Kind of a slow burn of a book. The story is told from at least six different narrators plus news clips and letters. It’s easy enough to follow who’s saying what and when (1972 before the event and 1992 twenty years after) but each person has their own motives and perspective so you had more than one unreliable narrator.

As the book inches along you start to learn more about the lives of each lighthouse keeper and their spouse and just as you’re about to learn what seems like a crucial truth the narrative flips to a new person. It’s like looking around a corner for something and seeing just a flash of something turning down another corner just out of view.

The pacing was ok and the book wasn’t overly long but it’s definitely a slow reveal of each real piece of info on what defines and shapes the characters. I highlighted a few sentences here and there, some poignant observations of human nature usually.

My biggest issue was with the introducing of a possibly supernatural element with a couple of things from a couple of characters. Without getting into spoilers either way I found them totally out of place when they appeared and it went beyond an unreliable narrator writing device and felt like a stretch for a red herring that was never satisfyingly addressed for me. I wouldn’t recommend avoiding this book but I wouldn’t give it high praise, I think a midline 3 stars is fair here.