Review Detail

Reader reviewed by bookworm9

Seventeen-year-old Squid is returning to Lizzie Island with her young daughter Tatiana. Squid grew up on the island, alone except for her parents (Murray and Hannah) and older brother, Alistair. Her father, Murray, is the lightkeeper there. The book deals with the family's extraordinary relationship, both in the present, as Murray and Hannah meet their granddaughter for the first time, and in the past, when Alistair and Squid were kids. Meanwhile, they tiptoe around the subject of Alistair's death and the pregnant Squid's departure several years ago.

This book was strange, and not in a good way. Lawrence takes an unimaginable situation (living in isolation, with only your family for company), but does not sufficiently enlighten his readers on the psychological aspects of such a situation. Also, Tatiana's origins are hinted at throughout the entire book-- I suspected who her father was from chapter one-- and are then never explained. If Lawrence wants to leave it so ambiguous, he should have made his hints less heavy-handed. Discerning readers will pick up on them early on and be disappointed when their suspicions are never actually confirmed, and readers who don't pick up on the hints will wonder what the whole point was. ctually, the book really was kind of pointless. It hovers somewhere between YA and adult, and never attains a true form within either.