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

I loved how integral place and time were to this story. This takes place after World War One in a small village in Sussex. There are three women this book focuses on and all of them have been significantly affected by the war. So much of this story is driven by the loss of millions of men, what Kit in particular has done to help the recovery of those left behind, the uncomfortable behaviour of some men who are left. The village too, is essential because of the ‘face’, a chalk carving that protects the village from malevolent entities and that now cannot be tended due to the loss of the family entrusted to do so. The local folklore is critical to this story. This didn’t feel like it could have been set anywhere else or at any other time.

This book also explores being a lesbian at a time when it would have been condemned by society. We see Kit who is aware of the prejudice she faces, and the secret relationship with another character she has. There are some unkind views expressed in this book. This is positioned (for some characters) in the context of how few men are left after the war and the need for companionship and love that still exists. The men that are left aren’t always brilliantly behaved in this book and there is some very unpleasant conduct towards women.

This novel is a slow burn but it is so worth it for the folkloric pay off we get. I won’t say too much to avoid spoilers, but how the story drops its breadcrumbs and then brings everything back to the face was fantastic and this had such a spectacular finale. What seems like quite a character focussed book, managed to deliver some exceptional supernatural menace!

This is an excellent story. It has everything. Gothic horror, superstition, beliefs in golems and the age old land in which it’s set; which helps to create a dark and scary landscape.
Into this mix arrives someone wanting to begin a new life, in an attempt to chase away the memory of suffering she saw in the recently ended war. For her though, it’s not that easy and this story puts across very well the prejudices of village life in those early years of the 20th Century.
I felt every emotion as I devoured this book! It’s such a good read.

Ideal for literary fiction readers who enjoy historical stories of unconventional love and war trauma set against a backdrop of pagan rituals.

With thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an early copy in exchange for an independent review.

Upon publication I will post my short review and an extract from the blurb on my blog.

In the quiet village of Haltington lies an ancient chalk carving known as the Face, etched into the earth in a time when life was ruled by superstition, stories, and a fear of the shadows. For centuries, the residents of Bone Cottage have tended to it, but the Great War has left the village diminished, and the Face now lies neglected and overgrown.

When Kit, a mysterious outsider with an androgynous appearance and unconventional ways, moves into the cottage, the villagers are instantly wary. Florence, the unmarried sister-in-law of the vicar, finds herself drawn to Kit despite the disapproval of the community. Their friendship becomes a rare source of warmth for Florence, who is struggling with grief and the challenge of caring for her late sister’s husband and his difficult young daughter, Phoebe.

Yet the Face has a pull of its own, attracting shadows that linger and threaten. With its guardians gone, the barrier between the village and whatever the Face was meant to hold back is weakening. The story blends post-war realism with a delicate thread of the supernatural, exploring the lingering wounds of loss, the search for connection, and the quiet acts of defiance that can change a life.

Bridget Collins delivers an atmospheric and poignant tale of resilience, love, and mystery. The historical detail is vivid, the characters are layered and compelling, and the romance between Florence and Kit feels authentic and deeply earned. The supernatural element adds intrigue without overshadowing the emotional heart of the story, making this a haunting yet hopeful read.

Read more at The Secret Book Review.

Collins evokes a believable historical setting for this pst-WW1 story through three main characters. Character, Kit, makes masks for injured soldiers who have facial injuries , but is affected by the job to the point of trauma. This notion and symbol of 'faces' is reflected in the setting of the village, where a face is visible, but slowly disappearing into the headland. This opens up a slightly weird and supernatural element to the novel and brings in other characters, Florence and Phoebe. I wasn't absolutely sure about the supernatural element but the novel is evocative and well-written. My thanks to the publisher and to NetGalley for the ARC.

I really like folklore tales and fancied this would be a thrilling tale of creepy darkness and scary undertones. I admit the book did have some of these and I enjoyed them.

However, the compulsions that Florence and others have for each other was not appealing, nor were the graphic descriptions of sexual interactions. Had I realised the book was so sexually graphic I would have avoided it completely.

