Book #57 of 2019:
The Light Between Worlds by Laura E. Weymouth
Another postmodern portal fantasy focused less on magical adventuring and more on what happens after a return home from fairyland. It’s most similar to Seanan McGuire’s excellent Wayward Children series in that respect, although there are also shades of Neil Gaiman’s short story “The Problem of Susan” and even Lev Grossman’s The Magicians. And since its secondary world is essentially just a Narnian pastiche — right down to the siblings escaping the London Bombing — there’s a clear debt to C.S. Lewis here as well.
Those are all big shoes to fill, but overall debut author Laura E. Weymouth acquits herself admirably. The first half of the novel follows the Lucy figure in flashbacks to her time as a heroine of the Woodlands and in the present aching to return there, after which the narrative turns to her sister, who has seemingly readjusted to their old reality more easily. Both sections are poignant considerations of the scars of early trauma, and, like the Gaiman story, thoughtful critiques of Narnia’s treatment of the children who outgrow it.
The worst thing about this book is that it’s so much in conversation with Lewis that it really doesn’t stand well on its own; the Woodlands are shown in such sparse detail that it could be hard for readers to understand the appeal without bringing our own memories of Narnia to bear. I don’t mind that the novel covers such similar thematic ground to McGuire, but I can’t see anyone who hasn’t read The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe enjoying this off-brand sequel nearly as well. For the rest of us, however, it’s well worth exploring.
[Content warning for self-harm, depression, and discussion of suicide. I’d still call this a Young Adult novel, but the target audience is definitely older than Lewis’s.]
★★★★☆
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