Review: Girl in the Dark

Girl in the Dark by Anna Lyndsey
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book was much more than I expected it to be.

It is not a pity me story, which it could have easily been. Instead it faced the harsh realities of a woman who is living with something I don't know I could handle, but it also celebrated the wins and joy that she could find. This is something that I found incredibly touching throughout the story.

Anna is a woman who develops a severe sensitivity to light and how she has to try to work to make the world around her livable. It chronicles how she occupies her mind during lengthy periods alone, her joy at brief moments of remission and most importantly of all her relationship with her husband.

While the book would have always been an important one, Anna's story deserves to be told, it is the central relationship with Pete that really spoke to me and I think makes the book as lovely as it is. They way they grow and handle things is touching, the moment where they made it to a rose garden together made me genuinely well up. Because of course a couple wants to go sit in a beautiful location together and the fact that it was made possible, that made me incredibly happy.

The book is also frank about the way that when you have an illness (I think any long term one, not just in Anna's case) that you will lose people who simply don't have time or find it difficult. This book is careful not to blame them for this and shows it in an understanding light. But also the network of people that comes out of it was something special.

I'm left rather rambling as I think back about this book, because I couldn't decide if I was happy or sad at the end. I rather think this is how it is meant to leave the reader. That is life. Nothing is all good or all bad and humans have an amazing adaptability to try and make the best out of any situation.

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