Strange is the Light by Sarah Maria Griffin

Book Review

Elloise

Daphne McSharry’s therapist told her to stay away from social media, so she plays games on her phone while she waits for her best friend, Ronan Quaid. In the morning, they have a funeral, Ronan’s first boyfriend. Both she and Ronan are off alcohol these days as they head to Valentia Island, the place of their childhood. A place that holds memories and horrors for them both.

In their younger years Daphne would summer on Valentia Island in the family summerhouse, and would spend a glorious three months every year with her friends, Ronan, Finn and Leonie, passing time at the Starcade, playing a game of their own invention at the table they called their own. The game was precious to Daphne, and she painstakingly recorded the details of each iteration in her journals as they flew through the night sky and had untold adventures together.

As they grew older, relationships and rivals became more complicated, drink became more of a dependence, control fractured, secrets brewed, and little known to Daphne and her group there was another who watched them from the outside, desperate to get in. One summer, when his true colours are revealed, Daphne, deep in drink and emotional hurt, retaliates, and changes the trajectory of her life and the lives of those around her. No longer will Valentia be the safe summer haven of her youth, it will be the place she has to return to, to face her own darkness and the death that draws her in. 

Strange is the Light is centred around ‘the game’ which is a tabletop RPG game the four invented at the local arcade, seated around an old table with four characters painted on its corners – fox, wolf, crow and cat – and at the bottom a pair of eyes, which represent the supernatural evil that comes to life and steers events in this book. We have a horror/fantasy blend delivered through an introspective recounting of events over time that explores coming of age, rejection, jealousy, control and a multitude of other emotions and life-altering moments.

This book is an absolute slow-burner, told through various points of view, though mainly rooted in Daphne’s part in the story and her ultimate unravelling. Events move in a mostly linear fashion, though we are framed by the present time and visit various moments from the past, painting in the significance of the game, and the significant events that led to Daphne’s loss of the island haven, friendships, and general control over herself and her actions.

This book is not for the fainthearted, with some of the actions of Daphne and her friends being downright shocking, and possibly for this reader, overly repulsive in setting the general tone. Much of the narrative is focused on characters taking responsibility for their actions and facing the follies of their past, and particularly in feeling the associated shame and guilt that arises from hurting others and living with regret. It can be hard to read at times, so overall interesting and perhaps provocative.