I read an eARC of this book on NetGalley so thank you to the author and the publisher.

There was something so incredible about the world created in this book. The parallel underworld of the dead that embraces Chicago. I was mesmerised by this dark world created with the lighthouse, the station and the dogs! There was a real beauty to this land of the dead and the shepherds that try to protect and guide the dead.

There’s som true sadness to this story and it does look at some quite visceral grief. We have two main characters and one of them is entirely defined early on by the loss of a loved one. This drives all her decisions and she cannot see beyond her grief. She is extremely prickly at first and I didn’t like how rude she was to the other main character.

There is a journey of self discovery for both characters as well as a romance. This was quite lovely and gave the characters a view of a different world and a new perspective on life.

This was quite charming whilst also balancing a darkness and exploration of serious themes and danger.

Do you know that feeling when you read an emotional book and it just doesn't hit the way it should? That happened to me here. "The Lighthouse at the Edge of the World" is a grief-filled book in which two living women navigate the realm of the dead, but it just never gripped me. I expected a lot from a waystation for the dead where souls spend time until they are ready to be ferried into the afterlife. I was thinking about the video game "Spiritfarer" immediately (amazing game, check it out), but the book didn't go into a fantastical direction all too much. It really reads more like a contemporary book than a fantasy, and maybe that was my main problem. There still is a lot of time spent in the waystation where Nera is the apprentice to her father, the ferryman of the dead. Together with their dogs they bring souls to the afterlife every day, but the job gets interrupted when the living woman Charlie appears on their boat. Charlie has been seeing ghosts for a while now, but she just can't find the one of her dead sister, so she impossibly stumbles into the waystation to find her. Nera promises to help her with her search and the two of them steadily learn more about the realm of the dead and its inhabitants. It was really strange to me how Nera seemed to know nothing of the place that she lived in for centuries. She was a blank page to me, with the way she learned everything as the story went on – first about her own world, then about the world of the living. I also didn't really like exploring the waystation itself, because it did not feel as ethereal as I imagine such a place to be. It might be because of the writing style that just never felt as lyrical as I was promised. It was more casual, and even vulgar during dialogue, altogether kinda clashing with the emotional vibe that was meant to be transported in this book. And I usually like talking animal companions in books, but the soul-guiding dogs were often used as comic reliefs, and I couldn't stand them if I'm honest. The story is about learning what it means to be alive when surrounded by death, about clinging to the past and letting go, but all progress felt really slow to me. Nera learns about the Jewish heritage of her father, but all information is only given piece by piece. Charlie's whole goal is finding her sister, but it just takes so long before the search even starts. I know that this book is also about the irreversibility of death, but it felt like it was promising things that then didn't happen. It didn't help that Charlie's plotline was a lot about music, because musical themes in books are almost always lost on me. That just shows again that I am the problem here. I don't think that this is a bad read whatsoever and I have no doubt that this book will mean a lot to many readers, but it was just not my thing for multiple reasons.

Huge thanks to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan / Tor for providing a digital arc in exchange for an honest review.

3 5/5
A beautiful story about love and loss and the meaning of death and life itself. I loved following Charlie's exploration of her grief for her sister and the love that grew between her and Nera.
There were parts which felt quite repetitive and at times I felt like I was skimming pages - but overall heartwarming.

Thank you NetGalley and PanMacmillan/Tor for the ARC!

5/5

A beautiful and layered psychological novel about grief, heartbreak, and finding light in one’s life. Mostly character driven, “The Lighthouse at the Edge of the World” is an essay on finding peace even when everything seems hopeless and it is a struggle to even feel anything other than pain. The novel is almost poetically written, the prose fluid and powerful, laced with both heartwarming and heartbreaking metaphors, managing to bring out sensibilities which involve both the joy and pain of living, and the peace and sadness of death. The setting has minor elements of Greek Mythology mixed with Judaism, and offers a deep spirituality and complexity of faith, and the relationship — or lack of — one has with simply believing.

