Fiction Reviews
The Lighthouse at the Edge of the World
(2025) J. R. Dawson, Tor, £22, hrdbk, 323pp, ISBN 978-1-035-01824-6
There have been many different stories about Charon, who ferries the souls of the dead to the underworld, but this has to be one of the most striking. In place of the River Styx we have Lake Michigan, on the shores of which sits the Ferry Station, run by the Station Master and his (found-) daughter Nera Haronsen. The setting, then, is most definitely and specifically Chicago and the story is replete with references to local landmarks, such as Lou Malnati’s, the restaurant chain renowned for its classic ‘deep dish’ pizza. However, although that adds colour, it does make it tricky for any reader unfamiliar with the city to get their bearings. Likewise, the architectural layout of the ferry Station can be baffling, with the lighthouse of the title somehow sitting above the central atrium.
The light it beams out, continuously it seems, not only acts as a beacon but also drives away the Haunts – nightmarish entities in thrall to an arch-demon who has been imprisoned in the Chicago Water Tower, famously one of the few buildings to survive the Great Fire of 1871. To help them reach the station safely and avoid being eaten by the Haunts, the souls of the dead are guided by a pack of telepathic – and for anyone who has ever owned a terrier, implausibly cute – dogs. Once there, the souls can rest up before eventually boarding the ferry and being transported by Nera and her dad to the great beyond.
Into this rather complex scenario wanders Charlie, mourning her dead sister Sam who, it emerges, was caught up in a mall shooting that Charlie survived. Riddled with guilt and increasingly estranged from her grieving father, Charlie, who is somehow able to see the ghosts all around her, walks the streets, hoping to find Sam’s and at least say goodbye. So when one of the dogs inadvertently leads her to the Station and she meets Nera, that hope rises to the point where it all but consumes not only Charlie but also, as it turns out, all around her.
In part, then, the story is about Charlie and her search for Sam. But mostly it is about the burgeoning relationship between Charlie and Nera and their navigation of the love between them as Charlie realises that she is gay and Nera comes to appreciate that there is more to the half-life than being the Ferryman’s daughter and the heir to the Station. Which is all very bitter-sweet with love and death, grief and guilt, so thoroughly entangled. The problem (for me anyway) is the pacing which is slow to the point of being glacial. Not much happens for a long, long time, except for a lot - and I mean, a *lot* - of emoting. I’m sure there will be many readers who love the lingering but as much as I like stories that give us insights into the interior lives of the characters, after a hundred pages of Charlie’s angst and Nera’s uncertainty I was ready for some action – any action!
That’s not to say there aren’t revelations, about the identities of both the Station Master and the demon in the water tower for example, and things do explode, literally and metaphorically, just before the end, when it is all wrapped up quite satisfactorily. It’s just that, like Charlie wading through the Chicagoan equivalent of the waters of Lethe in her efforts to find Sam, I found this all a bit too heavy going.
Steven French
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