I didn’t finish this witchy suspense but have a few comments below if you’re interested in why.
Well in the first few sentences such difficult vocabulary words are used that I’m taken out of the story. Never have I seen so many large words in such close proximity: tessellations, disconsolate, and decrepitude. It makes it seem like the author is trying to show off. But it just creates a barrier so I have to stop and look them up.
The prose felt stiff and characteristic as if a style from novels in the 1990s but I’m pretty sure it was published recently. The dialogue felt rigid when I skimmed ahead too.
Each chapter is chopped into smaller mini sections. The first had 5 little segments. There were too many characters introduced right away. Isla, clover, Luna, Sapphire, Rowan, Mr. Roberts. I dont know who the main character is.
I was super intrigued by the premise, even though kidnapped/missing children is one of my only topics I hate reading about. But I didn’t get too far in this novel. Maybe because it felt like a lot of telling and not showing. When words like “Isla reassured,” “I was intrigued,” or “Isla said darkly” all feels like telling.
I usually like books with dual points of view but this one ended up being confusing.
I know this book is super popular so still give it a try! Here the blurb:
Upon the cliffs of a remote Scottish island, Lòn Haven, stands a lighthouse.
A lighthouse that has weathered more than storms.
Mysterious and terrible events have happened on this island. It started with a witch hunt. Now, centuries later, islanders are vanishing without explanation.
Coincidence? Or curse?
Liv Stay flees to the island with her three daughters, in search of a home. She doesn’t believe in witches, or dark omens, or hauntings. But within months, her daughter Luna will be the only one of them left.
Twenty years later, Luna is drawn back to the place her family vanished. As the last sister left, it’s up to her to find out the truth . . .
But what really happened at the lighthouse all those years ago?
Cassie Swindon 