Reviews with content warning for Grief - The Light Between Oceans

Reviews tagging 'Grief'

The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman

27 reviews

contemporarymeepsie's review

emotional funny hopeful informative sad medium-paced

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

4.5

The Light Between Oceans is a story about right and wrong and how sometimes they look the same. Set in Australia, this novel follows Tom Sherbourne, a man returning from the horrors of the Great War to try pick up the shards of his life and settle in to a new purpose; that purpose is to become a lighthouse keeper on the remote island of Janus. During one of his off-shore leaves he happens across a new light in Isabel Graysmark. At first tentative and unbelieving, Tom holds off their engagement but Isabel is determined and soon they are married, living together on Janus' isolation and desperate for a child. After Isabel's third miscarriage a miracle appears from the ocean. What happens next is a story of motherhood, loss, regret and a battle of morality.
I really enjoyed this book. I already knew I loved the story as I had seen the movie long before reading the book. I find the characters very realistic and heartfelt, their struggles, plight and reactions to things that happen are believable and grounded in their previous experiences. This book really makes you think about what is right and what is wrong and how single choices can have grave consequences. My only issue that stopped it from being 5 stars is that the tense seems to change in every chapter, often starting the chapter in present tense and then by the end of it, it has flipped to past tense. I found that mildly annoying but it didn't ruin my enjoyment of the whole book.
I would recommend this to anyone like me who likes a book to make you cry. I cried many times.

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jenlengland's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional sad slow-paced

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

4.0

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michaelion's review against another edition

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emotional reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Autism dad, ADHD mom.

I knew exactly when to stop the book before the shit hit the lighthouse fan but I also knew I didn't wanna dnf! I also wanted to give it away but the ending was so lovely now I'm like I might as well keep it. That was so sweet and sad and beautiful. Extra points because this book actually got me to root for a man!

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sophiemcauley's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.25

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ellenszostak's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful sad fast-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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craigpwmoroney's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful sad slow-paced

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

4.0

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jodar's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-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

3.5

The novel explores themes of family love and of heart-breaking loss that tears families apart. The MCs face terrible moral dilemmas upon which they stumble because of their almost tragedy-like virtues. The characters and dialogue are well-crafted and believable, notable given this is the author’s first novel. There are some genuinely moving, emotionally charged passages throughout the story.

And yet… I found some of the plot a little too tidy in places, a bit too melodramatic. And at times the characters felt almost stereotypical and uncomplicated; the feeling that “this is exactly how this dramatis persona would think, speak and act ”.

Further, the male MC holds some grim, cynical philosophical attitudes to life:

A life had come and gone and nature had not paused a second for it. The machine of time and space grinds on, and people are fed through it like grist through the mill. (Chapter 10)

and:

Years bleach away the sense of things until all that’s left is a bone-white past, stripped of feeling and significance. (Chapter 37)

and:

Soon enough the days will close over their lives, the grass will grow over their graves, until their story is just an unvisited headstone. (Chapter 37)

These thoughts are, I suppose, understandable in light of his experience, though it is difficult to see how such a view didn’t darken his interactions with other people more significantly.
And the authorial voice, too, comments of the society:

History is that which is agreed upon by mutual consent.
That is how life goes on – protected by the silence that anaesthetises shame. (Chapter 17)

So yes, it is a story of love and grief and of love reclaimed despite the loss and tragedy, but in the end it feels to me to be a story of ultimate despair.

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