When the Lights Go Out by Carys Bray

When the Lights Go Out Reviews

• 
  Anni

  This is a very timely seasonal offering that made me realise how much we need to cherish our family life and traditions in times of hardship.
  Christmas is looming with far more than the usual tensions, as family harmony is put to the test when pessimist Chris clashes with his ever-the-optimist wife Emma.
  Chris is preparing for a coming apocalypse whilst Emma is trying to hold it all together for the sake of the festivities. The atmosphere of doom is low key but this makes the dystopian scenario all the more believable - the ‘End of the World’ with a whimper rather than a bang.
  
  My thanks to the publisher for the ARC via NetGalley
• 
  Claire Fuller

  Carys Bray is brilliant at writing about the little incidentals of family life - those irritations and moments of joy. And here, in When the Lights Go Out she also deals eco-catastrophe as the waters rise around a family's house. Chris is an eco-zealot, secretly switching off the electricity to see whether his family will manage when the lights go out permanently. Emma is trying to make little adjustments and hold her family together, while recognising that her marriage is struggling. It's bleak and it's laugh-out-loud funny, and just how Bray balances a book along that fine line is wonderful. (And I have to say I recognised some of the characters amongst my own family, and no, I'm not going to say which ones.) Thanks to the publisher for a copy of the hardback.
• 
  Rebecca

  (2.5) Perhaps if this had come out two or three years ago, it would have felt fresh. But as it is, it felt like a retread of familiar stories about eco-grief and -anxiety among the middle classes (such as
  Weather and
  Unsheltered).
  
  Emma Abram is an average suburban mother of two in the north of England, upcycling fabrics and doing her best with other little green initiatives around the house since she got laid off from her job when the local library closed. She feels guilty a lot of the time, but what else can she do?
  

  Nero fiddled while Rome burned; she will sew while the polar ice melts and the seas surge.
  
  She couldn’t un-birth the children, un-earth the disposable nappies or un-plumb the white goods.

  
  Such sentiments also reminded me of the relatable, but by no means ground-breaking, contents of
  Letters to the Earth.
  
  Her husband Chris, though, has taken things to an extreme: as zealous as he once was about his childhood faith, he now is about impending climate change. One day, a week or so before Christmas, she is embarrassed to spot him by the roadside in town, holding up a signboard prophesying environmental doom. “In those days, Chris had been spreading the Good News. Now he is spreading the Bad News.” He thinks cold-weather and survivalist gear makes appropriate gifts; he raises rabbits for meat; he makes Emma watch crackpot documentaries about pandemics; he even regularly turns off the power at the mains to get the family used to living without electricity; readers see this a lot earlier than Emma figures it out, and it ends up becoming a major point of contention.
  
  Part of the problem was to do with my expectations: from the cover and publicity materials I thought this was going to be a near-future speculative novel about a family coping with flooding and other literal signs of environmental apocalypse. Instead, it is a story about a marriage in crisis. (I cringed at how unsubtly this line put it: “The climate of her marriage [has] been changing, and she has been in denial about it for a long time.”) It is also, like
  Unless, about how to relate to a family member who has, in your opinion, gone off the rails.
  
  Nothing wrong with those themes, of course, but my false expectations meant that I spent well over 200 pages waiting for something to happen, thinking that everything I had read thus far was backstory and character development that, in a more eventful novel, would have been dispatched within, say, the first 40 pages. I did enjoy the seasonal activity leading up to Christmas Eve, and the portrayal of Chris’s widowed, pious mother. But compared to
  A Song for Issy Bradley, one of my favorite books of 2014, this was a disappointment.
• 
  Sid Nuncius

  I struggled with When The Lights Go Out. I loved The Museum Of You, but somehow I couldn’t get into this one.
  
  This is the study of a marriage between two people with very different outlooks, and of the effects of climate change which also form a sort of backdrop metaphor for coping with the changing of a relationship as it ages. Carys Bray still writes very well and has her trademark keen-eyed but compassionate insight into her characters’ flaws and foibles. It may just be me or the times we’re living in, but even this couldn’t grip me this time. The combination of Chris and Emma, both of whom have a fixed and unrealistic view of life – pessimistic and optimistic respectively – plus the relentless, oppressive atmosphere of the weather just failed to engage me and I really struggled to get through to the end (even with some judicious skimming).
  
