Synopsis
From award winning author Lucy Strange, The Island at the Edge of Night is a dark, suspenseful mystery set on an island where science and magic blur and danger and secrets unfold.
Faye Fitzgerald does not remember what she’s done to land herself at the Auk Island School. She remembers so little about the night that changed her life. Growing up surrounded by nature with her botonist father in the Forest House, she can’t cope with the bleak and treeless island where the school sits in seclusion.
Where she and the other children are treated more like prisoners than pupils.
While her fellow students begin to defy the horrible headmaster within the walls of the school, something is begging for Faye’s attention on the outside. “The Knife,” the only mountain on the island, is calling for her. And it will draw her into a web of secrets that she could have never thought possible.
In this gripping mystery that weaves in and around the line between science and magic, a murdered prince, a majestic stag, and a key that will open any door lead Faye on a dangerous journey across the desolate landscape to uncover what happened and the truth about her father’s scientific discoveries.
The Island at the Edge of Night is a masterfully written, gripping mystery rooted in family and the healing power of nature from the Queen of Gothic.
Review
A huge thanks to Scholastic/Chicken House for sending over a physical ARC. I said yes for the cover alone, look at its glory! Luckily, the writing doesn’t disappoint either.
Faye Fitzgerald did something awful. She knows it, but she can’t seem to remember it. A dark and stormy night, the hole in the garden wall, and an incident that damaged an incredibly old yew tree, and her aunt! Faye was always a bit of an outsider, never wanting to stay in school, preferring to sit in the trees and read. So why would she have caused one damage? Her father can hardly stand to look at her, her aunt is bedridden, and this was the last straw. Sent away to a boarding school for troubled children on a remote island, Faye must struggle through mistreatment, misremembering, and more, all while the call of the forest is within nightly reach.
I really enjoyed the setting for this. The island is almost a character itself, the author allowing you to explore and map it out at the same time Faye does. Its placement in the 1930s allowed for some style in the writing, including some terms that have become dated otherwise, that actually raised this somewhat outside of the realm of middle grade or young adult. If possible, it lands somewhere as an elevated version of the two in a gothic mystery with elegant prose. I was hooked, the pages flowing, and I simply had to continue reading.
Faye is a great character. Referred to as “wicked” by the school’s owners, she constantly battles with that assessment, bearing her innocence, kindness, and love for others and nature to the world. She’s not some wicked thing, just a girl, a child, nothing more or less. Or, is she? The hints at magical realism, at the fantastical or supernatural, were plot points that had me so eager to read more to gain answers. Faye’s father, the botanist, the believer in faeries, the lover of trees and their eternal roots. That same love borne to Faye, that ache in her belly to be with nature. She is both intriguing as something possibly other, and as just a sweet girl in need of the right attention and love. To be nurtured within nature. You really can easily find yourself caring for her. Rooting for her.
Her friends on the island, which are made in secret or in shared trauma, Boudicca and Prince Filiberto, are both a great level of comic relief. I’m not certain the story itself needed levity, or that I expected it, but I was surely glad for it when it happened. Both bodacious, one is loud and proud, the other protective and dramatic. I thoroughly enjoyed them both. One of them refuses to submit, to bow down, the other, a survivor, manages to persist like something (less creepy though) from The Boy. Most importantly, they both accept, believe, and help Faye.
For me, the way the author manages to wrap everything up is what solidified it as a 5/5 read. The mystery is intriguing, but I had a few things pegged from the start—though this made it no less enjoyable. It was in how she took readers through to the end that sold it all for me. The emotional pull, the gut-punch of everything that’s been building, is very deftly handled. I got teary for sure. I felt for Faye, believed in her and her journey, so the ending was a grand slam. The relationships are so important to this story, and each of them were wrapped in a way that felt like a cozy blanket (albeit slightly emotionally barbed at first).
I think this would be the perfect read for kids who are fans of mystery or thriller, but also perhaps for those big-time young readers who want something with a tad more skill and weight to it. I will definitely be on the lookout for this author now!
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