Friday, 29 May 2020

Carys Bray - When The Lights Go Out


Rating: 2/5

Review:
Not for me

I struggled with When The Lights Go Out. I loved The Museum Of You, but somehow I couldn’t get into this one.

This is the study of a marriage between two people with very different outlooks, and of the effects of climate change which also form a sort of backdrop metaphor for coping with the changing of a relationship as it ages. Carys Bray still writes very well and has her trademark keen-eyed but compassionate insight into her characters’ flaws and foibles. It may just be me or the times we’re living in, but even this couldn’t grip me this time. The combination of Chris and Emma, both of whom have a fixed and unrealistic view of life – pessimistic and optimistic respectively – plus the relentless, oppressive atmosphere of the weather just failed to engage me and I really struggled to get through to the end (even with some judicious skimming).

I’m sorry to be critical of a fine author whose work I have liked very much in the past; others plainly liked this, too, but I’m afraid it wasn’t for me.

(My thanks to Random House, Cornerstone for an ARC via NetGalley.)

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