Review: They Who Bring the Light by Jessica Conwell

Title: They Who Bring the Light

Series: Ghost Flower: Verse Two

Author: Jessica Conwell

Length: 242 Pages

Category: Fantasy, Horror

Rating: 5 Stars

At a Glance: This book is anger and retribution against a corrupt system that professes to love but only harms. It is justice meted out to the unjust on behalf of the innocent. It’s a story that shows compassion through vengeance. And it is a powerful indictment of corruption.

Reviewed By: Lisa

Blurb: Come and See

For one bright moment, Lyra Morne had a family.

And then it was gone.

Now, haunted by their failures at Rook Lake, Lyra lives on the streets of an unfamiliar city, lost in a cold and bitter world. But when a chance encounter leads to them investigating the disappearances of several residents at a queer youth shelter, Lyra finds themself desperately trying to protect a new group of friends from becoming the next to vanish without a trace at the hands of a charismatic pastor whose welcoming smile hides sinister secrets.

But there is more at play than even Lyra can see. As they race against the clock to save the people most precious to them, a mysterious woman emerges who knows far too much about what happened at Rook Lake, and the past that Lyra thought they’d finally escaped may end up once again costing them the life—and the love—they always wanted.

Review: When hipocrisy rears its ugly head, it often comes cloaked in righteousness and spouting bible verses. Jessica Conwell exposes that with brutal truths and bloody force in They Who Bring the Light. This book is anger and retribution against a corrupt system that professes to love but only harms. It is justice meted out to the unjust on behalf of the innocent. It’s a story that shows compassion through vengeance. And it is a powerful indictment of corruption.

Lyra is the definitive hero in They Who Bring the Light. They were found and taken in at their most vulnerable, and they, in turn, stepped into the fray to protect. If money is the root of all evil, dirty corporate money masquerading as charity is the very foundation of malice and all that is heinous. As Lyra ingratiates herself more thoroughly to Pastor Ben, the grift is exposed, and it’s the kids at Agape’s Rainbow who pay. No one predicted, however, that Lyra would be the avenging angel filled with scorn and ready to smite.

Where the Ghost Flower saga goes from here is as much a mystery to me as its supernatural elements are impenetrable to us mere mortal readers. Conwell has introduced a new link in the chain that binds Lyra to Elodie to Rook Lake. In the return to the place where it all began, the circle will be closed and, fingers crossed, answers will be given to all the lingering questions that remain at the end of this novel.

Ghost Flower left me in tears. They Who Bring the Light went straight for the emotional jugular and left me thirsty for revenge. Hopefully, Book Three will leave me in a peaceable place. As this is Jessica Conwell, though, she’ll make it a fight to the finish.