Lights Out by Louise Swanson.

The Government have declared a state of emergency in this tense and thought provoking thriller from Louise Swanson. They’re introducing a temporary policy of electricity rationing, so at 8pm every night the lights and all other electrical power will turn off. For Grace this is her worst nightmare, because she’s terrified of the dark and no reassurance or safety measure from her husband is going to change that. She knows that at some point she will be forced to face the dark alone. An experience of being enclosed in the dark as a child has left it’s mark. All she can do is take as many night shifts at the hospital as possible, where they’re exempt from the switch off. In the house she will have to carry a torch and try to be alone as little as possible. When the switch off comes it’s effects are worse than she could possibly have imagined. Someone is coming into her home. Late at night when she’s shivering under the covers, too scared to move. Someone is leaving behind strange gifts - a third goldfish is swimming beside Brad and Jennifer in the bowl, a horrible painting of a dragon has replaced her own photo on the stairs, a pair of candlesticks in the kitchen. With them he leaves a strange and unsettling note:

‘I have you in my sights. Love, the Night.’

Where can Grace feel safe if not in her own home? She’s an interesting character, clearly badly affected by childhood trauma and the memories of her previous, abusive relationship. The author opens with a first person account of being locked in a small pitch black space, it’s so vivid I could feel her fear. Grace tells us she was locked in a cupboard by the other children at school, where they continue taunting her until she wets herself. Since then she has always kept the lights on after dark and her partner sleeps in an eye mask to avoid the constant light. She also works at night where she can and sleeps in the day at home. She works as a carer in the hospice, spending a lot of time sitting beside those who are close to death, once her other tasks are completed. She didn’t go to university because she had a baby boy while very young and he has recently left home to live with his partner. Grace moved in with her own boyfriend and he has promised to be home in time for first big switch off. However, when she’s counting down the minutes, torch in hand, her partner is nowhere to be seen.

The author shows brilliantly how even a strong and capable woman can be triggered by something that others barely notice. She touches on how the lights out policy affects the wider population - hypothermia in the elderly, rotting food defrosting and causing waste, a rise in crime. For others the lack of power has some positives, people can’t hide or be distracted by screens and communication within families will improve. Grace has been a single mum and she works well with people who are dying, so we know she isn’t scared of the big stuff. So why has one experience from childhood left such a huge impression? Her mother had always hoped she’d grow out of it and now the twelve hours of darkness must surely mean she must face the fear? It’s like state sponsored exposure therapy. Then ‘the night’ starts visiting and suddenly the dark covers up worse fears, new ones that are very real indeed. Even worse, her night visitor isn’t breaking in, so surely they must have a key. She is unsure how to deal with it and ringing the police is pointless when they’re dealing with a darkness induced crime wave.

In between Grace’s sections of the story we meet a man who is in therapy. He left me feeling very on edge and I found myself wondering how I’d react if he were my client. He seems very unaware how counselling works, despite it being a fairly common concept these days. He also responds strangely to the therapist’s standard introduction. He fidgets, stands and paces round the room and I was uneasy on the therapist’s behalf. He seemed agitated. He’s convinced that his girlfriend is seeing another man. Is he paranoid? We have no idea how he fits into the story, but I was intrigued by him. Grace’s world becomes even more confusing when someone from her past turns up at the hospice as a patient. She knows she should disclose their connection, but if she does she knows she won’t be able to work with them. She decides to keep it to herself so she can sit with them. What clues, if any, might they have about her childhood and could what they know help her fear of the dark? As the pages turned I became more and more suspicious of her partner. Never home when he says he will be, distracted and very unsympathetic. I didn’t like him from the start and wondered if he was exercising coercive control over her. The moments when she’s under the covers with her heart racing as she hears her intruder moving around downstairs are truly terrifying. Yet he doesn’t seem malicious. He seemed to enjoy her fear and I even wondered if the night was closer to home than she thought. The truth was even stranger than expected and I found myself rooting for Grace, wanting her to get some resolution about her night visitor but also more long term relief from her phobia. That could only come from openness and facing the truth of her childhood and that time in the pitch dark cupboard. This is an enjoyable thriller with interesting insights on how childhood trauma affects us and how early relationships can inform the attachments we form in later life.