  I’m sorry to be critical of a fine author whose work I have liked very much in the past; others plainly liked this, too, but I’m afraid it wasn’t for me.
  
  (My thanks to Random House, Cornerstone for an ARC via NetGalley.)
• 
  Anneliese Tirry

  ***(*)
  Extremen komen er in alle vormen, maar in dit boek gaat het over een extreem geloof in het einde van de wereld. Chris is bang van de klimaatverandering (wie niet?) en gaat erg ver in het zich voorbereiden op het einde der tijden. Hij stockeert kilo's rijst, bonen in tomatensaus en investeert in survivalkits voor zijn gezin voor wanneer het onvermijdelijke komt. Hij begrijpt niet dat hij hiermee hetzelfde pad opgaat als zijn extreem gelovige vader die ook het einde der tijden voorzag, maar dan als een actie door God, en die alles waar hij zijn leven voor had gewerkt had verkocht en weggegeven, en dus zijn vrouw na zijn dood had achtergelaten in een krakkemikkige caravan.
  Chris ziet niet wat de impact van zijn extreme gedrag is op zijn omgeving, zijn vrouw, zijn kinderen.
  Emma-Jane, de partner, is anders. Zij fixeert zich op het kleinschalige. Wat kan zij doen om een minder grote ecologische voetstap te hebben.
  Deze twee zienswijzen staan loodrecht op elkaar. Voorziet hij enkel doom and gloom, dan is haar levenshouding één van hoop in de toekomst, van samen kleine stappen te zetten naar een ecologischer manier van leven.
  Er is natuurlijk een gigantische catharsis wat één en ander op zijn kop zet.
  Ik heb dit boek zeer graag gelezen, het was bijwijlen zeer grappig en herkenbaar ((schoon)moeder Janet!), er spreekt veel liefde uit het boek en hoop voor de toekomst. Een toekomst waar meer mensen inzien dat natuur niet een groene pelouse zonder onkruid is, maar waar we net beseffen dat net dat "onkruid" de natuur is.
  In ieder geval, ik tel al af naar 1 april, de dag dat ik mag beginnen oogsten op de zelfplukbioboerderij in de buurt. De paardebloem in de tuin bloeit sowieso in al haar glorie ;-)
  
• 
  Georgina

  Sadly, this book really wasn't for me. The premise was intriguing, and I requested this book on NetGalley largely because I expected it to be a gripping exploration of an impending environmental apocalypse. Instead, I got a rather subdued (and if I'm honest, dull) family drama about how to cope in a marriage that feels like it's falling apart.
  
  I personally found Emma and her faux environmental concern quite irritating - she constantly seems to feel guilty about not being green enough, but it's obviously a recent concern of hers, and it felt very much like the author read a 'how to turn your household green' article and wanting to drop in all those handy hints. Chris was also a pretty unlikeable character, full of dour pessimism and certainty about the end of the world (but sadly, not in an interesting way). As for the plot... well, there wasn't really one. It's very much a character driven novel, and sadly when you have characters as terrible as these, the resulting book is never going to be to everyone's taste. Unfortunately, this is not a book I can recommend.
  
  Disclaimer - I was fortunate enough to be provided with an advance reading copy of this book by NetGalley. This has not affected my review in any way, and all opinions are my own.
• 
  SueLucie

  Having been very impressed a few years ago by Carys Bray’s novel
  The Museum of You, I came to this latest one with high expectations and was not disappointed. This story focuses mostly (but by no means entirely, there are many more issues tucked in) on a man struggling to find any joy in his life, fretting about the threat to mankind’s existence and his inability to do anything meaningful about it. We see the effect his increasingly desperate behaviour has on his wife and children, coming to a head on Christmas Eve.
  
