Lighthouse Island audiobook

This novel does what good science fiction should do: it makes the reader think about how the current problems may affect the future. Nadia is trapped in a near-future dictatorial society where food and water are scarce and people are tuned to reality-like tv programming. The novel is chockfull of odd and interesting characters and thoughtful ruminations.

What makes this a 5 star for me? It was so engaging that I came out of my reading disoriented, as if I had literally come from Jiles' world back into my own and had to get my bearings again. I love it when authors write as if their readers are intelligent. Jiles wrote with great detail, so that alien scenes came to life, but didn't feel the need to tell me everything tediously. Through all the depravity of the world in Lighthouse Island, human resilience shines though sometimes tentatively. My only criticism would be the believability of all the serendipitous connections between the Heroine, her lover and her family members.

I decided to bump up my rating of this book to 5 stars. Ever since I read it, I've been unable to get this story out of my mind. It reminds me a lot of the Pulitzer-Prize winning "All the Light We Cannot See." There's a blind girl, big Radio, a dystopian setting that is very similar to Nazi Germany and gorgeous prose. (No surprise that Paulette Jiles is a poet.) In this future world, the population has exploded and the United States is an endless city. There are very few animals left, and drought plagues the land. Nadia Stepan, abandoned by her parents when she was 4 year-old, dreams of Lighthouse Island, a vacation spot where she believes her long-lost parents may be.Nadia grows up reading old and neglected books. She meets James Orotov, a mapmaker and demolitions expert who is confined to a wheelchair due to an accident. Together they make a plan to escape to Lighthouse Island. Nadia is a very crafty and intelligent heroine. She is pursued as she tries to escape across the country and at one time is picked up and incarcerated in an "assisted living facility" (prison). James is facing a forced amputation of his legs by the government to get him out of his wheelchair and into prosthetics. The only complaint I have about the book is some of the very fortunate coincidences that Nadia and James encounter on their escape across country, but it is a minor complaint. This is the best book I've read so far this year. (And I read a lot!)

Imagine a world in the future. A world that has become so densely populated that green spaces no longer exist. They are now the product of advertisements to work towards using the credits you earn in hopes of visiting a place that only exists far from where you live now. Cities have developed so much due to the over population of people that any space is used to build on. Animals have all died out due to disease or simply being hunted to extinction. Now only the wealthy and rich have a handful of animals. Water is the most precious of commodities. All the rivers have dried up because global warming and creation of cities have left the atmosphere and the ecosystem completely out of balance. It no longer rains. Since water is so precious, every single human has been allocated just one quart a day and most of the time, it's cloudy and yellow but still drinkable. There are no longer a need for maps, data or numbers so calendars are now rendered obsolete. No one cares what year it is because the days have all begun to blur together as one anyways. The only technology that remains in virtually every location imaginable are televisions. They are the way in which communication between the agencies and the population exist. Depending on your skill set you might be able to climb your way up the corporate ladder and be able to move where water rationing isn't a concern and food is more readily available. Every night on the radio from an abandoned satellite a voice reads over and over the great classical books of the world. It is known simply as Big Radio. The only hope that Nadia Stepan has growing up as an orphan is finding a way to escape to a place known simply as Lighthouse Island. A place where trees, oceans, and food is plentiful. It is only gifted to those that can afford it, but Nadia believes she can find a way to get there on her own. Not knowing how she will make the journey, she finds all her knowledge in the forms of books that most people have disregarded in lieu of television. She consumes them instead of watching the government run programming, mostly in part by her inability to see due to defect in her vision caused from a lack of Vitamin A. Now all she can do is simply read about places that used to exist. History books and technology books have been rendered obsolete since it doesn't matter what the current state of things are now. Resources can't be replicated to fix the things that were once used like ebooks and cell phones. Now most people resort to scavenging, work in the agencies or demolition. Now that water is so hard to come by and the pipes no longer have the pressure or electricity to run them, buildings larger than 4 stories are demolished. The people that live there are forced to find suitable housing some place else or are turned over to the prisons to work in labor camps. I received Lighthouse Island by Paulette Jiles compliments of William Morrow, a division of Harper Collins Publishers for my honest review and received no monetary compensation for a favorable one. I love books like this one because it takes us into the possibility of where our own future may in fact be headed. If population increases so exponentially will the earth be able to sustain itself or will the possibilities like what are featured in this book become a reality? I thoroughly enjoyed this one and can't wait to read more novel from Paulette Jiles. This was a first for me. She literally took me into a future world where I was living alongside Nadia and one I which I truly felt was real. I could relate to Nadia character being a huge book lover myself. It was such an incredible journey and one I couldn't put down until I finished the last page. I rate this one a 4.5 out of 5 stars and this book is now available for preorder since it is due out in October of this year. This is one you won't want to miss!