Other than that, the story was excellent, with just the right amount of creepiness to scare you a little bit.

I am thankful to The Borough Press and Netgalley for allowing me to read this book for free.

A fascinating, very different story telling of the atrocities experienced during WW1 when soldiers were horrendously maimed and scared for life in both mind and body! Kit is an artist, she paints portraits and is therefore invited by her close friend Portia to join her in France painting the masks which attempt to hid the terrible wounds of the battle weary soldiers. This she does for a while but it begins to take its toll on her mental health and so she finds herself back in England living in an old cottage overlooking a strange chalk face hidden within the shrubs and weeds of the hillside. The face holds much history and the local vicar is convinced it is a left over from pagan rites. The vicar is a widower living with his sister-in- law Florence and his own rather strange daughter Phoebe. Florence and Kit form an attachment but one which they need to keep hidden. Phoebe is intrigued when she secretly spies on them and then Portia makes an unexpected visit. Having read other books by this author this one did not let me down. Always intriguing and certainly provocative, told with great empathy. Much enjoyed!

This story centres around three women in the post-WWI period. Kit is traumatised by her work making masks for soldiers whose faces have been destroyed or damaged by the war. Florence is feeling very empty and living with her dead sister’s husband and his daughter Phoebe. Phoebe is a challenging child and I felt most of my sympathy went to Florence, not to her. In the background of the village is a large face carved into the headland. One family have always tended this but all of them have been wiped out by the war and it is slowly disappearing. As it does so, its role in drawing shadows to it and trapping them is weakening. I felt that the historical part of the novel was very strong with characters who have been affected strongly in different ways by the tragedy of it. I always enjoy a supernatural element in a book but felt that this was a bit of an aside rather than truly central to their decision making. The romance seems believable and I approved of Florence’s choices which seemed very realistic. This is a good novel that is definitely worth reading but not quite as strong as her first two novels for me. Thanks to Netgalley for an ARC.

3.75/5

This book follows Florence who has been sent to live with her widowed brother-in-law and his daughter Phoebe. They like in a creepy village called Haltington. Local people believe that a face carved into the hill keeps away evil spirits. When Mrs Bone the lady who looks after the face dies, things start to get weirder. Kit Clayton moves into Mrs Bones cottage, she has left behind her lover Portia in Paris and the events of the war have left her traumatized.

This book was an incredibly slow burner. When everything started to come together, it finished. It wasn't as Gothic as I expected, more a war romance. I have loved the authors previous books but this fell a bit short for me. It is a good read just not as good as her previous books.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity.

I have read several of Bridget Collins previous books and enjoyed them but I'm afraid this one just didn't do it for me. I was attracted to it by the idea of the mask painters of WW1 and the ever present gothic element of Collins' novels. However we learn very little about the mask painting and the book is tortuously slow. I was still waiting for it to begin at the 35% mark with hardly a hint of gothic except for hints of the links between the Bone family and the Haltington Face. The aforementioned Bone family are all wiped out in the first few pages by war and illness. The remaining characters have nothing likeable about them. All we have are suggestions of a budding lesbian relationship between a world weary artist and a sheltered virgin and a curious, bored and vindictive teenager. I'm afraid I gave up reading half way through The Naked Light as I couldn't see it going anywhere interesting anytime soon. A shame as I enjoyed the author's previous books.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an advance copy. All opinions are my own

I'm a massive Bridget Collins fan and have absolutely loved all of her books to date. This one, I'm loath to say, was such a disappointment. Unlikable characters, no plot, and the supernatural elements seemed like more of an afterthought. The quality of the writing was there, but there was just no substance. The characters were bland with no life in them. I got that it was post war, but even still the depiction of Kit felt stereotypical (wearing men's clothes) and no character seemed to question anything. Florence, a spinster who wanted nothing more than a husband and child just jumps into bed with Kit no questions asked, no build up, no emotional connection whatsoever. Then you have Phoebe who I thought was going to be a really interesting character and she had great potential, but in the end did nothing either.

