The Link ✨
A peek behind the curtain reveals a struggle between power, age, and complicity...
While her best friends are preparing for the most important summer of their lives with big plans and Sweet 16 parties, painfully shy Claire Payne joins the stage crew of the Spring Grove Players' summer musical. Although she struggles to make friends at first, when Don Preston takes her under his wing, her world starts to transform.
Despite being her father's age, Claire is illuminated by Don’s charm, and blossoms as she falls in love with the beautiful world of ghost stories and love letters he creates for her. However, as Claire finds herself more and more isolated by her relationship with the charismatic man, strange incidents around the theater start to blur the lines between fantasy and reality.
Recalling the haunting manipulation of the classic film Gaslight, and the masterful portrayal of troubled adolescence in My Dark Vanessa, Ghostlight explores the traumatic effects that come with the violation of innocence.
“The writing is raw and delicate and captures the horror and the thrill of being 15 and singled out. [...] What I love most is the specific world Du Bois creates through careful details: the community theater, the cool backstage air, the cramped tech booth.”TRIGGER WARNING: Grooming, Disordered Eating
I quickly read DuBois' novel, empathetically turning through pages and on each one, wanting to intervene for her character Claire. DuBois has a gift for writing dialogue, and as with a theatrical script, imagery was easily conjured up through her carefully crafted descriptions. My favorite parts were Claire's inner thoughts that seemed to extend far beyond the theater, or the small New Jersey town- when Claire created ships on the ocean out of back yard decks, or compared her life with famous literary works. She shows Claire's rich inner life, and reminds the reader what it feels to be young. What unfolds between Claire and Don is an unfair attack on that very youth and innocence. No matter how much Don pretends his feelings and actions are not in his control, it is clear to an adult that he is full of selfish, dark intentions, and he relentlessly chooses to lord over Claire while stealing so much missed opportunity she would otherwise have away from her.
Laura
Amazon Customer
The descriptions were incredible, the situation was familiar, and the writing style was immaculate. Caitlin Du Bois did an excellent job capturing the pain and excitement of being a teenage girl in a sticky situation. She made me feel like I was a part of the story. Ghostlight gives me Now and Then and Mystic Pizza vibes. It is truly a must read!
