Review of The Lighthouse

[ej_author]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "The Lighthouse" by Harold Wayne Anderson.]

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1 out of 4 stars

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The Lighthouse by Harold Wayne Anderson tells the story of sisters Sisley and Dolly growing up in Ohio with their grandparents. The book takes the reader from the girls’ earliest years when they were faced with tragedy, through high school and the murky waters of dating life, and into adult years where they try to figure out how to settle down after all they’ve been through. Along the way, the reader meets many of the sisters’ friends and enemies and gets to know their stories, too. But in the end, throughout the lives of Sisley and Dolly, they always seem to come back to their grandparents’ old lighthouse.

I never like to say this because I always appreciate the effort it takes to write and publish a book, but unfortunately, I couldn’t find anything to like about The Lighthouse. Part of this has to do with the fact that the book’s description is so vague that it gives an inaccurate impression of what the book is about. The description makes the book seem like a powerful, family-friendly story about the unbreakable bonds of family, so when I got about twenty pages in and found teenagers in high school swearing and threatening each other, I was disappointed. However, I continued reading, hoping that it would just be a short part of the book. Sadly, it was not.

Even apart from the fact that I felt deceived by the book’s description, the overall story was difficult to follow for many reasons. First of all, the copious amounts of swearing and the frequent grammatical errors make it hard to understand the text. In addition, sometimes there are no paragraph breaks and blocks of text go on for pages at a time. These passages made me lose track of what was going on, as it was impossible to tell who was speaking. Huge time jumps in the story that aren’t labeled make things even more confusing.

As for the story itself, it doesn’t seem to be about family at all. In fact, the story follows the journeys of the twin sisters pretty independently. They hardly do anything together and spend most of the book figuring themselves out rather than helping each other. In addition, they aren’t very captivating characters. The reader is told what their characteristics are rather than being shown, and they don’t remain consistent throughout the book. For example, Dolly is said to be the more chaste, astute, and loyal sister, but before long, she’s going to parties and acting recklessly just like Sisley.

The plot is difficult to explain because it’s just a bunch of random events happening to a cast of many different characters. Oftentimes, characters and points of view switch without any kind of break in the text. Some of the events that occur, especially a whole ongoing story about a violent misunderstanding between two side characters, don’t seem relevant to the story at all, as the characters involved had nothing to do with Sisley or Dolly after the first part of the story.

I really cannot recommend this book to anyone for all of the reasons above. While I think the book is meant for adults who enjoy coming-of-age stories, the plot is not clear enough and the characters are not strong enough to be enjoyable for even these readers. Therefore, I rate this book one out of four stars.

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The Lighthouse
View: on Bookshelves

[Themmie10]

Thanks for an honest review, it certainly tells people what to expect in the book.

[Aisha Yakub]

Thank you for the feedback.

[Patty Allread]

Good job sticking with the book to the end and giving your honest opinion. I appreciate your review and hope your next book is much more enjoyable.

[Sarah Sonbol]

It's really disappointing when one expects to have an enjoyable read but it turns out to be the opposite. Thanks for your honest review.