#9 - The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman

Where to even start with a book like this? There are so many layers to unpeel that it seems trite to try to encapsulate them in one small review.  This was a book club pick for my work group but it was also one that had been on the top of my list since the 2013 top reads lists came out from my friends and Goodreads and it appeared on many of them.  So I took the perfect excuse to read it and ran with it.

This novel is full of "what would you do".  The setting is on an isolated island containing only a light house and a home where the main characters live.  It's hard to imagine what that kind of isolation can do to a person.  The location, Janus Rock, a nod to the Roman God of cross roads provides a tragic setting for what follows and the lighthouse becomes a character all its own and a metaphor for the little girl around which the story revolves.  

Heart breaking are the decisions that were made both at the beginning and the end and I found myself simultaneously mad at and sad for every single character in the book because the situation was impossible and handled poorly start to finish by everyone involved (including the little girl). How far would you go to provide healing for the person that you love the most? How far would you let your guilty conscience take you in the other direction? What is the real definition of family?

Again - didn't love the ending and thought it should have ended before the flash forward - but I am hard on the endings of books that I love reading maybe just because I don't want them to end.

Goodreads rating: 5 stars