  The book is more upbeat than that synopsis would suggest. I already knew Carys Bray to be a superb creator of characters and family dynamics, and her perception and wit are displayed to full effect here. She persuaded me to feel sympathy for everyone involved, even the irritating Rob, though my heart still belonged to Emma.
  
  Wholeheartedly recommended.
  
  With thanks to Random House, Hutchinson via NetGalley for the opportunity to read an ARC.
• 
  JoJo Bookworm

  I just couldn’t get into this book.
  
  This book appears to be about a failing marriage where both parties have very different views. Chris appears to be obsessed with climate change and, as he is struggling to find work, he throws his time and passion into protesting, much to the embarrassment of his wife, Emma.
  
  And that’s it. As is often the case, I have read about 15 to 30mins before bed, however, I found myself not wanting to pick my Kindle up because I has no enjoyment for this book. I found that I couldn’t quite remember where the book had finished last and that I didn’t care.
  
  The 1⭐️ Is because I gave up reading this book. I was either not in the right frame of mind, or this book just wasn’t for me because I have read the other shining reviews. However, I have too many books to read something I am not enjoying.
• 
  Holly

  Somewhere in the middle, the focus of this novel shifts to a timid widow I didn't find especially interesting, and I was like, "What is Bray doing here?" But I loved the way Bray resolved all the conflicts she created, with subtle details laying the groundwork for rich, compelling insights. I was very moved by the ending, including its use of religious diction and idioms.
  
  Something I really appreciated is Bray's thoughtful depiction of miserable, mundane misogyny. She explores the actions of three husbands, none of whom does anything as overt as cheat on his wife or give her black eyes. But each man feels virtuous about engineering the suffering of the person he has vowed to love best in all the world, and resists even the most calm, reasoned effort by his wife to show him the consequences of his hurtful behavior. I started to say that this misogyny isn't the central theme of the novel, but maybe it is, at least by the end, since it sows destruction extending beyond the bounds of the relationship in which it occurs. In any event, it feels really authentic, in ways discussed in nonfiction works like
  All the Rage: Mothers, Fathers, and the Myth of Equal Partnership and
  The Hearts of Men: American Dreams and the Flight from Commitment.
• 
  ☕Laura

  Ratings:
  
  Writing 5
  Story line 5
  Characters 5
  Impact 5
  
  Overall rating 5
• 
  Angela Watt

  Was there a more perfect time to review this book just as storm Ciara hit the UK and images of flooded Britain filled my phone screen.
  
  Yet if you believe this book is only about climate change, in my opinion, you are mistaken. For me, it's much more. Fundamentally, it's about relationships and one thing that Cary Bray writes exceptionally well about is relationships, especially when they break down.
  
  Cracks appear very early on in this book when Emma finds out that her husband is standing at a traffic island with signs highlighting climate issues. Chris only wants to protect his family from what he perceives as the floods and catastrophes that are definitely coming. However, his fears become obsessions and these tip over causing consequences he never anticipated.
  
  The book is set at Christmas which heightens the emotions and the conflict of different family members being thrown together to make the best of things. I particularly liked Dylan and how he managed the interpersonal family relationships.
  
  I found it melancholic and the odd sentence or two pushed me over the edge into tears.
  
  Overall, I think the book is beautifully written and with a sense of hope that prevails at the end.
  
  Thank you to Netgalley who enabled me to read this prior to its release in May this year.
• 
  Mandy

  An insightful and thought-provoking novel that explores some serious themes with a light touch that never veers over into melodrama. It’s about a marriage in crisis and family dynamics, well-observed and intelligent. Chris and Emma are happily married with 2 children but Chris is becoming more and more obsessed and fanatical about climate change and the need to be prepared. He frets endlessly about the future of mankind. He wants Emma to share in his angst – but she can’t. And Chris finds Emma’s optimism increasingly frustrating while she finds his preparation for a disaster that might never come equally frustrating. Thoroughly enjoyable novel of marital discord and the pressures of two opposing world views.
• 
  El

  I found this a bit dull and didn't really care about the characters. A husband and wife seemingly at odds with each other with regard to the environment don't communicate their real feelings enough to prevent the inevitable. Added to this mix are their teenage children with their own problems, a mother (-in-law) with her own issues who comes to stay and the constant rain. All of this adds to a relentless pessimistic backdrop which didn't grab my attention. Disappointing.
• 
  Heather

  Sorry I just couldn't get in to this book, the main characters just weren't very likeable.
  