I loved Louise's previous book End of Story, so was thrilled to receive this book. The premise sounded incredible, and one I could really envisage. My fiance is from Newmarket, UK and the council there already turn off their street lights at midnight to save power. So, this seemed so beliavable, and I think that's the brilliance of speculative fiction.
There was a lot of mystery around Grace's story, and why she seemed so terrified whenever the lights went out at 8pm. While this added some suspense, I feel readers could have had some information as the story progressed to keep us engaged more. Without them, I feel it slowed the book down, and I found it rather repetitive and frustrating. Grace seemed like a young girl who is scared of the dark, and I think understanding her fears better would have helped me.

n Lights Out, Louise Swanson strikes the perfect balance between a 'high concept" thriller and a study of relationships and psychology.
Taking place, like many of Swanson's stories written both under this name and as Louise Beech, in Hull, the story is rooted in the everyday but transcends that ordinariness by having external forces impose something weird on the local population - in this case, a power outage every night, intended to save energy. Reminding me somewhat of the power cuts of the 70s, which I lived through, it also evokes the dislocation of the Covid lockdown and some of the social strains and tensions that emerged than and since (while I think not intended, I also saw some resonance with this summer's riots). So, while the main device is invented, it also feels close to recent experience.

At the centre of things is Grace, for whom the loss of light on these dark winter evenings is a huge deal because she has a terror of the dark following some murky events in her childhood (which will gradually be revealed). It doesn't help that a prowler is abroad, assaulting women when the lights are off - and that someone (whether or not the same intruder) begins to enter her house at night leave odd presents and messages. Creepy or what?

So things get very menacing very early on. In other hands, this could go very wrong - where, exactly, do you go next with the story? - but Swanson knows how to wind up the tension still further, and then stiller further, if that makes sense. There's an almost palpable strain - a kind of mental keening - as Grace attempts to balance her day job (and sometimes night - she works shifts at a hospice) with her fear of the dark, to maintain her relationship with an (obviously no-good) husband, a domineering mother and that abiding mystery (an element of which is that her dad went missing when she was a kid). Honestly, at times I had to put the book down and just BREATHE, so tense does it get. But I never left it sitting there for long.

A book with a strong sense of how hurts from the past can fester - a major theme is the need to remember and confront, and to resist the easy solution of forgetting - and of how parents can mess up their kids' lives (they may not mean to but they do) this is also a taut, nailbitting thriller yet has many tender moments. You'll be rooting for Grace, I guarantee. This is Louise Swanson at the top of her game.

I remember the power cuts in the 1970's, coming home from work to a house full of candles and eating dinner by a gas fire. This book made me remember those times and how unhappy everyone was. This was a slow starter and a very slow build-up to an exciting climax. A very good read. My thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

am old enough to just about remember the power cuts in the 1970s. I remember the candles dotted around the house and cooking on the fire. Toast has never tasted better. It was such fun, it was exciting. As a grown up I couldn't think of anything I'd rather not have than no electricity. And yet, with the cost of living crisis and the climate crisis, this could be a reality very soon.

In this novel the government has decided to turn off power between the hours of 8pm and 7am every day. They give information and tips on how to deal with this, through their website, such as to turn off all appliances before the power cut so that there isn't a surge when the electricity comes back on, and not to open the freezer for at least two hours after the power is back up. Fascinating stuff and very probably how it would actually be in these circumstances. I'm taking these tips on board, just in case.

The story is set in Hull and around that part of Yorkshire, and is about a woman who has a severe fear of the dark. By day she is a palliative hospice carer looking after people at the end of their life. But at night her anxiety is increased by not just the darkness phobia but also that things mysteriously appear in her house when she is alone, such as a live fish and cryptic notes. Her rituals become repetitive and obsessive and her paranoia increases. I didn't quite feel the tension though, at the start. That soon changed. Her story is punctuated by that of a man with severe anxiety and he is visiting a counsellor. Their stories have to be linked somehow...

This is a totally captivating story that becomes more intense as it goes on. Deeply psychological, sometimes a bit ethereal, mysterious and spooky. It is about facing fears and protecting loved ones, the use and abuse of power - including electricity. When the fuel is taken away crime rates increase as does domestic abuse, mental and physical health, and relationships in all walks of life deteriorate.

This could be a dystopian novel but there are too many similarities to the recent lockdown that it feels very plausible and current. That is actually quite scary. A powerful, chilling and absorbing book.

Due to an energy crisis the government have decided that the electricity will be turned off from 8pm & 7am. It is a great inconvenience for most but for Grace it is horrific! For as long as she can remember she has been terrified of the dark. She thinks it is due to being locked in a box by bullies at school but she has to have a light on. When she gets up each morning something has been left for her- a fish, a lamp, a Venus de Milo statue, along with a note signed 'love The Night'. Needless to say this doesn't help her anxiety. She has no ides how they are getting into the house. Her partner is pretty useless too. Alongside Grace there is the strange man who is going to couples counselling meetings but without the other half of the couple.

