Hi everyone.
I'm Rincey and this is Rincey Reads.
Today I'm going to be doing a review on THE
LIGHT BETWEEN OCEANS by M.L.
Stedman.
This story takes place in 1920s Australia.
You are following Tom who is a lighthouse
keeper on this island, I believe off the coast
of Australia.
And he ends up getting married to this woman
named Isabelle and he brings his wife out
to the island.
And they basically just live their lives almost
completely in isolation.
They live there for almost the entire year.
He has to serve for, I think, like a 3 year
term.
So he basically is there for an entire year,
they get like a month off when they go back
to the mainland.
And they'll go visit Isabelle's parents.
But they're basically by themselves for the
majority of the time.
So you're following this couple and they're
trying to have kids, but the wife keeps having
miscarriages.
And then finally, right when the wife has,
I believe, either her second or third miscarriage,
like a couple days later Tom goes out to check
on things on the island and he finds a boat
that's been washed up on shore.
And he finds a man who is dead, as well as
a baby that's still alive.
So Tom's job, being a lighthouse keeper, is
to like keep track of everything that happens
on the island and to like report anything
weird or different or any changes that happen.
And so technically he's supposed to report
this finding and like do something about it.
But he brings the baby home and his wife Isabelle
ends up getting really attached to the baby
and somehow convinces Tom to just not report
it.
So they end up taking in the child and raising
it up as if it was their own child.
And then, obviously, they end up living on
the island and consequences occur.
[laughs] I won't get into it any more than
that because the rest would probably be considered
spoilers.
But there are obviously consequences to their
actions.
This was a really interesting book to read.
I will definitely give it that.
Like at the very beginning, I think it covers
an interesting period of time and an interesting
place.
Like, at least personally, I don't read a
lot about the 1920s in Australia.
So it was really nice to have that sort of
story being told.
There is a lot of information given in the
book about that place and about what was happening
in history.
So you do learn a little bit about Australian
history by reading this book, which I personally
really like.
This is a little bit of a slower novel, so
if you don't like stories that are more like
slow burns, then this is probably not the
book for you.
But, again, I don't mind that.
I actually really liked it and liked how descriptive
it was.
I think it was well written and I think the
story and the situations that are brought
up in this book are really engaging.
But I do have to say that I wasn't completely
in love with this book.
I had a lot of problems with it, especially
the ending.
If you saw my August wrap up, you saw me like
mention this book really quickly and I said
that the book felt really "schmoopy".
[laughs] And it's still a word I stand by
even though it's not really a word.
But the problems that I had with this book
were mainly the ones I had with like the last
third or so.
I'm not really happy with the way it ended.
It felt like the author made everything just
a little bit too nice.
And I don't want to say too much more than
that because I feel like I'm going to end
up ruining this book for people and I don't
want to do that.
So I'm just going to say I found the ending
disappointing.
If you've read the book, you can discuss it
down below, just make sure, you know, mark
it spoilers or whatever because I'd love to
talk about this book with people.
But I just really did not like anything about
the way this book ended.
There's like a big turning point in the story
and you know what it is if you've read it.
As soon as that turning point happened, I
could feel myself getting more and more just
like disheartened with the book and falling
out of love with the book.
So by the time the book was over I was just
so like meh about it.
I do think this book is good for book clubs
though because I feel like this is a book
that has a lot of things that you could potentially
talk about.
There's a lot of, like, morally gray areas
or ways that you can see like multiple sides
of the story so I think this would be a good
book club book because I feel like it would
bring about a really good discussion.
Like I don't think this is a book that everyone
would love and I don't think it's a book that
everyone would hate.
I feel like you're going to find throughout
the spectrum because a lot of the stuff that
happens, like, it could have gone multiple
ways and I can see people's feelings falling
across the board.
So in the end I gave this book a 3 out of
5 stars and I feel like I can't really recommend
this people unless I really know you really
well because I feel like this is a book that
you just kind of have to try for yourself
and see if you enjoy it.
If the premise sounds interesting to you,
I would say just give it a try, there's no
harm.
But I can't necessarily say, like, everyone's
going to love this book or this is a book
to definitely pick up.
So yeah, those are my quick thoughts on THE
LIGHT BETWEEN OCEANS by M.L.
Stedman.
If you've read this book, again, feel free
to leave your comments down below.
I'd love to talk about this with people who've
read it.
I know there were a couple people who said
that they really loved it, like they commented
while they saw that I was reading it, stuff
like that.
So definitely leave comments down below, I
want to talk about this book with people.
So yeah, that's all I have for now and thanks
for watching.
