Sometimes you read a book and you say to yourself: “I don’t want this book to end. I hope this book never ends.” And then it ends and you miss the characters and the story and you wish there was more. Of course you’re also grateful for the story. You loved all of it. And for me, The Lighthouse At the Edge of the World by J.R. Dawson is one of those stories. I wish it hadn’t ended. I wanted to see what was next. And I’m grateful for the story. It was beautiful.

In The Lighthouse at the Edge of the World, my latest early review book from Net Galley, Nera is the daughter of the ferryman who takes souls to the world beyond. She has lived her whole life at the lighthouse near the land of the dead. And now, Charlie, a living woman, has appeared looking for her sister who died. These two stories become one beautiful, magical story.

The Lighthouse at the Edge of the World is such a fantastic book. J.R. Dawson creates wonderful characters with Nera and Charlie and the dogs and everyone else in the story. And the most wonderful part of the book is when not much is happening in the plot. Instead we get to know Nera and Charlie and we get to see the bond that forms between them. We get to know some of the ghosts and the lighthouse. We get to care about the characters. And so when things go bad, we absolutely care about Nera and Charlie and everyone else and we worry for them.

As I mentioned before, I didn’t want this story to end. I wanted it to last forever. I could have just read about Nera and Charlie and the dogs in the lighthouse and been happy. So when the story did end, I felt sad but also grateful. The Lighthouse at the Edge of the World is such a magical book. It was like a cozy hug, a cup of hot cocoa in the middle of winter or like a warm blanket.

J.R. Dawson has created such a wonderful book. I will never forget Nera, Charlie, and the dogs. I will carry this story with me forever.

The Lighthouse at the Edge of the World comes out on July 29th, 2025. I highly recommend this book if you’re looking for magic and wonder and ghosts and most of all: dogs. Gurty is a very good boy indeed.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for the early digital copy of this book. Thank you to J.R. Dawson for writing this story.

What a lyrical, beautiful book. This is such a tearjerker and J.R. Dawson does such a fantastic job of setting scenes and explaining about the hope and sadness that comes with grief and love.

It was beautiful. The characters were incredibly sweet, especially all the dogs. It could have done with some editting because it felt really unnecessarily long in some places, but I enjoyed it. I don't know how to pitch it to the everyday reader though...

I received an advance copy via NetGalley. Also, the author is a friend, and I've highly anticipated this book!

A haunting study of grief, death, and the complexities of "moving on," Dawson posits an incredible lighthouse on the brink of Chicago and Lake Michigan. There, a station master on guard for over one hundred years, since the Fire, helps spirits make it to the nearby Veil each night. Nera is his daughter, raised among the dead, but never fully alive--not until a living woman named Charlie stumbled into the liminal space as she searches for her dead sister. A dark threat looms in the city beyond and the lighthouse itself seems to be failing, raising the stakes as the two women gradually fall in love.

This is a beautiful book. Some moments and lines are especially heart-wrenching. While the general themes resemble T.J. Klune's Under the Whispering Door, this is a very different book, and powerful in its own right.