The Lightkeeper's Daughters

Summary (from the publisher): Though her mind is still sharp, Elizabeth's eyes have failed. No longer able to linger over her beloved books or gaze at the paintings that move her spirit, she fills the void with music and memories of her family—a past that suddenly becomes all too present when her late father's journals are found amid the ruins of an old shipwreck.

With the help of Morgan, a delinquent teenage performing community service, Elizabeth goes through the diaries, a journey through time that brings the two women closer together. Entry by entry, these unlikely friends are drawn deep into a world far removed from their own—to Porphyry Island on Lake Superior, where Elizabeth’s father manned the lighthouse seventy years before.

As the words on these musty pages come alive, Elizabeth and Morgan begin to realize that their fates are connected to the isolated island in ways they never dreamed. While the discovery of Morgan's connection sheds light onto her own family mysteries, the faded pages of the journals hold more questions than answers for Elizabeth, and threaten the very core of who she is.

Review: I received an uncorrected proof copy of this novel from HarperCollins. 

Elizabeth grew up on Porphyry Island on Lake Superior in the 1930s, where her father was lighthouse keeper. Her childhood was characterized by isolation, hard work, and minding her twin sister Emily, who was born different and never spoke. Now she is an elderly woman with failed eyesight living in a nursing home, but her past comes rushing back when her late father's journals are found on a shipwreck. With the help of a delinquent foster teen, Morgan, Elizabeth goes back through the journals and uncovers secrets that help them both make peace with their past. 

This novel had an interesting premise. I loved the details and descriptions of Elizabeth's upbringing as a lighthouse keeper's daughter, as well as the bond between Elizabeth and her twin Emily. Pendziwol does a good job of building suspense through Elizabeth slowly revealing her life story to Morgan. Yet I was disappointed by the ultimate revelation of the great secret the twins had covered up and which had made their brother Charlie walk away from them. The author seemed to go overboard, creating a complicated saga of connected secrets and events rather than one secret. This felt like an attempt to pile on details to keep the reader interested but made the plot difficult to follow and increasingly unbelievable. 

It was an interesting choice to have the narrative alternate between Elizabeth and the teenager Morgan. Although the two ostensibly have no connection other than both having to spend time at the nursing home, I bought the relationship between them and it was a good frame story to slowly reveal Elizabeth's past. However, the author clearly felt like it was helpful to include a plot twist that would tie the two characters even closer together. I felt this was unnecessary, not to mention farfetched. Although this novel had promise and some good details, the plot lacked a believable resolution. 

Stars: 3