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.

An emergency national black out scheme called 'Lights Out' does not sound like fun, even if you aren't afraid of the dark, but for Grace who has had a fear of the dark since a scary event in her childhood, it is horrific. Adding in the strange goings on that start to happen and one of the residents at the car home she works at giving her a disturbing dying message, she really starts to struggle.

A clever, tense and atmospheric story with what should be a dystopian element, but feels scarily possible right now! As usual with this author it was beautifully written with excellently drawn characters, particularly Grace. Recommended if you like creepy reads, but make sure you have got batteries in your torch!

Omg amazing! So original and unique, and also strangely believable. I think having lived through lockdown it makes you think that one day we could actually be told we need to have lights out if there was a state of emergency so it jist gave me the creeps. Well written characters, so much tension, realistic reactions!!! I loved it

I really loved End of Story and was looking forward to this one, but I didn’t feel it worked quite as well. Having lived through the 3 day week and blackouts in 1974 I enjoyed the writing around the Lights Out premise which I thought was a clever basis for the creepy story which followed, but I couldn't quite get on board with the reasons it was mandated. There also seemed to be a lot of coincidences!
Having said all that, I do enjoy Ms Swanson's writing style and she kept me turning the pages to see what happened to everyone.
Thank you to netgalley and Hodder and Stoughton for an advance copy of this book

The UK have declared a national emergency and have introduced the lights out scheme. Every household will have no electricity from 8PM until morning. For Grace this is very unwelcome news, due to her phobia of the dark, and when strange messages start occurring every morning, her fears spiral.

This sounded like a fascinating read with an interesting, unique premise so I was keen to pick it up. I am pleased I did after finishing it, as I found it to be a rewarding read, which conjured up many emotions. I wouldn’t say this was a thriller as such but a cross genre novel, combining speculative and contemporary fiction with some mystery, creating a thought provoking, compelling read.

The book did give me the chills occasionally, due to imagining this becoming a reality; the author did a good job in making this seem authentic and creating a dark atmosphere. The characters were written well, some I liked more than others. The way it all came together was unexpected and unusual… I am still trying to process my thoughts here. Although repetitive in parts and feeling as though it may have been slightly too long, this was an enjoyable read overall, exploring a lot of themes. This is a great book for those looking for a complex, multilayered and unique story. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this copy in return for an honest review.

Grace is afraid of the dark, so when the government announces the 'Lights Out' initiative' to preserve energy, she is very apprehensive. When a dying patient tells her that 'something terrible is going to happen when the lights go out'. she is even more terrified.. When the lights do go out. strange things begin to appear in her house. She reports it to the police and meets someone who appears to be experiencing the same issues but is all as it seems?
This was a tense. psychological thriller which left me holding my breath in places - well worth a read.

The government have introduced Lights out, each evening at 8pm all of the electricity will be turned off till 7am the next morning (excluding some vital services and MO’s homes). The scheme is in response to the climate emergency but only serves to highlight the gulf between the government and public. It unfortunately sounds believable given recent events!

Grace is scared of the dark so dreads 8pm. The whole thing is even scarier when she finds someone has been leaving random objects and notes in her home during the black out. Her mental health as well as her marriage are put under enormous strain, can they survive till the government call for lights out to end?

Tom’s is also struggling to hold it together, his relationship with Harper is in danger and as he tries to repair it by attending therapy she is no where to be seen.

When Grace and Tom meet can they help each other?

I thought this was a clever story which mixed dystopian elements with a thriller. The whole idea sounds really plausible which makes it even scarier. Love Louise’s writing and raced to the end to find out what was going on.

A really creepy and original thriller, this book had me completely gripped and breathless at parts. Atmospheric and slight dystopia thriller, a fantastic read xx

This was a compelling read, a bit dystopian, a bit psychological thriller, a bit womens fiction and a bit contemporary fiction! The story centres around Grace, a care worker in a hospice, Grace is terrified of the dark. The government brings in a new initiative to help with environmental concerns – at 8 pm every night the electricity is cut off everywhere apart from necessary services such as hospitals.

