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A review by dsnake1
The Lighthouse Witches by C.J. Cooke
4.0
The Lighthouse Witches by CJ Cooke is a multi-timeline horror novel set around a lighthouse on a remote Scottish island.
The first timeline is the 1990s. A mother, who's likely terminally ill, runs off with her three daughters at the drop of a hat to paint a mural inside a lighthouse on the Scottish isle of Lòn Haven. This timeline has two points of view: Liv, the mother and Sapphire, her oldest daughter. The second timeline is twenty years later, in the 2010s. This timeline is told exclusively through Luna's perspective, and she's the middle daughter. The third timeline is actually a book-within-a-book. Sapphire finds a grimoire from the time when they used to burn witches.
We find out relatively early on that Luna's sisters and mother disappeared back in the 90s, and the scenes set then all build up to that point. We find out about the disappearances because Luna's youngest sister has reappeared, twenty years later, at the same age as when she disappeared.
The book, from both major timelines, is rushing towards the how and why these disappearances happen. The third timeline, the book, is primarily there to fill us in about the magical happenings that may or may not be taking place.
Overall, the framing and pacing of the novel pushes The Lighthouse Witches into thriller territory, and the pages fly by. The author really nails the personalities of the children, specifically Sapphire, although she does a solid job with the rest of the characters, too. There are parts where the knowledge we're about to find out feels a bit arbitrarily hidden, but these are so few and far between, not to mention short in duration, that it's really not too big of a deal.
My biggest issue with the novel, if you'd call it that, has more to do with thrillers in general. That is the overall lack of depth. The characters, plot, and the rest do have a good amount of depth, which isn't terribly hard considering the page count, but the way the pace reaches frantic levels in some scenes is great for the tension, but there are some details I'd love to circle back to. Of course, you can't do everything in every book.
The first timeline is the 1990s. A mother, who's likely terminally ill, runs off with her three daughters at the drop of a hat to paint a mural inside a lighthouse on the Scottish isle of Lòn Haven. This timeline has two points of view: Liv, the mother and Sapphire, her oldest daughter. The second timeline is twenty years later, in the 2010s. This timeline is told exclusively through Luna's perspective, and she's the middle daughter. The third timeline is actually a book-within-a-book. Sapphire finds a grimoire from the time when they used to burn witches.
We find out relatively early on that Luna's sisters and mother disappeared back in the 90s, and the scenes set then all build up to that point. We find out about the disappearances because Luna's youngest sister has reappeared, twenty years later, at the same age as when she disappeared.
The book, from both major timelines, is rushing towards the how and why these disappearances happen. The third timeline, the book, is primarily there to fill us in about the magical happenings that may or may not be taking place.
Overall, the framing and pacing of the novel pushes The Lighthouse Witches into thriller territory, and the pages fly by. The author really nails the personalities of the children, specifically Sapphire, although she does a solid job with the rest of the characters, too. There are parts where the knowledge we're about to find out feels a bit arbitrarily hidden, but these are so few and far between, not to mention short in duration, that it's really not too big of a deal.
My biggest issue with the novel, if you'd call it that, has more to do with thrillers in general. That is the overall lack of depth. The characters, plot, and the rest do have a good amount of depth, which isn't terribly hard considering the page count, but the way the pace reaches frantic levels in some scenes is great for the tension, but there are some details I'd love to circle back to. Of course, you can't do everything in every book.