  Thank you for the copy.
• 
  Lucy Goodfellow

  ⭐2 Stars ⭐
  
  A story about distance, its causes and effects.
  
  Carys Bray details a marriage laden with dissatisfaction and obsession whilst capturing the mundanity of everyday domestic life. The internal conflicts create a melancholic atmosphere to the book, doubled by its commentary on the climate crisis which is a welcome addition to this drama.
  
  Generations battle and as faith and science clash, the family falls apart. A sense of impending doom becomes this novel and despite its ending rain continues to fall and little really changes.
  
  Trigger Warnings: Animal Neglect, Animal Death, Abuse, Gas Leaks.
  
  I received an advance review copy for free via NetGalley. I am leaving this review voluntarily 📚
  
• 
  Charlotte

  Imagine a world where the seas are rising and gradually reclaiming the land as the relentless rain is only relieved by soaring temperatures and parched earth in the brief summer months. Or alternatively, don’t imagine. After all, the world described, incrementally year-on-year, resembles our own and (jumping forwards a decade or so) this is the world Carys Bray writes about in her novel.
  
  Not inclined to futuristic tales myself, I was delighted to find that, whilst the world portrayed is several steps further towards doom, family life, religion, marriage, mental health, fear and love remain true to the present- in a ‘the world may be transforming around us but we essentially remain the same’ sort of way. Truly prescient in these dark days of lock down with people thrown together; out of work and faced with an uncertain future, ‘When the lights go out’ is an arresting, if unsettling, read.
  
  At the centre of the novel, Chris and Emma struggle to come to grips with global warming and dismal future forecast. Out of work, Chris’ mind is in overdrive: preparing for loss of daily ‘luxuries’ like heat, electricity, food, medicine etc. Meanwhile Emma quietly attempts to manage the everyday; concerning herself with managing the controllable aspects of their lives as well as her husband’s declining mental health and their faltering marriage: “Emma stopped eating meat a few years ago, when she first attempted to restrict her worries about the world to things only she could address. She couldn’t unbirth the children, unearth the disposable nappies or unplumb the white goods.” As Bray observes; “Emma is trying to make things better. Chris is preparing for the worst. Between them, she once thought, they might just have it covered.”
  
  As ever, Bray rights with a lightness of touch and endearing humour that strikes a truly believable chord. I found I could sympathise with both Chris and Emma-though HER frustration was most visceral. The individual personalities of their two boys and Chris’ mother, Janet (who is forced to come and stay; “How needy she felt as she spoke; she who had always approached illness like a spider in the corner of a ceiling: ignore it, and it will go away) are similarly well-rounded.
  Ultimately though, it is Bray’s skilful use of language and symbolism used to invoke the dismal prospect of endless months of dark skies and drizzly days which is most powerful:
  * “Chris drove into town, where oily buses, full to the gills, crawled through puddles, and shoals of pedestrians dived in and out of shops.”
  * “The forecasters don’t seem to care about climate, though. They’re too busy outdoing themselves with descriptions : the rain is coming in spates, volleys and torrents; it is falling at a rate of spits and spots, dries and drabs, and cats and dogs.”
  * “A bleary bank of cloud lies beached on the building tops, its misty tendrils leaching salt and brine.”
  
