Book Review: IN ANOTHER LIGHT

Title: In Another Light

Author: AJ Banner
Publisher: Lake Union Publishing
Pages: 251
My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

 

Phoebe Glassman is grieving the loss of her husband, Logan McClary and toddler daughter, Ava, in a terrible car accident three years ago. Since then, she has lost herself in her work at the funeral home where she works to reconstruct dead faces. Her mother, Lidia, an archaeologist, now suffers from Alzheimer’s Disease.

When the body of a 32-year-old woman, Pauline Steele, is sent to Fair Winds, the funeral home in which she works, Phoebe finds herself taken unawares and desperate for answers.

Not only is Pauline a doppelganger of Phoebe’s, though a decade younger, she also has on her arm a tattoo that Logan had a photo of on his phone. And in the dead woman’s purse, Phoebe finds her own photo.

As Phoebe uncovers more and more evidence of Logan’s affair and duplicity, she becomes obsessed with finding out the complete truth. But the truth is at the bottom of an abyss. Will Phoebe find the answers she seeks? Or will she lose herself in the process?

 

The book is written in the 3^rd person present tense PoV of Phoebe. The author does a fantastic job of portraying the character of Phoebe, her grief, her understanding of betrayal and her desperation to reclaim what is truly hers. We feel a sense of pity and compassion for her, at her constant attempts at guessing and second guessing herself, her feeble attempts at investigation.

My heart ached at the thought of a mother missing out on the milestones in her child’s life, not knowing her favourites.

But some things felt forced. Phoebe deleting her best friend Renee’s text without reading it made no sense.

 
The details about the work done in a funeral home make for interesting, if morbid, reading.

Our heroine has an unusual profession. A trained sculptor, she reconstructs dead human faces for the comfort of the grieving family. She also prepares the bodies of the dead for burial or cremation, embalming etc. As a mortuary cosmetologist, Phoebe knows how much the survivors need restoration of their deceased loved ones’ features to grapple with their grief.

I wondered at Phoebe’s father’s name, Raja. Then learned that the author, AJ Banner, was born in India, and then it made perfect sense.

The writing was beautiful.

Scraping off bacteria like a layer of pond scum.

Protecting the bereaved from the necessary messiness of death.

But now, there is no sign that a marriage once flourished here.

I also liked the character of Mike Rivera, a paramedical employee of the funeral home.

(I read this book on NetGalley. Thank you to the author, the publisher and NetGalley.)