It’s an honor to bring light to the dark. The nineteenth-century whaling village of Warbler is famous for its lucky ship figureheads—and infamous for people disappearing into the nightly fog. In this murky locale, the lamplighter is synonymous with safety and protection, and it’s a position Temperance assumes when her father is found hanging from one of the lampposts. Though Tempe proves competent, the town is still hesitant to let a woman handle this responsibility. When a girl disappears after two lamps go out, Tempe’s ability to provide for her mother and younger sister hangs in the balance. She scrambles for answers, hindered at every turn by the village authorities’ call for her removal. As more villagers vanish under her watch, Tempe discovers unsettling truths about the famous Warbler figureheads and her own beloved father. But her warnings of a monster are ignored, even by her own family. Now she must follow the light out of her own fog of despair, as she faces the choice to look the other way or risk speaking out and possibly dooming herself and her sister to be among the lost.

Lamplighter, Crystal J Bell
Pub Date: 21 May, 2024

Lamplighter follows Temperence around as she performs her titular duties by lighting the gas lamps in Warbler, a small whaling village off the New England coast. In fact, we spend a lot of time watching her light the lamps and check the lamps and think about the lamps…

It’s important work for sure, but it’s very boring to watch. Action is dangled in front of us but never really acted upon: a drunk sailor makes a move toward sexual assualt, a scream in the distance, a girl goes missing off camera. We keep getting told about the darkness in Warbler and how the fog contains monsters and mysteries but by 50% of the way through, we simply aren’t shown it.

And 50% of a book is a long way to go without any sort of payoff.

I also found it difficult to relate emotionally to these characters, one is the MC’s sister’s secret admirer but also eeevvviiiillll but also the MC’s first kiss? The mother doesn’t speak. The MC must take care of her family and the sister takes care of the home.

Lamplighter had a really strong opening with the MC’s memory of finding her father hanging from one of the lights and there was definitely a lot of tention leading up to her lighting that lamp, but I just don’t feel like anything else came remotely close to how well the first chapter was done.