A Christmas ghost story and a coming-of-age fairytale full of magic, wonder and emotions.
- Scare factor: ★★★☆☆
- Originality factor: ★★★★★
- Christmas vibe: ★★★★★
- Emotional factor: ★★★★☆
- Coming-of-age factor: ★★★★★
- Psychological factor: ★★★★★
Lamplighter in the Yule Black is a very original take on A Christmas Carol, about Christmas Past, Christmas Present and Christmas Future but told in a very magical and wonderful way. It’s a coming-of-age story, a story about the Spirit of Christmas, but it’s also about grief, mental illness, childhood trauma, coming-out, friendship and has a heartbreaking bitter sweet ending.
It consist of 269 pages.
Plot
Adam is in foster care and is best friends with Brady, until Brady is brutally murdered. In 1992 Adam followed his friend Brady into the dark. The strange part is that Brady was killed last year and this could all have been a dream. Brady leads him to a castle, a palace. It’s a magical castle full of strange things and it’s a wonder Brady doesn’t get lost. He shows him the big kitchen where they can eat all kinds of nice Christmas food, he shows him a ball room where ghosts dance and have fun, then he brings him to a room with a Christmas tree with under it all kinds of presents and Adam gets to open them. They have a wonderful time and Brady shows him his secret room where he sleeps.
But there’s something else roaming the castle. Something that is coming after them. Something dangerous and malicious, and it has something to do with Brady’s death.
Now in the present in 2022, Adam has himself checked into a mental hospital. He’s seeing things, hallucinating things related to that night. It’s haunting him. A documentary maker wants to interview him and another patient and they agree. Memories are coming back more and more and when Adam finally is up to leave the hospital he goes back to the place where it all began. He visits his own former home and Brady’s former home and tries to find the castle again, looking for answers.
Continue reading below this announcement.
Did you know I also make Art & Designs.
This Merry Christmas design of an Evil Teddy Bear is made with soft pastels. You can buy this design on a Unisex Baseball Shirt and other apparel in my shop at Threadless.
Short Review
This is a very unusual story. It switches between the past, the adventures the two boys have inside the castle and in the little village just outside the castle and between the present, where adult Adam is doubting if it ever was a hallucination but if it was real and goes searching for answers.
These two storylines are very different from each other. The atmosphere, the characters, what is happening, it feels like two different stories. But in the end they are very much intertwined in a rather smart and intriguing way that will surprise you. The story in the castle about the two boys is just magical and wonderful, although sometimes very scary. There they also find out what happened to Brady, how he was killed and by whom. That scene feels very gruesome all the more because of the huge contrast between the killer and the magical castle they are in. A big bonus is that we also get to meet Saint Nicolas, but in a very different, more historically correct way than we know Santa Claus. It is therefore not only a story about Christmas itself, but what it represents and brings, especially the Christmas Spirit.
The story in the present feels very raw, real, harsh and anything but magical. Adam visibly struggles with what happened and he can’t let go. His fellow patients are a motley crew of people, who are also fleshed-out and bring the atmosphere of the hospital to life.
The last part when Adam is searching for the castle again, is the final act of the story that will bring everything together. And Adam has other decide what his future will be.
It’s a coming-of-age story about friendship, about growing up, about grief and guilt, identity and coming-out. It mixes many themes into a very touching story that fits perfectly in the Christmas Spirit. It’s thrilling, magical, harsh and gruesome, but also full of hope. It’s a melancholic tale of the wonderful times you had as a kid, and the harsh world of adulthood, which is made worse by dealing with mental health issues and childhood trauma.
The Lamplighter in the Yule Black at first feels a bit strange, but the more you read, the more you get invested in the story and in the characters. It’s a Christmas fairytale that is very much worth your time and will definitely surprise you.
Did You Know I Also Make Art and Designs?
you can buy my designs on apparel or stationary, mugs and more. You can learn more about it on my art & design shop page or go directly to one of my shops.