Reviews with content warning for Death - The Lamplighters

Reviews tagging 'Death'

The Lamplighters by Emma Stonex

30 reviews

diana_dea's review against another edition

dark emotional informative inspiring mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

I think the way the narrative was told, through both the perspectives of the lighthouse keeper's wives after the fact, talking to a writer investigating the story, and the perspectives of the keepers themselves in the lead up to the fateful event, was perfect for this story and I really enjoyed diving into the different points of view of the same story. I also liked that figuring out the mystery of what might have happened was part of the story but necessarily its focus. Learning about life on the lighthouse as well as the lives of the keeper's families on the shore was really fascinating to me.
I listened to the audiobook for this and the narrators was amazing while the format also worked really well with the narrative style of this book.

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voela321's review

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dark slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

1.0

I think this is my first ever 1 star book. I have no idea what I just listened to and the narrators were terrible too. I read it for a book club which is the only reason I finished it. I hope someone else in the club can explain it to me. These characters were highly unlikeable and the plot was rambling, disjointed and really just terrible.

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abbie_'s review

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dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

If you’re looking for a haunting, atmospheric read set at sea then look no further than The Lamplighters! It’s not haunting in the 👻 sense, but there’s a definite haunted atmosphere, the haunting of a cryptic mystery gone unsolved for too long.
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This book draws inspiration from the disappearance of three lighthouse-keepers in the Hebrides in 1900, but this is set in Cornwall in 1972. Three keepers vanish into thin air, leaving their wives and girlfriends wondering over their fate. Those left behind have been paid well in compensation by Trident House, the lighthouse-keepers’ employers, to make sure they don’t go digging. But when a thriller writer starts writing a new book trying to solve the mystery, old ghosts are resurrected.
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It flits back and forth between the keepers’ POVs in 1972 and the women left behind in 1992, and while I enjoyed both narratives, it was that of the present-day(ish) women that had me truly gripped. How do you move on with your life with the question of your partner’s fate constantly looming over you? How could you go on living a normal life without knowing what happened to your loved one, without any closure? Emma Stonex explores this, and the answer is - not easily!
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I’m not sure how satisfied I was by the ending. It wasn’t bad by any means, I just didn’t have that feeling of a story wrapped up - maybe I’d even have preferred it if it weren’t wrapped up!! I do like an ambiguous ending.
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But the writing, atmosphere and characters - I can’t fault those!

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nialiversuch's review

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dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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nodogsonthemoon's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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saintmaud's review

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mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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mybookishhedgemaze's review

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dark informative sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

If I were rating this on the story alone, I'd probably give "The Lamplighters" 4/5 stars. As it is, three feels generous.

Aside from the contrived metaphors and similes...some so painfully forced I had to pause and laugh over them in disbelief or embarrassment, which destroyed any immersion the writer may have been trying to achieve...the over-used or ill-suited onomatopoeia, and the vague insinuations of supernatural influence or encounters, the gratuitous swearing was a literary turn-off. Using the infamous f-bomb as a noun, adjective, and verb isn't clever or original, it's actually the complete opposite and gives the distinct impression that the character or, more accurately, the *writer* is shockingly illiterate and at a loss for intelligent narrative.

Add to that the vast panoply of locker-room slang and insults, random and poorly executed stream-of-consciousness (or perhaps very well *executed* in an entirely different sense), senseless red herrings, bland, predictable plot twists, and the ever-changing character perspectives and metronomic swinging from decade to decade...all of this made for an impressively tiresome book. My Mum and I are thrilled to be done with it!

I *will* say that Arthur's poem was hauntingly lovely, but that's all I really can say.

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