Author: Crystal J Bell
Genre: historical fiction/horror
Similar books: This Is Not a Ghost Story by Andrea Portes
Burn Our Bodies Down by Rory Power
Rating:
Summary (provided by publisher): It’s an honor to bring light to the dark.
The nineteenth-century whaling village of Warbler is famous for its lucky ship figureheads—and infamous for people disappearing into the nightly fog. In this murky locale, the lamplighter is synonymous with safety and protection, and it’s a position Temperance assumes when her father is found hanging from one of the lampposts. Though Tempe proves competent, the town is still hesitant to let a woman handle this responsibility.
When a girl disappears after two lamps go out, Tempe’s ability to provide for her mother and younger sister hangs in the balance. She scrambles for answers, hindered at every turn by the village authorities’ call for her removal. As more villagers vanish under her watch, Tempe discovers unsettling truths about the famous Warbler figureheads and her own beloved father. But her warnings of a monster are ignored, even by her own family. Now she must follow the light out of her own fog of despair, as she faces the choice to look the other way or risk speaking out and possibly dooming herself and her sister to be among the lost.
My opinion: Bell starts out on solid footing, giving us a clear picture of the world of Warbler and Tempe's precarious position. We quickly get the sense that something wrong and potentially evil is afoot which hooks the reader well. What follows is less nail-biting that we might hope as the threat is revealed to be less immediate and physical than it is existential. There is eventually a physical threat that is revealed in a moment that isn't shocking so much as it is the payoff of the slow build of unease and the sense of wrongness. With a final turn that is startling but satisfying, The Lamplighter is a read worth working through the ponderous first half.
Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley
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