state I have read, and cries out for the young adult readership that this co-publication is designed to attract.' The Guardian Online