Chantel's Reviews > The Lighthouse

** spoiler alert ** It is important to note that the majority of the themes explored in this book deal with sensitive subject matters. My review, therefore, touches on these topics as well. Many people might find the subject matters of the book as well as those detailed in my review overwhelming. I would suggest you steer clear of both if this is the case. Please note that from this point forward I will be writing about matters which contain reflections on the death of a child, graphic descriptions of body decomposition, suicide, abuse, child endangerment, violence, parental neglect, psychological distress, graphic descriptions of hunting practices, the death of an animal, & others.
 
On Bird Rock Island, things go missing & the minds of the owner go along with them. The land that houses a history unknown & uncharted even by the most diligent record keepers, reeks of malice & malaise. During the summer when their father decided that his girls should come to him, Jess & Rosie Oliver voyage hours by train, boat, & through hostel layovers, to arrive at the island to spend their two (2) dedicated weeks of the year with their father. The disappearance of Rosie, who is still in the recovery phase of an unnamed illness, changes the dynamics in a situation that Jess was already eager to escape. This book asks the age-old question with a twist: does a person exist if they aren’t remembered by anyone?
 
I would like to take a moment to highlight the severity of the content warning for this book. This story is categorized in the Young Adult Fiction genre however, a great deal of the subject matter is dreadful & might have a severely negative impact on the mental well-being of a variety of readers—no matter their age. Within this story, repeated instances of parental neglect are depicted. Some of these instances result in the very graphic & violent death of the child in question whereas others lead to children being abandoned; their mental stability utilized against them in a power play. Please be kind to yourselves & heed the warning of advancing no further within this book or my review if you should not feel it appropriate to do so.
 
When the reader meets Jess she is attempting to recollect a series of events that took place over the course of two (2) weeks. Our narrator is 15 years old & is at a place where she wants to focus on the things in life that bring her a sense of fulfillment & joy. Her family situation leaves much to be desired & many of her monologues revolve around the frustration she feels at having to adapt to a new familial situation. I truly appreciated this aspect of the story because this is a facet of life many people have to deal with. Nathan, Jess & Rosie’s father, has married Kate & they’ve had a child together. Neither Jess nor Rosie has ever met their 6-year-old younger brother. Therefore it is not a mystery to any reader why there is a level of disconnect between the narrator & her parent.
 
Though I appreciated that this situation between characters was explored in with an honest approach, the parenting style in this story emulates the ones we see in stories taking place in the 80s & 90s where parental figures express a level of apathy towards the occurrences that take place & have an overall disconnect between their title as a parent & their acted responsibilities. This approach can work well within a plot but I found it bizarre to see such a lack of care within a story published in 2022. That is not to say that I do not acknowledge that this style of parenting is alive & prominent in the world—I do.

What I mean to say is that there were multiple instances wherein Nathan was seemingly written as attempting to approach the relationship with Jess & Rosie in as healthy a way as possible even though he only saw them for two weeks out of the year. He then turns around & ignores signs they are emitting that things aren’t okay. These instances can surely be intended plot devices; ensuring the reader develops an unclear image of the adults within the story, sometimes being frightening looming figures, other times the ignorant wanderer unsure of anything.

In my opinion, it would have been to the benefit of the story to have both Nathan & Kate developed with a bit more detail & attention to their depth as individuals. It was strange that Jess & Rosie had never met their younger brother in the six years since he was born. It was strange that neither Kate nor Nathan would be on edge knowing that Rosie had spent an elongated period of time in hospital for an illness that had everyone fearing she might not recover. This instance in particular is one that made me question the trajectory of the story.
 
On the one hand, I appreciated the ambiguity that was taken when presenting Rosie & her stint in the hospital. On the other hand, I would have appreciated it detailed clearly given the fact that every other instance of gore & terror is presented to the reader with ample adjectives & adverbs to ensure that nothing was glossed over. I truly admire a book that can set the tone for itself clearly & I enjoyed that Bell wrote such a story that went about presenting terrible things in as clear a fashion as possible. There is certainly something to be said for ambiguity & secrecy yet, this story flourished under the declaration of horror.

I link the desire for Rosie’s hospital stay to be written with more clarity alongside the graphic violence that Conall experienced because they are very similar. Both children experienced a devastating blow very early in their lives & for those readers who might be living similar situations or circumstances taking the time to present Rosie’s illness for what I suspect it to be, may very well help other such children too. Based solely on the fact that Jess fears that Rosie might relapse if her emotions start to move in a downward-facing motion, I suspect that Rosie might have been hospitalized for either/both, suicidal ideations or attempted suicide.