Briefly, despite being aware of her fears her husband is less than supportive and to make matters worse someone is getting into her home and leaving notes and strange gifts - from a goldfish to a statue of Venus de Milo! She is convinced it is someone who knows about her fear which goes back to her childhood when some children locked her in a cupboard. Then on top of all this she finds out something about her husband that rocks her world.

The trauma that Grace suffers was so well done, I really felt for her. The premise of the government cutting off electricity seemed a bit unrealistic as it would clearly have terrible repercussions, especially in the winter, but hey it’s fiction so anything goes. There are a number of different threads in the books, no spoilers, and I found one of them particularly moving. A lot of difficult issues are covered in the book and as always this author deals with them well, from the phobias and anxieties to the multiple forms of abuse, and nothing is gratuitous. An entertaining and emotional read.

Lights Out, Louise Swanson's second novel under that name (she has also published as Louise Beech) was a very weird read. I think this is partly to do with the way it's been marketed. The publisher's blurb positions it as a thriller, but despite the effectively creepy atmosphere of the first two-thirds, this is not a thriller, and I think it might work better for those who enjoy women's fiction. I wouldn't have picked it up if I'd known this, so take my comments with a pinch of salt.

Grace has a terror of the dark after suffering childhood trauma, so she is horrified to find out that the British government are piloting a new Lights Out policy in midwinter. From eight pm to seven am, electricity supplies will be switched off to all households, with only essential services like hospitals kept on the grid. Things become even worse when she realises somebody is using the cover of darkness to sneak into her house and leave strange gifts, along with notes signed 'The Night'. I loved this premise, and I especially enjoyed the newspaper reports that intersperse the text about how people are responding to the blackouts - my favourite was the group who made protest art from their broken fridges.

Unfortunately, the way it plays out in the book is highly unrealistic. The Three-Day Week of 1973-4 only restricted power to commercial premises. Planned power cuts in domestic households in 1972 arose from an emergency shortage of coal due to the miners' strike. There's just no way this would be implemented as a policy in Britain outside this kind of genuine shortage situation, for all the reasons given in Lights Out itself. The implication is that the government see it as a vote-winner for tackling climate change, but unsurprisingly it's incredibly unpopular (and if this was the idea, why didn't Lights Out happen in the summer months?). I found it hard to just run with it because the novel keeps bringing the subject up.

The plot also becomes properly bizarre. A twist two-thirds of the way in felt ridiculous. There are also a number of loose ends from sub-plots that seem to only have been introduced to make us feel like we're reading a thriller when we are not. This was a shame, as I think this could have been a good read about trauma and family secrets without these trappings, even if it might not have been my thing. There are a number of very positive reviews, so perhaps this will work better for those who enjoyed Swanson/Beech's other novels.

Although I’ve never been afraid of the dark, I could really relate to Grace. This because whether it is being afraid of the dark, or open water, or spiders, in Lights Out it becomes clear that your fears can really cripple you.
Grace is crippled by her fear of the dark and she knows why: some classmates locked her up in a cupboard when she was small… and ever since she needs a lot of light, even when sleeping. Or – was being locked up really what triggered her fear, all those years ago? Sometimes Grace is not sure. Anyway, she’s a single mother with an adult son, who’s happily living elsewhere while maintaining a good relationship with his mother. Grace has always been rather independent and she and her son build their own world. Later in life she met a lovely man and they’ve been married for some ten years now. Grace works during the night – in a hospice – so she can mostly sleep during the day.
Lights Out (or better: electricity out) is a rather strange invention of the government to try and save energy. Strange, because they didn’t think beforehand what this would mean for the people – especially not for the poor families who are, because it is January, are freezing and miserable without heat or lighting. For Grace, it is horrifying to have to spend a whole night with only the light of one simple battery-operated lamp. The food goes off in the fridge because that’s also shut down each night and she cannot even make tea (although I don’t understand why she cannot boil water in a kettle on the stove).
From the first night one, strange things are happening and not just in her home; her husband is behaving strange too. How all this is connected is becoming clear during the next nights. There is more going on, but in the end everything comes together neatly.
I really liked this book and although its sometimes a bit repetitive, I had a hard time putting it down.
Thanks to Hodder & Stoughton and Netgalley for this review copy.