To start with this was a confusing book. I couldn't see what the connection was. However wen the connection was revealed it was very clever if a bit far fetched. At first I thought I might have to give up on this but eventually I was hooked. Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for letting me read & review this book.

If you like very relevant but with a side of dystopia this is the novel for you.

While this was a very slow read, I couldn’t put it down, looking for any clue of how it would end.

Engrossing, creepy and claustrophobic.

I really liked the sound of this book, with the idea of a national "Lights Out" initiative where the electricity is turned off from evening until morning being thrilling and scary all in one go! The book started off well, and it centres around Grace, who works as a carer in a Hospice. Grace is scared of the dark, so for her this initiative is the worst thing ever. However, when it seems someone is coming into her house during the Lights Out, Grace realises that the dark isn't the only thing she should be scared of.

The storyline is quite slow paced, and whilst I was interested at the beginning when the plot was being laid out, I found myself losing interest at the story moved on. It's quite a dark read, and whilst I do enjoy a good thriller, I'm not really into dystopian fiction and this felt very much like that. Whilst, looking at other reviews, it has been received really well, it wasn't really the book for me.

This is the second book from the author writing as Louise Swanson and as I loved End of story I was excited to read Lights Out. The whole concept was so scarily real and you could believe it could happen after Covid, cost of living crisis and fuel costs. I devoured the book and couldn't wait to see what was happening and how it would end. So loved it all and the ending. Can't wait for the next book!

Another book by Louise Swanson that is fantastically written!! I love the slight dystopian aspect to this novel - Lights Out is a completely believable concept and perfectly executed in this book.
The whole book has a spooky vibe to it and it kept me turning page after page! Whilst the ending was not what I expected, I found that it fitted quite nicely with things. The idea of isolation and loneliness if prominent throughout the book and I think Louise’s authors noted at the end lend itself even more to this theme.

Grace is a carer in a hospice and, after an incident that happened when she was a child, she's afraid of the dark so, when the Government introduce a new initiative called Lights Out, where all electricity is switched off between 8pm and 7am, it's Grace's worst nightmare and she doesn't know how she'll get through it. Added to her fear is the fact someone is coming into her home every night and leaving messages for her and she becomes more convinced each day that it's someone that knows about her past. How will she ever overcome her fears when she doesn't even feel safe in her own home?

Lights Out is the latest speculative/dystopian thriller by Swanson with an intriguing and well crafted premise. Told on a daily basis from the start of the Lights Out initiative introduced by the government, we learn how it affects the public, especially the less well off who are already struggling without this being added to their woes. There are some great characters in this book and Grace, in particular, was one of my favourites, we all have doubts and insecurities and she had them by the bucketload. This is a creepy and atmospheric read that, if you're scared of the dark like Grace, should definitely not be read after lights out! Another fabulous tale by this author and I can't wait to see what she delights us with next.

I'd like to thank Hodder & Stoughton and Netgalley for the approval, I will post my review on Amazon and Goodreads.

I have reviewed Lights Out for book recommendation and selling site LoveReading.co.uk. I have chosen this title as both a LoveReading Star Book and a Liz Pick of the Month (for October). Please see the link for the full review.

3⭐️

Having loved the uniqueness of End of Story, I was intrigued to read this book.
It’s more of a slow suspense for me than thriller with it being very character driven. It mostly centres around Grace a hospice worker, but we get the story from a couple of POV. It’s storyline is current as we were threatened with the possibility of electric cuts which were averted mostly because people couldn’t afford to use as much electricity as they would normally have done due to the price hikes.

Unfortunately for me this was too slow, and it struggled to keep my attention. When we get the explanation it’s so drawn out, for me it didn’t add any suspense it irritated me.

A traumatic incident in her childhood, imperfectly remembered, has left Grace with a deep-seated fear – no, let’s make that a terror – of darkness. So the Government declaration of a state of emergency – from 8pm, the electricity will be cut off, only to be restored in the mornings – is the stuff of nightmares.

Working in a hospice, she sometimes works nights – she’ll be safe there, where the restrictions won’t apply. But some nights she’s at home, unexpectedly alone – and her fear is only magnified when she realises that someone is entering her home in the darkness, leaving unusual gifts and disturbing messages. There are small things that make her feel a little more secure: her mother’s phone calls, though she rarely has time for her; a young girl she waves to from her window, until she’s not there any more; and a friend at work who provides support, but she’s not around when she’s barricaded in her bedroom hearing noises downstairs. The watchers on the streets – to make sure people are safe – see nothing unusual. And her husband should be with her – but he isn’t.

