Strange is the Light by Sarah Maria Griffin
Rating: 
Nothing is perfect, and as such, the reviews in this blog are chaotic. My main aim is to share my thoughts, joy and opinions on a book, not make a publication perfect review. This blog endorses authenticity, showing up and joy over perfection.
I've been reading Griff's books since Spare and Found Parts came out in 2016, and Strange is the Light is her best work so far. Now, a slight spoiler due to it also being a content warning (skip this paragraph if you want to avoid the spoiler), because I think it is worth bringing it up, one of the secrets from one of the characters involves abuse to animals. The way this is handled was very well done and it is not wasted or unnecessary, it doesn't feel like it is there for shock value, but rather, it is crucial to a lot of what happens in the story and the decisions they make due to it. With that out of the way this is, as all books by Griff, a weird story that touches on the very internal workings of people and what makes them tick and also what they value and fear. Daphne loves her island friends (Ronan, Leonie and Finn) to pieces and feels like it is only with them that she is herself. So she looks forward to their adventures every summer, as she can escape her older brother who isn't particularly nice to her. Part of the fun is that they have their own made up role playing game in an imaginary world, and she has slowly been keeping a record of what they do in it. Even if you love your friends, as you grow up, sometimes you just don't share absolutely everything with them, and as the four of them grow up, they gather secrets and the interest of something slightly otherworldly that is eager to feed on them (there is usually some kind of "hunger" in Griff's books, in this case, the hunger centers around emotions and shame in particular). And those secrets have teeth as Daphne does something unthinkable that creates a gap between them. Now, this is all about an RPG made up by them that can bite them back but also, it is about who their are and what makes them ashamed, what keeps them up at night and those secrets that we find difficult to share. Each of them has a secret that may change how the rest feel about them, and exposing this secret has also a consequence that will last for years to come. Now, I am going to try not to spoil this, but I found the choice of secrets fascinating, they are for the most part (except the one already partially spoiled) secrets that anyone could have. In particular, to me Daphne's secret and her feelings about it were exquisite and it just was so beautiful. And the way friendship is portrayed here with the good and the ugly, was also a masterpiece in humanity. All I can say is that you should read this book because it is utterly human and you want to root for these broken extremely human people who are trying to live their lives as best as they know.