The Light of the Fireflies

I bought this a while ago on a whim, purely because of that beautiful cover. It also seemed to have great ratings on GoodReads (pre-English translation).This isn’t what I’d call an ‘enjoyable’ read. It’s an uncomfortable subject matter, and a heart wrenching story. But I couldn’t put it down. I completely devoured this, staying up until the early hours of the morning to finish it (something I rarely do, I love my sleep too much!).This was a really cleverly written novel. We begin the story from the point of view of the boy in the basement (no names are used through the story). All we know about the family and their situation is what the boy knows. But a second section of the book takes us back to the events leading up to this situation, which completely changes your perspective of the story.The set up is very similar to Room, but feels entirely unique. Overall I highly recommend this novel.

In the house were the Gran, Grandad, mum, dad, a girl and boy, the girl had pushed her brother down the stairs and he was brain damaged, the boy does something so bad it will effect the entire family, the father builds living quarters under the house and they intend to keep the boy hidden there, the girl threatens to report them all, to protect the family they all go down to the secret living quarters, with the house being attacked with petrol bombs the girl throws one at the family, mum, dad, gran are badly burnedGrandad would stay and bring supplies every so often, another young boy is born and as soon as he is old enough he starts questioning his parents as to why they are there, his sister gives birth to a baby but no one will tell him who the father is, with his sisters help the boy decides to try and escape, will his parents ever tell him the truthStrange, no names are ever used in the book

It a strange book and I have mixed feelings about it. The positives were that I couldn't put it down, and when I did make myself i was always thinking about it and trying to work thing out and predict what was going to happen, it really got into my head. The negative aspects for me are that it is quite a dark, depressing and awful story and i wasn't really expecting it to be as dark as it was, I thought It was going to be quite uplifting and so i chose to read it on holiday, but it isn't uplifting at all . It is well written,and there are some great surprises and twists and turns, but it did take a long while for anything to seem to happen. Despite it's positive aspects if I could time travel i would advise myself not to read it... I would probably find out the lottery numbers too. :)

I found this story quite painful to read. I appreciate how it all came together together in the end, but I was so relieved when it was over.Anyone who has suffered emotional trauma in their life should avoid this book. It is a sick and twisted story about a sick and twisted family.

Best book I have read in a long time. At the beginning, I thought I was reading a very strange horror/psychological thriller...but by the end, I finally understood that it was a haunting tale about a family whose lives were changed forever in a way that most could only imagine. This book had me guessing right up until the last chapter. Beautifully written, truly captures the importance of making your own judgements and beliefs rather than relying on the word of others. More simply, sometimes there's a lot more to something than it seems.

While there are a few bits here and there which are difficult to read and which I had to go back and read multiple times to understand what was going on; whose hands were there etc; (I later found out that it's a translation so it's understandable that occasionally some of these things might happen) I, someone who hadn't been able to get fully immersed in a book for months, managed to get deeply into it, even finishing it in three sittings.Why? The mystery is written so well... whilst I did manage to see some things ahead of time, some important ones, there was one where I was stuck between multiple answers (and it turned out to almost be multiple anyway). The characters are wonderfully complex so the only one I feel I TRULY understand through the entire book is the boy from whom's point we're reading.The story takes you back into the past a couple of times and it's done better than most books, having all of the chapters from one time period first, then half from the present's, then all of the chapters from the third time period, the last half from the present and one more for the epilogue. It's very well-balanced in this way.Although there were a few bits I REALLY didn't like in this book, it was simply part of the book and at least most were intended to be that way, I believe.I admit that I'm not even entirely sure how I feel about this book, however I am not at all sorry for having read it. Although I'm not sure if I'll ever read it again, I am very glad I have. It's thought-provoking and definitely in a good way.One final thought: I mentioned earlier I read it in only 3 sittings, therefore I could remember enough of the previous parts to not feel too much of a need to go back and check things which happened earlier on in the book, but for the mere reasoning of still feeling a need I'd have much preferred to have read this in a physical copy, but that could just be me and the way I read some books.

A clever book which looks at first like a tale of child abuse with a mutilated family full of hatred for their daughter seen through the eyes of a little boy who has never been outside but nothing is as it appears

I felt I had to give 5 stars due to the book being so unusual and not something that I usually come across. It was truly gripping and not off putting that none of the characters were referred to by their Christian names! Enjoy.