  Meanwhile, Bray gives us plenty to focus upon. Equally well-researched in her biblical and ecological references, often her reflections reach off the page and insist we consider our own contributions; “ It is helpful to remember that each moment arrives on the crest of everything that happened before”
  
  My thanks to the author, publisher and netgalley for sharing an advanced copy with me in return for my honest opinion.
• 
  Donna Holland

  Funny yet thoughtful book about a Man who is terrified of impending climate change and it’s impact on his family . How he deals with it results in massive family ructions and life changing events .At times incredibly funny and eviscerating language heighten the books reality but I enjoyed the realism and felt I too had partaken Xmas with this particular family .
• 
  Mrs. Danvers

  Very real -- it gave me flashbacks of bad relationships ugh! -- so it's a depressing prediction that even as the world falls apart and the oceans rise, we'll still get sick of our partners and want to be heard and also want to be left tf alone ffs.
• 
  Sandra

  3.5 stars
  
  '' I saw you. By the memorial,' she whispers. 'I'm worried about you. '
  There, she has said it. And she feels lighter. Speaking to a sleeping person is, she imagines, like offering a prayer. There is a comfort in owning the words, in uttering them without any expectation of response. '
• 
  Margaret

  Though very readable, this didn't equal Bray's 'The Museum of You' for me. The subjects: eco-aware Emma versus eco-warrior husband Chris feel rather overdone now. Chris learnt to be a warrior during his now-rejected fundamentalist Christian childhood, and his warriorship consists in being a prophet of doom, rather than in action. We're meant to find him tedious, and we do. We're meant to like busy, community-minded Emma, and we do. We're meant to feel wry sympathy with the Emma and Chris as they parent their teenage children, and deal with Chris's interfering-in-a-humble-way mother. So it's an engaging enough read, but one in which I didn't fully involve myself.
• 
  CC

  I was transfixed by this book and the author's ability to explore interpersonal relationships in such a real, affecting way. This book captures the mundanity of everyday life simply but effectively. There are gripes and grievances amongst spouses and siblings and parents, internal conflicts but tender moments too. Throughout everything a reader is moved by the characters, surprised by them but also able to relate and empathise which takes real talent. I could even understand the life altering paranoia that husband Chris suffers through- with constant barrages of news at our fingertips we all at some point suffer from a degree of climate anxiety. My first read from this author but so enjoyable it won't be the last.
• 
  Tim

  With many thanks to Carys Bray, Random House UK and NetGalley for the ARC of When the Lights Go Out.
  
  This is a challenging read. Set in Northern England in the days before Christmas when the country is inundated by rain and flooding caused by a changing climate. Describing the interactions of family members from three generations, not all the characters are affable. The character development is outstanding, the writing is skillful. With comment on climate change, the anxiety associated with it and the consequences of religious fanaticism, this book is highly thought provoking and definitely recommended.
• 
  Charlotte Fong

  Having read and enjoyed Carys Bray’s short story collection, Sweet Home, I was very pleased to be able to read her latest novel, Before the Lights Go Out. This book focuses in on the Abram family in the lead-up to Christmas. Whilst Emma Abram, mother of two teenage boys and proficient at being self-sufficient in these financially difficult times, is preparing for Christmas by sewing presents and baking, her husband has his own agenda. Obsessed with the worsening climate crisis, Chris Abram has taken to standing in town with a home-made sign premonishing the end of the world, akin to a religious prophet of doom. Chris’ increasing mania over the environment is coming between him and Emma, and in his preoccupation it’s possible he may be missing something important happening to his family. This is a slow burn of a novel that grips up until its surprising crescendo of a finale. The characters and relationships are well built and I felt for Emma and all that she had to suffer through. It was also nice to read a book that was set in the north of England, specifically on the North West coast. A book set in the north with northern people’s real concerns about their changing climate was extremely refreshing to read. This is one of my favourite reads so far this year and I will definitely be seeking out the rest of Bray’s novels.
• 
  Mairead Hearne (swirlandthread.com)

  My Rating ~ 3.5*
  
  When the Lights Go Out by Carys Bray will be published with Hutchinson on November 12th. Carys Bray is the author of Costa-shortlisted A Song for Issy Bradley. When the Lights Go Out is the author’s third novel. Described as ‘deeply affecting’ in its examination of the reality of climate anxiety. it is also very much a novel about family. ‘Bray captures the reality of everyday family life with pinpoint precision. As the rain lashes down and the damp rises, a family struggles to stay afloat in the gathering domestic storm.’ (Publisher’s Quote)
  
