The Light between Worlds by Laura E. Weymouth

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Light between Worlds by Laura E. Weymouth Karen Coats Weymouth, Laura E. The Light between Worlds. HarperTeen, 2018 [368p] Trade ed. ISBN 978-06-269687-8 $17.99 E-book ed. ISBN 978-0-06-269689-2 $8.99 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 9-12 In 1944, Evelyn and her older siblings, Jamie and Philippa, were swept away from the air raid shelter and into the fantasy world of the Woodlands, and then were returned to England as if no time had passed there despite the length of their sojourn in the forest world. Now it's 1949, and Philippa and Jamie have rebuilt their lives, but sixteen-year-old Evelyn, plagued by memories that fuel her depression and longing, desires only to return to the Woodlands. When Philippa leaves for America, a desolate Evelyn disappears, and the story shifts to Philippa, whose flashback memories fill in gaps that further contextualize Evelyn's state of mind as well as her own. Philippa's guilt as a failed caretaker marks this as something other than a thinly veiled and decidedly more melancholic reimagining of Narnia. Instead, Weymouth offers a picture of severe depression beautified by her own luminous prose and various period-appropriate poems. She evokes a sense of empathy for Evelyn, who clearly does not belong in our world despite what pleasures it may offer through sympathetic friends, potential romance, and natural beauty, and offers absolution and redemption for Philippa, who has to believe that her sister is in a better place. Readers who take a spiritual view of the children's fate in Lewis' The Last Battle will be especially comforted. KC [End Page 145] Copyright © 2018 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois