Reviewing books pre-publication is like being let in on the most marvellous secret, which I then help to share widely and loudly. It is my absolute pleasure to be involved in sharing how fabulous I think this book is. I came into this book with no pre-conceptions, no idea of the storyline. I saw a Louise Swanson book, and knew I must read it.

Lights Out is a new Government policy, to help address the growing climate change crisis. Electricity will be cut to all non essential addresses, between the hours of 8pm and 7am, during a harsh and bleak January. The dark brings out all of our fears, and heightens so much. The dark suppresses our vision making all of our other senses, and imagination, go into overdrive. Fear, anxiety, loneliness and pain are all intensified by the absence of light, the absence of hope.

The govt line of “we’re all in this together”, feels very reminiscent of us all being in the same storm in our own recent past. While the reality was us all being in the same storm, with some in rowing boats, while others plainly sailed in luxury yachts. The author conveys the feelings of these inequalities extremely well.

On the surface, the book is about a Government trying to appease voters, to try to win votes in the run up to an election. (Sound familiar to anyone?)
When you read further through the pages, deeper, you realise the book is about secrets, honesty, courage, and ultimately knowing your worth, and not letting others devalue you.

The characterisation is superb. The characters are a cross section of those found in life. Likeable, unlikeable, shallow, empathetic, kind and thoroughly obnoxious; but nobody is perfect, everyone has their flaws. Which is why they feel so fully formed, so convincing.
Grace represents so many of us. Many of us have boxes, and we hold those lids down tightly; scared of what will happen if it were to come loose.

I loved Lights Out, I started reading expecting a thriller, but found so much more. It’s a 5⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ read, shining brightly through the dark.

I love this author, whether she's writing as Louise Beech or Louise Swanson, and as Louise Swanson, this is the second high concept speculative novel to which we've been treated. The concept of Lights Out, where all electricity is turned off between the hours of 8pm and 8am to conserve energy and combat climate change, felt particularly unsettling to me, as I rely on a electric hoist and wheelchair, which means that without electricity, I would literally be unable to move. Louise Swanson's writing is so powerful that I was dragged, kicking and screaming, into this world that she has created so precisely and with so much atmosphere and I couldn't let go.

The protagonist of Lights Out is Grace, and although she has a very different reason to depend on electricity, I felt totally able to empathise with her. Louise Swanson is absolutely brilliant at creating characters with so much emotional depth and I was intrigued to find out more about Grace. She's a character with many layers and I wanted to discover more about her history and why she reacted to the situations in the novel in the way she did.

As a story, Lights Out has several layers and I loved being able to peel each one back. The plot itself is written in an incredible way and the atmosphere and sense of foreboding alone made me want to continue reading. However, Louise Swanson has given us much more than that. She has explored in detail several aspects of modern life (which I won't outline in case of spoilers) and human emotion and many of these resonated with me - and I'm sure other readers will find something in the novel that they can relate to. There are also political undertones to this novel which struck a chord with me, and root the story further in reality and make the plot scarily easy to imagine.

And yes, Louise Swanson did make me cry.

When I saw a post on social media about this book. It sounds really intriguing and curiosity got the better of me and I checked on Netgalley to see it was there and it was.
I liked the basis of this story of the UK is in a state of emergency and every night at 8pm the electricity gets cut and everyone is left in darkness. Grace who is afraid of the dark because of something that happened to her as a childhood. When someone breaks in and leaves objects around the house. This story sounded just up my street.
But for me personally I found the first 35% of the story very disjointed as it kept jumping to one thing to another and I am wondering the relevance to all this. It even confused me what kind of genre this book is supposed to be. I had difficulty connecting to this, especially the real reason the person why the person was leaving objects in Grace’s house. I thought really?? After all that I just skimmed to the end of the book. 2.5 stars from me.

This whole book is filled with layers upon layers of mystery,just who is doing what and why.
Very cleverly told, and the realisation of what has happened is brilliant and original.
Just how would you cope when faced with your worst fear?
I'll look forward to reading more from this author as this was an excellent read.
RECOMMENDED.
Thanks to Netgalley and Hodder and Stoughton for the ARC.

Such a great read.
I was totally absorbed in this book.
Louise is one of my favourite authors.
Thanks for the opportunity to read & review it.