There are four main characters, but the focus most of the time is on Nera and Charlie. Nera lives in the in-between, with her father, the ferryman of the dead. She is in a state of dullness, of eternal monotony until she has light sparked into her heart and realises that despite her being in touch with something more divine, she is still alive. The first breath, the first tactile feeling, the first taste, the first feeling of warmth — these are new experiences to her, along with the discovery of both friendship and romance. Nera’s black and white world suddenly explodes into colour once Charlie comes in like a wrecking ball. Deeply spiritual and eager to learn, Nera’s character is the heart of the novel, the one who keeps persevering despite the challenges that keep interfering with her progress. Her character arc is beautiful — from a shell to a human, a lovely and deeply personal evolution.

Charlie also finds light through Nera; however, Charlie is a deeply depressed and grieving soul, who even when she strays, she ultimately wants to find her sister’s soul at all costs. Her mission is difficult not only because of the pain she bears in her heart all the time, but also due to external factors which cause her grief to be expressed in a deeply egotistical way. Charlie’s selfishness is however tempered by Nera’s selflessness, and that is beautifully paralleled throughout the entire novel. This characteristic of Charlie’s is also what pushes the plot forward, so it was nice to see the static become dynamic though the intrinsic progression of the stages of human grief.

The ferryman’s story becomes central to the resolution of the novel, and it possesses a very tragic beauty. But sometimes the best stories are the ones which manage to capture our hearts, despite them not being the most full of joy. The ferryman’s life felt exactly like that.

I enjoyed the ending and how ultimately it focused on love, but a healthy and naturally progressive love, encouraging the type of relationships which are both equal in standing and full of faith to one another. From something which started as rather co-dependent, the natural and raw line of evolution of the love story was a sight to see.

Lastly, I haven’t read neither “Before the Coffee Gets Cold” by Toshikazu Kawaguchi nor “Under the Whispering Door” by TJ Klune, so I cannot say how much this novel can be compared to those, however, I found this has similar elements to “Into the Forest of Fireflies Light” and “Natsume's Book of Friends” by Yuki Midorikawa, “Suzume” by Makoto Shinkai, and “The Boy and the Heron” by Hayao Miyazaki. If you have enjoyed any of these works and films, “The Lighthouse at the Edge of the World” is definitely a book you shouldn’t miss out on.

Nera and her father, Harosen, live on the shores of Lake Michigan in the lighthouse. Every night they ferry the recently departed to the veil between this world and the next. Into their lives comes Charlie, a young Chicagoan who, after the loss of her sister, finds herself suddenly able to see the dead, but not the one she really wants to. The Lighthouse at the Edge of the World is a beautifully written study in love, death and grief that's packed with compelling characters.

Thanks to NetGalley, Pan Macmillan and the author for an advance copy.

Beautiful, haunting writing. Grief, loss and love, this book has it all. Nera lives at the Station with her father where they ferry the souls of the dead to the Veil. Charlie is grief-stricken since her sister Sam's death, but also suddenly able to see ghosts. Somehow, Charlie manages to follow the dead and get onto the ferry looking for her sister, where she meets Nera. Both Charlie and Nera find love, life and healing with each other for a time. And an ending that I didn't expect at all! A wonderful story, if perhaps, a little slow in the telling.
Thanks to Netgalley, Pan Macmillan, and J.R. Dawson for the free ARC. All opinions are my own.

The Lighthouse at the Edge of the World by J.R. Dawson is such a good story. I rated this story 5 stars because I couldn't put it down for a second and the characters are so well created!

Thank you to the author and NetGalley for giving me an ARC.

This was an achingly moving exploration into dealing with grief, coping with loss, and learning to let go without forgetting.

Charlie was a fantastically complex character. I completely related to her feeling isolated from her parents and being unsure how to cope with her loss. Her desperation to find her sister and get her back, as well as her anger at having lost her sister so senselessly was incredibly emotional and she was such a well-written character.

Nera was also a great character - I really liked how she started to feel more real as the book progressed. At first, she appears very aloof and emotionless, but as the narrative goes on she becomes more emotional, and vocalises how she's feeling.

The prose was so good. It fitted the book perfectly. There was something almost hauntingly nostalgic in the writing, and it made me fall in love with the characters again and again.

Overall, a really fantastic read!