This deduction is made because Jess is constantly keeping an eye on Rosie’s mood & the way she is experiencing various scenarios. Even when Jess writes that she didn’t feel necessarily positive or happy about something, she wanted to make sure that she was putting forth her most enthusiastic response & behaviours so that Rosie’s mood was kept elevated & optimistic. I say this as someone who has experience within this domain; stories that present this subject matter are vital & can save the lives of children by presenting a gentle & subtle reminder that they are not alone in this life.

Certainly, this is all speculation. However, when Nathan thinks that Jess is losing her sanity after Rosie has disappeared, he expressed that he cannot stand by & tend to her mental health needs & so she will be sent back to live with her mother, cutting the holiday short. This, again, leads me to believe that Rosie was placed under medical care because of a fear for her life & well-being that was not linked to a virus but to invisible malice. It is important to remember that young people, & children, experience mental illness too—depression, anxiety, neurological conditions, consequences of abuse, etc. are not simply things that plague the psyche of the aged among us.

This story highlights Conall’s experiences with horrific parental neglect & shows the readers that even though the haunting that took place was a tragic consequence of Conall’s lack of emotional well-being, the repercussions of parental abuse are not imagined or fictional, they are real. During his life, Conall was sent to the Workhouse after his father could not—would not—care for him. Conall was told that his mother was dead whereas she was not & was then sentenced to death for inadvertently killing a guard after being attacked.

For those who have an acute awareness of the horrors that have taken place across the globe in institutions like the Workhouses, it is not difficult to imagine what Conall was experiencing during his sentence. His father helped him escape only to tell him that he would have to be kept in the basement section of the lighthouse so that no one would suspect he was around & therefore neither he nor his father would be sent to their deaths for evading criminal persecution. I praise Bell, once again, for the way in which she introduced this character & the ways in which she went about describing the horrors of his life.
 
When Jess & Will meet Conall in the Stranger’s Room in the Lighthouse there is no long-drawn-out sequence that sees the book stall. Bell ensured that the information that the reader was required to know was given in a seamless fashion & allowed the series of events to be felt in all their morbid entirety. I could not help but think that this story would prosper well if tweaked a bit for an older audience. The horrors explored within the narrative are stark & truly maddening in their honest portrayal.
 
There are so many aspects of this story that remind me of Classics, specifically those within the Horror genre. One can easily link the experiences of Charlie & his paralyzing fear of the kitchen to the experiences of Tommy & the cellar in David H. Keller’s “The Thing in the Cellar” (1940). Many of the themes explored within this narrative ring true for aspects of the genre that lay like maggots’ eggs inside the membrane of the reader; rotting the genteel thoughts of the mind until they are consumed & forever after changed.

I appreciated the inclusion of Scottish lore such as the Bean Nighe. The lore regarding two-way mirrors & the fear of having one’s spirit stuck behind the glass was a beautiful touch to this spooky story. I was eager for Jess to discover that the things she did not understand were not necessarily aspects of reality that are ominous. I was proud to see a young protagonist so certain of herself & her quest to save her sister. This leads me to my next point & one which I believe many readers will appreciate—the relationship between Jess & Rosie was loving & kind.
 
I am so pleased & truly grateful to have come upon a story that presents sisterhood as a relationship between people that can be kind, loving, patient, empathetic, thoughtful, & positive. Though Jess & Rosie recognize how different they are & how their own personal interpretation of events & occurrences might vary, there is never a moment when the two are paired against each other. The entire story revolves around keeping up the memory of those we love. It was wonderful to see a pair of sisters know they could rely on each other while not needing the snarky dialogue often included in fictional female relationships, to push them along.

When Charlie tells Jess that they forgot Rory on the island, she does not push him aside nor neglects his feelings. The relationship between all the siblings is one that sees them genuinely want the best for each other, even when they do not have the history to back their connection; Jess & Rosie recognize Charlie as being a younger sibling & do not subject him to torment for the sake of letting out their emotions. I appreciated the connection that all the young people drew between each other & how their trust in one another helped them solve the mystery of the forgotten.
 
In all, this was a wonderfully haunted story of mirrors, phantoms, & lore. The premise sequestered itself between tiles of black mould & darkness to present the reader with a terrible tale that the washerwoman in the fog could not make clean. I am grateful to have read a story that had my pupils dilate like the eel’s before he snacked on the skin of the forgotten child in the basement.
 
Thank you to NetGalley, Little Tiger Group, Stripes Publishing, & Alex Bell for the free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!