Broken Light by Joanne Harris

I have not read anything by Joanne Harris before and after reading some of the reviews I think that’s probably the best with this book. Broken Light.

The Blurb

Have you ever felt invisible?

Bernie Moon has given her life to other people: her husband, her son, her friends (who are these days, mostly online). At nineteen she was full of dreams and ambitions; now almost fifty, and going through the menopause, she’s fading, fast. Heartbroken and hormonal, she often feels like she’s losing her mind.

But when a young woman is murdered in a local park, it sparks a series of childhood memories in Bernie and with them, a talent that has lain dormant most of her adult life.

She promised herself she’d never think of it again. When she was a teenager, it almost destroyed her. But now she’s older, could it be the power she’s been missing?

Could it be the chance to, finally, make them look?

My Review of Broken Light

After reading some of the reviews I feel that I might have been reading something different to everyone else, or maybe I was just able to read between the lines.

As a post menopausal woman I could identify with the main character, Bernie Moon. She, however, has a special talent of reading people’s minds, or as she puts it, visiting their houses. She is also able to re-arrange their furniture (thoughts and behaviours) if she chooses. This is the supernatural part of the story and even though it fits, it is all a little strange.

The rest of the story is a woman preparing for her school re-union. We learn that her husband was in a band and had a crush on the singer, Katie. We learn that Katie used to be Bernie’s best friend. We have flash backs into the background of Bernie and we also watch her build new friendships in her later years and reclaim her life. She re-invents herself and is planning on making the re-union the one where everyone notices her.

We see a lot of ‘men bashing’ it seems that Bernie and her friends feel that all men are the same and can’t be trusted. This comes after a murder of a young woman in the park. We see a lot of horrible men throughout the book and it’s almost as if Joanne Harris is harbouring some kind of vendetta.

We also hear a lot about menopause symptoms but I don’t like how she calls the hot flashes when she is British, and we call them hot flushes. She talks about heavy bleeding post menopause, but Bernie never visits a GP. There is a message in this story but it’s not very clear.

If you like a feminist type story with a bit of supernatural, lots of re-invention, and a surprise ending. (lots of surprises in fact and I didn’t really guess any of them!) Then you will enjoy this book. I found the writing intriguing and difficult to put down and finished the book very quickly.

You can also buy the book on Amazon

Or from my personal outlet in hardback