The face in the hill and the supernatural elements were great (not as good as the ones in her other books) but they weren't at the forefront of the story which was a big disappointment. This book is not marketed as lesbian romance (although there's very little romance, it's straight to bed) and this is misleading for readers. The marketing and book blurb place more emphasis on the supernatural elements which barely make up 20% of the book.

Overall, this was a huge disappointment and if you've never read Bridget Collins before, I'd definitely say, don't start with this book. Her other books, The Binding, The Betrayals, and The Silence Factory are all amazing reads with the supernatural elements front and centre with the romance creeping up on you as you become emotionally invested in the characters stories.

I hate leaving a bad review for an author I love, but unfortunately, The Naked Light just wasn't for me.

Set in the 1920's, the story revolves around Florence. Now in her mid-twenties and considered a spinster, probably forever, she finds herself the beneficiary of her brother in law's card and generosity. Her sister Imogen died leaving Henry, a man of the cloth, and her daughter Phoebe who was a small child. Florence lives under Henry's roof: Henry himself is distant and self contained; Phoebe is a girl of exceptional beauty, high intelligence and delights in her powers over people. With her ethereal looks, direct state and awkward questions she takes great pleasure in making others uncomfortable.
In a nearby cottage, Kit has returned from Paris where during and after the War she worked with Portia reconstructing the faces of terrible casualties missing ears, eyes, jawbones.....rewarding but soul destroying work. She left Paris without a forwarding address and left Portia, her lover. However her desire for solitude to reconnect with her art is thwarted in all sides - not least by The Face in the chalk downs, the local folklore and the threatening presence around the village where no image of any human face is allowed.

Wow this book has a lot going on at once! Part historical reflection on post-WWI trauma, part gothic sapphic romance, and part supernatural thriller, it weaves together themes of grief, identity, and healing in a way that manages to be simultaneously compelling and deeply (and intentionally) discomforting.

The recurring imagery of damaged and masked faces was a brilliant touch, tying together Kit’s past crafting masks for wounded soldiers to the eerie folklore surrounding the Haltington Face.

As much as I enjoyed it, the beginning did feel a little slow, and I struggled with a fair bit of secondhand embarrassment from some of the characters' earlier interactions. But once I got further in, I was HOOKED. The constant undercurrent of unease, and at times outright dread, kept me on the edge of my seat, anxiously bracing for disaster, and things got genuinely creepy towards the end!

I do wish we’d gotten more of Phoebe - she was such an intriguing character, but remained frustratingly mysterious. Then again, that seems very fitting for who she is as a person!

Overall, this book was delightfully eerie and emotionally haunting, and will definitely stick with me for a while! :)

Thank you so much HarperCollins UK, HarperFiction | The Borough Press for the arc!

**3,5/5**

„She had wanted to make the viewer feel small: look, she had meant to say, how beautiful it all is, how little we are, how absurd it is to think we matter.“

- post-WW1
- small town setting
- folklore
- sinister force
- sapphic relationship

What I liked:
The parts about the lore of the ancient face carved into the hill above the small village. I was intrigued by how it impacted the people, whether they believed in its supernatural powers or not. Its existence, and the possible danger it represented, was always looming in the back of my mind throughout the whole story. Character-wise, I found the main character’s teenage niece the most interesting. She was such an observant and calculating child that her next moves and intentions were hard to predict.
I also appreciated the insights into the history of aesthetic prostheses for wounded soldiers, since facial reconstruction treatments weren’t yet well developed. Some of those sections were truly devastating.

What I didn’t like:
The book's marketing made it seem like the supernatural elements were playing a much bigger part, but until the last 30% they were barely mentioned. For many chapters, the ancient carving and its lore weren't mentioned at all, as if they had been completely forgotten. It was more of a post-WW1 sapphic romance story for the most part.