4.5 stars but I honestly couldn't tell you if I loved this or I hated it... Hear me out!

Here in South Africa, we are often hit with load shedding, aka rolling blackouts, aka regularly scheduled power cuts. It's been going on for years. Life goes on. So when I saw LIGHTS OUT on netgalley, I knew I had to read it. A book that gives the UK drastic overnight load shedding, every night? Everywhere? All night? I was immediately intrigued, and wondered how the author could make it scary. The UK is a lot wealthier than SA. Get some lanterns; get some solar panels; keep calm and carry on, right? Well, Louise Swanson did it! Grace has a crippling childhood-trauma-derived phobia of the dark. Her anxiety bleeds off the page. Every creak and bump in the night made ME jump, because Grace was in such a heightened state of stress. Add to that one of the most bizarre twists I've ever read in a thriller - and I read a lot of bonkers thrillers - and I found this compulsively readable. I genuinely didn't have a clue how the story was going to pan out.

As for why I flip-flop on why I liked it or not... Grace is quite a wishy-washy main character. All part of her growth arc, sure, but it was still somewhat tedious in the earlier chapters. And ultimately, there's a Beauty and the Beast-esque plot line that was not for me. Despite all that, I can't deny that I couldn't put this down.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and publisher for an early read of 'Lights Out'. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Somehow the idea of a government turning all electricity off between 8pm and 7am in winter time to conserve power sounds pretty scary to me but sadly not that too far fetched. Grown up Grace is scared of the dark and as the book progresses we find out why. A compelling psychological thriller with twists. Definitely recommend this well written but sometimes creepy book, just maybe best read with the lights on.

An excellent read, great characters with well-woven stories. I love how the plot evolves and our main focus, Grace, develops over the course of the book.
Will be recommending this to all my friends when it releases, & I can't wait for Louise's next book!

Louise Swanson has a skill for writing extremely disquieting near-dystopian psychological thrillers - I still feel haunted by 'End of Story' and 'Lights Out' is a book in a similar vein. The central character is Grace, a care worker who is terrified of the dark after a traumatic experience in childhood. So she is particularly affected by a new government policy of power cuts to residential areas between 8pm and 7am in order to reduce carbon emissions. Her husband has little sympathy, even when bizarre incidents start happening each dark night - someone is breaking into their home and leaving objects and notes signed 'The Night'. There are also some chapters from the perspective of Tom, who is turning out for marriage guidance sessions on his own and is unable to sit still. Eventually the two storylines come together.

Swanson writes well and it's a very compelling book - I read it in two sessions, not because I really had the time to spare, but because I didn't want to stop. She has a talent for conjuring up a powerful atmosphere - you are left feeling unsettled for a long time after reading. The storyline is a bit far-fetched, but it's original. I couldn't help thinking about all the ways it was implausible, starting with the unlikelihood of the government implementing such an unpopular and counter-productive initiative (although I'm not sure why I consider that implausible!). But this isn't the sort of book that bears close inspection and analysis - it's the sort you read and enjoy in the moment and then consider sleeping with the lights on afterwards.

I'd recommend this to fans of psychological thrillers and those who like dystopian near-future settings.

Disturbing, Compelling..
Disturbing and compelling in equal measure, an eerily possible premise which is extremely well executed. Lights out at eight across the United Kingdom, the censor is promised to be but a temporary measure. For Grace, nothing and nowhere is safe in the dark. Tense, claustrophobic and terrifying, this is an exceptional novel of suspense which will creep slowly under the reader’s skin and stay there. Chilling.

Unique story: I had no idea where it was going until it all came together. Scary and very possible future that makes you think how you would cope with this situation! Will definitely read more by Louise Swanson.