Review: The Light Between Oceans by M. L. Stedman

[BookNerd1177]

As a mother of an infant and child, I find myself looking at my girls and wondering what I would do if my baby was lost and then returned to me years later. Would I pursue a relationship with her, or would I give her back to the people had cared for her for those years, the people she has known as her family? I am glad I haven't had any such incident; reading this story would have been too hard, and I wouldn't have made it to the end.

It has a ripple effect, decision-making. One small innocent decision one day leads to two families torn apart. Trust, honesty, and integrity are lost to deceit, selfishness, and rage. All because of a simple thought: "leave it awhile...do it in the morning." There is irony on the first page: part of the lord's prayer being said over a new grave, "...and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." Temptation and evil abound in this story. Hannah noted it later in the story, what I had been thinking through most of it, that the townspeople never once said they were sorry for their part in the tragedy. That they were responsible for everything happening, yet they seemed too "high and mighty" to care to be convicted by their own consciences! That's the part that made me sick to my stomach. I go out of my way to avoid people like that in Life, yet Hannah lived among them. What would become of Lucy/Grace growing up in that town? How would the people treat her, or what, more importantly, would they SAY to her?

I won't comment more because i don't want to have to flag spoilers in my review. This was a better story than I had expected. However, the fact that it takes place in the southern hemisphere throws the reader off a bit. Summer in January?! And some of the local flora and fauna were confusing. I have no idea what quokka, karri, or goanna are. After a while, it was hard to picture how much time had passed, and how old the child was when everything happened. it would have been nice to have that fixed point (much like a lighthouse).

I think the only character that I did not change my opinion about throughout the entire story is Frank. I loved his outlook on life. He was the real hero of the story, if a hero is to be declared.

[Fran]

Please see
forums.onlinebookclub.org/viewtopic.php ... 91#p247391