3.5 stars

Haltington, Sussex.
The Haltington Face is carved into the ground, its eyes are flat ovals and the mouth a horizontal line. Whilst it lacks expression, it isn’t entirely unfriendly. Over the many centuries since it is etched in chalk at a time of superstition and strong beliefs in dark forces, it watches over the village and protects it. The inhabitants of Bone Cottage maintain it but the Great War has decimated the Bone family men, just leaving their mother Aggie, who is believed to be a witch. Now, the face is neglected and overgrown by grass. When Aggie dies shortly after the war, bohemian, androgynous artist Kit Clayton moves into Bone Cottage to recover from a past relationship and her traumatic work as an artist making masks for those mutilated by the war. Close by Bone Cottage is the Vicarage where Florence Stock lives, the sister-in-law of the widowed vicar and who tries to care for her tricky niece Phoebe Manning, with whom she has a fractious relationship. Florence finds herself inexplicably drawn to the unconventional Kit and a friendship develops. However, just because the Face can no longer be seen, it doesn’t mean it’s not working. In fact, it has other ideas entirely as both women are in its sights.

I confess to struggling with the book at the start as it seems so long winded and slow. However, it does allow the reader to understand the main characters and they become increasingly interesting in different ways. There’s various kinds of tension between them frequently with Phoebe being the catalyst. It captures post war times well and contextually it’s good although I can’t say I especially like the backwards and forwards nature of the approach to the storytelling.

As the novel progresses the Gothic elements come to the fore and I find reading it a much more enjoyable experience. I really like the concept of the novel, the creativity of the face, the roots of it all in the fearful depths of the mists of time. I like how the myths, legends and sinister, malevolent forces become intertwined with forbidden love. Some of the ghostly scenes are really good and are well described. Whilst I do enjoy the ending as it feels right, there’s a four year jump to it and it seems significant things have happened in the interim which are skimmed over.

Overall, whilst it’s a very atmospheric read the slow start does impact on my star rating.

With thanks to NetGalley and especially to the publishers for their much appreciated early copy in return for an honest review.

I love Bridget Collins writing and thoroughly enjoyed The Naked Light. It’s a very creepy story set just after WW1. Bridget’s writing as always is atmospheric with slight gothic vibes. The end of the war was a terrible time with men returning home with horrific injuries and facial wounds. This is where The Naked Light comes into its own. It’s not an easy story to read but it’s compelling too.
Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Artist Kit, traumatised by her work in Paris making masks for disfigured ex-soldiers, has fled back to England and takes a cottage in a Sussex village In the same village Florence lives at the vicarage with her widowed brother in law and looks forward to an empty life with no hope of marriage and a family since all the young men have been killed. The village is overlooked by a face cut in the chalk of the hillside which the villagers think protects them as long as it is tended by a local family. This is a story of women looking for love and purpose in the years after the first World War and also a gothic folk mystery. Its beautifully written, exciting and compelling..

I’m normally good with a book that jumps around in time and perspective, but I just couldn’t get into this one at all. Probably not helped by characters that were unlikeable.

This could be a decent book about post war life in a small village, but it's more.
It's ever so slightly sinister, with mentioning of faces all over the place.
Collins has yet to write a book I haven't enjoyed, so I was thrilled to get this new one.
There are hints throughout that something possibly not the norm is going on, but it really ramps up towards the end.
My one criticism would be it all finished a bit quickly

Bridget Collins returns with another atmospheric novel in The Naked Light, a haunting gothic tale steeped in folklore and grief. Set in a rural Sussex village in the wake of the Great War, the story follows three women navigating a world reshaped by loss, silence, and societal shift. Watching over the village, a mysterious chalk face carved into the hillside, both protector and spectre.

What stands out most, as always with Collins, is her prose. Her writing is elegant, yet effortlessly readable. The gothic tone is never heavy-handed, but rather subtly woven through. The three women at the centre of the narrative are each compelling in their own right, complex, wounded, and resilient. The Naked Light is a novel that lingers — not only because of its ghostly undertones, but because of its emotional resonance and historical setting. It’s an evocative, unsettling, and beautifully crafted book.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.