This book is not what I was expecting it to be. Sorry I could not get into the story or finish it.
I don't enjoy leaving books unread so at a later date I will pick it up and try rereading this.

This is a lovely novel. Maybe a touch too long, but I sure did fall in love with these characters. The story is melancholy...but also sweet—a thoughtful examination of friendship, jealousy, love, disappointment, and loyalty. Know that you’ll need to take your time with this one, but your efforts will be rewarded.

After multiple attempts to read the book. Skim it. Get thru it. I had to give up and wave the white flag. The timeline jumps a lot and while normally that doesn’t bother me the writing to me seem very unorganized. I read the rave reviews and wanted to love this so much. I was so hopeful. I just was unable. Maybe it’s quarantine. Maybe it’s the style of the writing. I will not be leaving this review on my social media sites. I feel it’s unfair to the author and the readers.

This is an atmospheric novel which is rich in detail with complex characters. It is the story of a friendship which spans decades. Fear and world events are at the epicenter of the story, much like our current status.
Many thanks to W.W. Norton & Company and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

I really wanted to like this book. But I just couldn't. I just couldn't get into the writing style. It was so confusing to me that I couldn't follow the plot line and never really felt I understood the story. It took a long time to understand the relationship between the characters and I finally looked back at the book description to figure it out. This is not a book I would recommend to the casual reader.

Thank you NetGalley, W.W. Norton & Company and Stuart Evers for the advance readers copy of "The Blind Light" for my honest review.

The book starts out first as children and quickly jumps into their adulthood. It is a story of the haves and have nots. Friendship, manipulation, love and loss. At times I struggled with the reading, but at the end it all comes together.

Evers' multi-faceted novel of Britain spans decades of the war of nuclear power that roiled beneath the surface of global life during this period. The title of the novel evokes numerous images, among them the detonation of the bomb. The lives of two families thread through this novel, and fear and survival lie at at the base of their relationships. This is not a novel to be taken lightly, and it is not one that will be forgotten quickly.

This was not the book to read as an escape from these distressing times. Most of the characters were selfish horrible people.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced read copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased opinion. This is the story of one family’s creation to it’s demise. It’s about friendship - even when you want to despise them, about love when you want to hate them. This story takes place from the late 50’s to present day in England. It’s a cold book. It’s a sad book. I do t mean sad like you will cry but more a sad state of affairs. It does come full circle and ties everything up in a very realistic way.

So that was not at all what I was expecting. I was very disappointed in the writing style that took away from a potentially good story.

Evers’s saga brings together two Englishmen of different backgrounds: one a member of the landed gentry, the other of the working class. They meet while in the service in 1959, assigned to a post called Doom Town, the British idea of a town after a nuclear strike. That experience is inculcated in them for a lifetime. As they begin their civilian life, marry and have children, the bond between them remains. But their positions in life remain unchanged, one always having a class edge over the other.
This is their story. It is the story of their families. It is the story of one man who is forever concerned about the safety of his family through the Cuban missile crisis, 911, the London terrorist bombs and the rise of ISIS. Subordinate themes are nuclear war, the nuclear family and the choices that people make in their life, many as devastating as a bomb.
I thought this book was beautifully written and thought provoking. I rate it 4 stars.
My thanks to NetGalley and W.W. Norton and Company for an ARC of this book in return for an honest review.

I received an ARC of The Blind Light by Stuart Evers from Net Galley & W W Norton.
The Blind Light follows the relationship of two British soldiers starting in the Cold War era. It carries through what seems like unending personal and military crises.
Evers writing style varies from straightforward storytelling, to other chapters that feel like drug-induced rambling.
These tangents made it difficult for me to follow and get into this book - it felt more like a psychological study than a novel to me.

I enjoy a book that tells a story that covers decades of the same main characters. The two main characters of this book are Drummond and Carter, who become friends when they are both stationed at "Doomstown" training center. Following them throughout their lives, how they separated, how they intertwined showed the differences in the two, but also the similarities and what led them down their own paths to the future. Their friendship, their secrets, their families as well as the stress of living during the time period they were in.....these all lead the reader on a classic storyline of life. Overall, an enjoyable read. There were parts of the story that seemed to need "something else" to bring it along. I have marked as 4 star...but to me a solid 3.5. I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. #NetGalley #TheBlindLight

Gah, another book that didn't require a 500+ page count to tell its story - this in my opinion of course. Normally I adore a good chunky book, but lately this year most of these tomes have failed to leave a lasting mark on me.

This is a good story, it's a little oblique, or vague, if that's a better term/word to use....but my desire to see this story advance was always thwarted because of its endless pages.

I thought this would be the one to help with that, unfortunately it wasn't. Is it me? Am I burning out and needing a break or something? I am growing desperate for that gorgeous, knock me off my chair kind of read right now.

I gave up on this after fifty pages, after becoming exasperated with the repetitive tics of Evers' writing style, So many. Sentence fragments. That I. Wasn't willing. To commit to 500. Plus pages of this.

Beginning during the Cold War in England, this story follows the friendship of Drum and Carter, a working class man and an upper class man who meet during basic training in Doom Town, a simulated post-nuclear town. Following the two and their families up to present day, this story casts a wide net on friendships, family, and class differences.
Overall, I did not care for this book as it often seemed choppy and disjointed, and I could not quite determine what the point of the story was.

Evers’ British epic has much to recommend it. His style is rich, passionate, sometimes playful in brief passages. His characterization can be warm, intense, sympathetic. His narrative arc is long, satisfying in its detail and ambition. But, themed with the Bomb, and rooted in a friendship that crosses class, the book also contains weakness. Carter, the upper class half of the male couple whose friendship holds the book together is rarely more than a cartoon of privilege and entitlement, ditto his son. Drummond’s line is less cliched but the harnessing to Carter isn’t plausible. Nor are some of the wilder episodes in the story, like Anneka’s attendance at a weird party funded by an obese rich kid. And in a larger sense, the book’s insistence on atomic bomb theming never quite convinces, even seems superfluous though lends some strong visual material.
So, something of a curate’s egg of a book. Very good in parts.

Barely made it through this one - it got better mid way for me, but I staggered through it. I am all about a good "epic" novel. This one just didn't grab me. I never really felt immersed in the characters and their stories - I liked them, but not enough. I wanted to find out what was going on, but not until middle of the book. I almost gave up twice. I am glad I made it through, but it took a longer time than usual for me. I hate writing reviews like this - it wasn't a 'bad' book and many liked it, just not for me. Thankful for the ARC.

I found this novel to be compelling but it simply was not an enjoyable read for me. Annoying to me were the frequent paragraphs of sentence fragments or repeated phrases that didn't add to the narrative.

I wanted to like this book but I could not get into the style of writing. It was jumping between characters and time periods and hard to follow. I have read other books similar to this before but this authors style seemed extra hard to follow. I appreciate the chance to read and review this book.