Blog

Book: The Lighthouse Withces

Author. Cooke

Genre: novel

Score (1 to 6): 6

Autumn is a time for magic, for enchantment and often for slightly scary books. Especially in October I want an extra spooky idea, I'm ready to take on the dark and scary plots I just don't reach for the rest of the year. Atmosphere at home is important, light autumn and pre-Halloween decor too, but not as much as a good book. There's nothing like a good book to set your atmosphere and mood.

"The Lighthouse Witches is a book I did not expect to read this fall. It wasn't on my list of October titles, and after The Drowners, which we talked about last October, I didn't expect another book in this genre to grab me so soon. Well, the best things come without expecting them. It's a cliché, but it happens. I read the title as the October title in the book club I'm participating in.

I read it in 2 days, and I'm generally one of those "slow" readers who doesn't read for time and number of books read at the end of a year at Good Reads. By that I mean to tell you that the story is captivating. Author C. J. Cooke masterfully gives you a piece of a puzzle with each chapter. A puzzle that gets more and more intricate as you get further into the book. The characters are strong women, brave, smart. Female characters she should be proud of in this day and age. Their story is a weaving between life's hardships, which bring us closer to them, with supernatural, out of the ordinary situations. Impossible until you read the end.

Aside from the well-constructed characters and interestingly intricate stories, the book is a wealth of Norse mythology. It is set in Scotland, in a forgotten little island of it. The indigenous people of Lon Haven still believe in the mythological creatures endemic to the region. The elements of myth and lore are so beautifully interwoven into the story that it leaves the reader certain that there are people, and not a few, who still revere and fear the pagan creatures. And in addition to a history and mythology lesson, we get beautifully described landscapes. The beauty of the wild Atlantic coast, bathed incessantly in heavy storms and harsh winds, manages to appear before our eyes. The result of which are centuries-old trees and forests full of magic.

About the plot of the book:

The book tells the story of 36-year-old Liv and her three daughters - teenage Sapphire-Suffie, 10-year-old Luna and little 7-year-old Clover (Clover). The four move from England to the small Scottish island of Lon Haven, where Liv has taken on the task of painting the inside walls of an old lighthouse. The lighthouse has long been defunct, but has recently been bought, along with the area around it, by a wealthy developer who wants to make it his writing studio. The place they arrive at is beautiful and welcoming to them, but the more they get to know the people, the more they see things that scare them. The locals believe in fairies who live in the forests and come to them in human form to kill entire families.

Lon Haven is sizzling with history. The lighthouse is built on an ancient cliff that formed in the Neolithic era. And fairies, feared by the island's population, visit them as a result of an old curse. In 1662, by decree of King James, for whom thousands of women in Britain were burned at the stake as witches, Lon Haven also contributed to the witch-hunts. The island's history remembers 12 women brutally tortured, tried in the most unjust manner and publicly murdered and branded as witches. According to the population, the "witches of the lighthouse" cursed the island for the injustice and to this day the fairies visit them and the tragedies do not stop.

C. J. Cooke is a professor at the University of Glasgow, well versed in local history and mythology. And for The Lighthouse Witches he was inspired by the actual events for which there are extant archives. The names of the 12 women burned in 1662 are real and she honours the injustice done to them, tying their story to modern times and the thin veneer that hides the mythological beliefs of much of the population.