  Climate anxiety is a phenomenon that is gripping many members of society today, as the reality of the chaos our world has descended into becomes all encompassing. With many medical journals releasing papers on the impact of climate change on the well-being of people it is something we are all going to be reading a lot more about. A recent piece by The Guardian stated that ‘the physical impact of the climate crisis is impossible to ignore, but experts are becoming increasingly concerned about another, less obvious consequence of the escalating emergency – the strain it is putting on people’s mental wellbeing, especially the young.’ (Source – The Guardian Feb 2020)
  
  Carys Bray examines the effect of climate anxiety on the family unit, when one member becomes obsessed with stockpiling food and cutting back on over-dependence on power etc in this very thought-provoking and, at times, shocking read.
  
  Emma Abrams and her husband Chris have been happily married for years with two teenage boys. They both grew up in very different environments but from their initial meeting many years back, they became inseparable. Chris worked in horticulture but, with the fluctuations in the weather in recent years, the demand for his work has lessened. With longer spells of rain, localised flooding and changing lifestyles, Chris has been ruminating on the long-lasting effect of global warming. With less work available, Emma has become the breadwinner but she is exhausted. Working a number of jobs, both in and outside the home, leaves Emma with little time for herself. Emma is very conscious about the state of the environment. She up-cycles, recycles and is very efficient with her food usage but it is never enough for Chris.
  
  Chris grew up in a very religious household with a sanctimonious father who literally lorded it over Chris, his sister and his mother.
  
  ‘Heaven was the destination, but without a fixed route there were U-turns and diversions and sometimes the same roads were traversed year after year. There was no point in asking “Are we nearly there yet?” They were always nearly there.’
  
  After his father passed his mother began to realise the imperfections in her relationship with her children but it is too late to repair the damage caused?
  
  As Chris’ obsession grows, he preaches on the streets –
  
  ‘He looks like a prophet. arm extended in exhortation as he stands beside the war memorial. All he needs is a staff. And a robe, A robe of righteousness – has she made that up? She doesn’t think so; it’s got a decidedly Biblical ring. Emma watches as people pass him. She has no idea whether he usually stands in front of the memorial on a Saturday morning or if this is a one-off. He is wet and cold; he is beset and troubled. His name is Chris, and he is her husband.’
  
  Emma is struggling. As Chris attempts to save the world their marriage is disintegrating and Emma is unable to see a way back. As Christmas approaches, the pressure increases and Emma is at the end of her tether. Always one to see the positive and to manage with what she has, Chris’ inability to parent properly and to be present for her causes her to rethink her life and what it has now become. Chris is blind to his immediate world. His preoccupation with the world beyond his own bubble is changing him. Occasionally Emma catches glimpses of the man she married but can she rescue him and bring him back to her and the boys?
  
  When the Lights Go Out is a very interesting novel. Admittedly, I did struggle with sections as I wondered where the story was taking me. I found it quite an unconventional read which can be a positive thing in many ways as it opens the eyes and makes one think about the underlying message of a book. There is no question that Carys Bray can write. Her prose is beautiful, at times almost poetic, with very vivid descriptions throughout and the amount of research and thought that went into creating this work is clearly evident.
  
  As we currently fight an invisible enemy with the onslaught of Covid19, we have to ask ourselves questions? Are we more like Emma, doing our bit locally and in our own homes for what we perceive to be perhaps enough? Or should we be a little more like Chris and be looking at things on a more global scale? It's all too easy to have the NIMBY approach ( Not In My Back Yard) but what happens when the cards begin to fall?
  
  An intriguing and thought-provoking novel, When the Lights Go Out is a very tender exploration of love and marriage, of hopes and dreams and of a world that is changing at a frightening speed before our eyes. It is quite a contemporary read which will most certainly find its niche in the literary world with its wonderful and subtle observations about relationships and its highlighting of the impact our changing climate is having on our populations' mental health.
• 
  Colette Brennan

  Emma and Chris have two lovely, boisterous boys and have weathered the storms of redundancy, bereavemnet and disappointment. This is a story of two pople who try to find themselves in their ever changing life.