This was a classic Alex Bell. Terrifying, unpredictable and emotional. Initially I was concerned that the characters in The Lighthouse were going to be imitations of those in Frozen Charlotte and that this would make the book less interesting, but it did not.
The story gripped me very early and held my attention to the last page. The mystery behind the lighthouse was heartbreaking and I cried reading it. Additionally, some moments were writen in such a visceral way they were genuinely frightening.
My only real criticism is that the allusion to a romance between Jess and Will felt quite forced and wasn't necessary but otherwise a.really great, scary read.

I’m delighted to announce that the queen of Red Eye YA horror, Alex Bell is back, and she is on tremendous form with her fourth title in the UK’s most popular horror brand! The Lighthouse is Red Eye’s twelfth book since Bell opened the series with Frozen Charlotte (2014) and later followed it with The Haunting (2016) and Charlotte Says (2017) with this new offering being their strongest release since Savage Island (2018) and Whiteout (2018). School librarians up and down the country release a collective cheer whenever a new Red Eye novel appears as kids just cannot get enough of them and they beautifully bridge the gap between Middle Grade and YA. If you do not read much kids horror and are unsure what to recommend then the Red Eye brand is the perfect place to start and I absolutely guarantee that the incredibly well plotted The Lighthouse will have most young teens on the hook (and most adults) and make sure you hang around for a simply brilliant closing two pages which will wrong foot even the most jaded of adult horror readers.

The Lighthouse opens with fifteen-year-old Jess and twelve-year-old Rosie being shipped off to Bird Rock, a tiny island in the Outer Hebrides where they will stay with their ornithologist father, their half-brother Charlie and their stepmother. Jess narrates the story and is shocked to be stuck in such a remote location during the summer holidays, on an island dominated by gannets who shriek, stink, and poo endlessly. The family stay in the ancient lighthouse and bird hunters on the island say the lighthouse is haunted and has a very dark history. The manner in which the supernatural story was developed was perfectly pitched, expertly paced as Jess begins to feel increasingly isolated and things go bump in the night and Charlie begins to act stranger and stranger. But then things really kick off when Rosie disappears and nobody seems to remember her except for Jess. Along the way a teenage boy, with a tragic connection to the lighthouse helps out, and it was nice to see a token romance NOT thrown into the mix! This was a very cool pacey supernatural thriller. I loved it. AGE RANGE 11/12+