The Lighthouse Witches

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The Lighthouse Witches is told from varying viewpoints in the years 1998 and 2021, with a subplot set in the 1600s. The story is about a single mother, Liv, who is contracted to paint a rather strange, and possibly Satanic, mural on the inside walls of a lighthouse called The Longing on an island off the eastern shores of Scotland at the end of the 20th century. Tagging along are her three children, teenaged Sapphire (or Saffy for short), and Luna and Clover, who are just little girls. Flash forward to the future, and a thirty-something (and pregnant) Luna is looking for her mother and two sisters who vanished off the island in 1998. When Clover is found, she is still seven years old. She has marks on her that take the form of a date, 2021, and the legend of the island is that this means that the child is a wildling or an imposter who looks like Clover but is a fairy in disguise. In any event, Luna takes Clover to the island to find out the true reason for the events of 1998 and why Clover hasn’t aged. In the 1998 timeline, Saffy reads from a grimoire that is left in the home near the lighthouse where the family is staying, and it is partially a diary written in the 1600s that details witch burnings on the island. Can you imagine your long gone sister you haven’t heard from for 23 years appears at the same place where she was missing? But the strange thing about this not only the way how they found her after all those years, she’s still 7 years, she hasn’t aged for a day after she got missing. Well, did you get intrigued? You might be, because things will get more complex and crazier at each chapter. Go on! It’s so exciting! Mysterious and terrible events have happened on this island. It started with a witch hunt. Now, centuries later, islanders are vanishing without explanation.

Sapphire is the teenager I mentioned, and I loved writing her – she’s smart, surly, and she thinks she hates her mother, but really that hate is just grief at losing her stepdad. She’s also vulnerable and craving someone to fill the hole her stepdad left, and unfortunately this leaves her wide open to predatory behaviour. Saffy, as the oldest, definitely has the most difficult time with the move. You know how teens can be. As a result, she begins to distance herself from her Mom and sisters. This story is told, primarily, in two timelines of 1998 and 2021, with a third timeline of 1662 mingled into some of the chapters. Holding onto the mystery through to the end, with its atmospheric, creepy, and foreboding narrative is everything I was looking for in an October Spooky Season read. Me: Ah well then I have just the thing! May I suggest The Lighthouse Witches? C.J. Cooke has concocted a spellbinding novel that bubbles over with gothic atmosphere, thriller vibes and the perfect amount of supernatural elements.

The author has seamlessly woven a story between the past and the present involving witch’s curses, wildlings, superstition and folklore that has kept the villagers living in fear since 1662. When an ancient book belonging to the descendant of an islander, a ‘Grimoire’ is discovered which details the witch hunts and the unjust treatment meted out to those suspected of witchcraft, the creep factor goes up even more as the actions of the accusers and retaliation of those accused will cast their shadows on the island for generations. Overall, I highly recommend The Ghost Woods , especially as a companion on a dark and gloomy autumnal night. I can see this becoming a favourite of the year for me personally.

Two sisters go missing on a remote Scottish island. Twenty years later, one is found--but she's still the same age as when she disappeared. The secrets of witches have reached across the centuries in this chilling Gothic thriller from the author of the acclaimed The Nesting.I suppose the question could legitimately be asked whether motherhood, gay rights, reproductive rights, and gender inequality have any place in a gothic novel. For me, the gothic is exactly the space to explore darkness of any kind, and the practice of othering is one of the darkest corners of human history. Single mother Liv has been commissioned to paint a mural in the lighthouse of a remote Scottish island. Liv takes it as a golden opportunity to make a fresh start with her three daughters. She soon discovers that the island harbours dark secrets. But who in this modern day can believe in those old ladies tales and superstitions? Not Liv, for sure. Until things take a dark turn.

Liv, a single mom of three is commissioned to paint a mural in a decommissioned lighthouse, called The Longing, which was built over the grounds where women were held before being burned alive as Witches. While there-she and two of her daughters go missing.Two sisters go missing on a remote Scottish island. Twenty years later, one is found—but she's still the same age as when she"disappeared" The secrets of witches havereached across the centuries in this chilling Gothic thriller from the author of the acclaimed The Nesting. You learn about the family's time on the island, the disappearance of the girls, and from Luna's present perspective, the aftermath of all of that.