When The Lights Go Out, Mary Kubica
Rating: 9/10
Publishing: Park Row Books
ISBN: 978-0-7783-3078-3
Copyright: (C) 2018 by Mary Kyrychenko
To be honest, I have read this book three times in a row. The plot is interesting and it has two different perspectives between the two main characters, Jessie and Eden Sloane.
The story begins with Jessie Sloane at the hospital room as her dying mother lays to rest on the bed. Jessie suffers from a severe case of insomnia and after taking the sleeping pills given by the nurse and a friend she just met at the hospital’s cafeteria, she falls asleep. To make it even more tragic, Jessie’s mother passed away from cancer while she was sleeping.
After her mother’s death, Jessie moves out of their home and rents a house where she stays in the loft, barely spacious enough. Suddenly, Jessie realizes that she needed to have her birth certificate, something that her mother never carried when Jessie was born. Jessie tried to reclaim her birth certificate, only to find out that it didn’t exist. This led Jessie to believe that she may an illegitimate person, so throughout her perspective of the novel, Jessie goes as far as finding out who she truly is.
Right after the tragedy of her mother, Jessie has been refusing to sleep; she slept through her mother’s passing and now she’s been wide awake, so that she wouldn’t miss an important thing. Due to Jessie’s insomnia, Jessie experiences hallucinations, mistaking people for somebody else, and even mistaking the dates. Her hallucinations has been affecting her quest to find out her real identity, which made the story interesting.
Jessie suffering from a severe case of insomnia is something I can relate to. I suffer from insomnia as well and I even experienced hallucinations, both auditory and visual. Mary Kubica knows how to make her characters more relatable to real life people who are suffering through the same experiences. The ending of Jessie’s perspective is so unexpected and so surreal that I’m not even allow to disclose it due to spoiler alerts.
The second perspective in Kubica’s novel is a woman named Eden. Throughout her point of view, Eden and her husband, Aaron, have been trying to have a baby because having a daughter is all what Eden wanted to make her life happy. Sadly for her and her husband, Eden failed to conceive after a multiple amount of sexual intercourse due to Aaron possibly being infertile. Then, Eden and Aaron have spent almost everything they had for artificial insemination, which failed as well, and then finally through in vitro fertilization. The in vitro finally got Eden pregnant and it was the happiest moment of her life. Until tragically, Eden suffers a miscarriage months later. Despite that she lost her unborn baby to a miscarriage, she told Aaron that she wants to start all over again.
This led Aaron and Eden have a financial dispute, which led to an emotional argument, then finally their divorce. Eden was devastated that not only her lost her chance of having a baby of her own, but she also lost her husband through a divorce. Eden went drinking one night and had a one night stand with something she just met at the bar she was at. Finally, Eden has done something that made her regret, which I won’t explain to avoid spoilers.
I’m not a parent, but reading about Eden’s miscarriage reminded me of that time a few years ago on my final semester in college when I suffered from a phantom pregnancy. The phantom pregnancy psychologically affected me real bad; not only because I won’t be a mother and have a baby girl of my own, but it also caused me an irrational fear of getting pregnant. I fear that if I do get pregnant, I might end up getting a miscarriage, which will break me hard.
So, reading this novel made me relate to Jessie for having insomnia and hallucinations, and Eden for wanting a child but couldn’t. Mary Kubica knew how to create fictional characters to real life experiences. That’s what I like about this author. She even wrote about the negative effects of mental health, and that’s something that’s imperative for me to learn about.
I love this book so much that I read it three times. I’ll be looking forward to read more of Kubica’s interesting works.