This is one of those books that rather defies categorisation. In many ways, it’s a psychological thriller, and set in a very real imagined world – the Government response to the climate crisis and the absence of concern for the people left without heat or light, the spread of illness, the increasing number of accidents filling hospitals, is all too believable. But it’s also very much Grace’s own story – her emotional experience, facing up to her fear, trying to apply logic to a situation that she can’t understand, finding the bravery to examine the past and deal with the present. And I’ll use the word “emotional” again – there are so many layers to the story, and it’s such a compelling read, but Grace’s loneliness and vulnerability is something that really hurts at times, especially during those dark and endless nights.

It’s a chilling read, the tension steadily mounting, filled with darkness and the horrors it conceals – but also uplifting as Grace finds the courage and tenacity to cope with her challenges, and reach a new understanding. The author’s writing has never been better – this was an extraordinary read, stunningly believable, and entirely unforgettable.

(Review also copied to Amazon UK, but link not yet available)

Well this certainly gave me the fear! We are at the mercy of our governments and I could just imagine them imposing an electricity power cut like this to win them popularity and votes. Turning off the power from 8pm to 7am was absolute madness, however it was justified by the government similar to the 'pile the bodies high' comment during Covid, any lives lost would be worth it.
This is a book about relationships in all their forms and the characters were written beautifully. The nightly 'lights out' was preceded by a sense of dread and made for very uncomfortable reading.
Very interesting concept the story went in a direction I certainly wasn't expecting. Would definitely recommend.

Every time I read something by this author I just am hypnotised by it.
The way of writing and the storylines, just keep me in there with it.
The story itself, I can’t even imagine what this would be like! The time it was written explained at the end was cold enough & bad enough. This would be a nightmare.
The characters, Tom ok weird but bless him. Grace, strength & definitely amazing.
Fab book

Overall I found this book to be very creepy with the stalker / intruder tension but coupled with an almost close reality of electricity controlled by government made it even more scary.

4.25*

Nightly government mandated blackouts and a fear of the dark don’t make for great bedfellows and for Grace and it’s all made worse by a ‘visitor’ who is getting into her home and leaving terrifying notes and presents.

Who is it, what does he want and how will she get through that along with the blackouts and managing her crumbling marriage? It all makes for an absorbing and engaging story that is part mystery, part domestic thriller, and part social commentary on the impact of government policy.

It's a 'what if' story looking at the possible end results if the cost of living crisis had worsened in the UK and makes for uncomfortable reading, playing on our natural fears of the dark whilst also feeling very family centred with a lot of humanity and empathy, especially the end of life care setting.

As with End of Story, I loved Louise Swanson's writing and plot synopsis and love that we get a creepy, almost horror set up that ends up with very human focused reveals. Some of the characters didn't work for me initially and it took me a little while to get into but as the story ramped it gripped my attention and couldn't stop reading on to see what would come next.

I look forward to what comes next!

Thank you to Netgalley and Hodder & Stoughton for this digital review copy of "Lights Out" in exchange for my honest and voluntary review.

This was a very readable book with an engaging main character, Grace. We meet her as the country is about to go into a semi blackout, with the electricity turned off from 8pm each night allegedly to combat climate change. This is a big problem because it's in the middle of winter and people are freezing, becoming ill as a result, and so on. But it's an even bigger problem for Grace because she has a debilitating fear of the dark.

From the beginning it's clear there is something in her past that has caused the fear. We think we know what it is, but more is uncovered as the book unfolds. We learn more about her father and a trauma in her childhood as we discover what really happened.

Grace's character is very easy to identify with. We get to see her most intimate and private fears, not only about the dark but also about her relationship with her husband Riley. It seems that she wants more from him than she is getting, and it was interesting to read about their relationship and wonder why she seemed to be settling for less.

I did think that the writing of their relationship lacked a bit of depth however, as did the character of Riley. We don't really get to know much about him - his personality or his background or his history with Grace - so that made the descriptions of him feel a little bit superficial. There are betrayals that he hides from Grace but we don't really get to understand why he's behaved the way he has.

The book is good at describing the impact of the fictitious Lights Out policy, and all of the things that could flow from something like that - rising hospital admissions for health complaints linked to the cold, protests over the policy, fridges packing up because they can't cope with being repeatedly switched off, and even someone who is diabetic and suffers because his insulin can't be refrigerated.

All of that, along with the developments in Grace's life and her experiences, made this very readable and engaging. Thanks to Netgalley for the preview.

A brilliant book and story from the pen of Louise.
Lights Out is a dystopian future which feels eerily prescient and all too plausible in this hellscape we are living in.
Thank goodness for books, and Louise especially.
Her stories are really heartbreaking and heartfelt.
I can well imagine any government espousing a Lights Out mandate. Well done, Louise.
I absolutely loved this scary but all believable tale.