This story was intriguing and frightening at the same time for me. You're immediately pulled into a world that could possibly be a glimpse of our future. Water shortages, drought, extinction, government issues all play a role in this eye-opening thriller. The writing style was very different from what I'm used to, but it worked well with the story as a whole. Nadia was a girl after my own heart, I say this because her character loves to read books. This is the main reason for her character's drive and passion to find out about her past, and wanting to find her own place to belong. Lighthouse Island is the destination that Nadia's character is trying to reach throughout the story, along the way Nadia meets a few strange "characters" that add substance and depth to the story. I liked the concept of this story, and It really made me think about a lot of things that we take for granted everyday. I loved the author's descriptions of Nadia's world, and the fact that you could see yourself in her position, and dealing with the same problems. I enjoyed the way the author draws you in from the very beginning and takes you on a journey you will never forget. There we're a handful of errors that kept jumping out at me as I read, but It didn't take away from the story at all. I gave this book 4.5 stars and will be recommending to a few friends.

4 stars just for the exceptional poetic language! Another dystopian novel, this time quite light and humorous thanks to the ever optimistic inventing young heroine. One of her names is Nadya which is short for Nadezhda ( hope) in Russian and she lives this meaning to the fullest. The book is full of Russian and Soviet references, from names and places to literature and history. Sometimes I feel our whole histort is neverending dystopian novel. At the moment lots of surrealism, every day gets weirder and stranger. The book structured as part coming of age story, part adventure, with some very light romantic touches. The end of the narrative is quite muddled and falls flat after such a strong full steam forward motion. Apart from that the book is full of nuiance and subtle jokes, which makes the dark dystopian subject easier to digest.

Thanks to a First Reads giveaway, I was able to receive an advanced copy of Lighthouse Island: A Novel. I enjoyed reading this book a lot. It took quite some time for me to get used to the writing style though. Soon after, I started to like the way it was written out. Overall I was pleased with this book. This was an interesting and different style of writing for me, but it was definitely worth the read.

I could not put it down and hated for it to end. One of the best dystopia novels I've read; it's not just about a environmentally devastated and socially fractured future - it's a study in love and faith, in character and intelligence, in passion and courage, in adaptability and despair. Jiles is not a prolific writer, but what she lacks in quantity she makes up for in quality. Her language is always rich and clear, drawing you into her stories. Every word a carefully considered gem and placed just so to create a literary event. Her characters are real and alive with thought and feeling. She plumbs the depths of matters relative to life and humanity. She is truly one the best contemporary authors alive today.

If you enjoy futuristic dystonian novels, this is a good read. The main character is Nadia Stepan who is essentially abandoned by her parents when she is 4, at a time when the world population has exploded, there are no countries but areas maintained by agencies and everything is regulated-electricity, food rations and water. But Nadia is a clever, resourceful girl who believes that if she can make it to Lighthouse Island in the Pacific Northwest, she will find her parents. By chance she meets James who is a demolition expert and mapmaker-a role that is critical to the survival of those who are looking to leave the eternal city and seek opportunities outside the gerrymandered states that exist. James is considered upper management and has access to resources most don't. He uses these to help Nadia plan her way north. Though an endless run of hurdles, the two set off on separate paths to reach Lighthouse Island and start a new life. It was a good story, lots and lots of potential secondary plot lines that the author was good at keeping in check. I did read it in 4 days!

Life will get better, says Nadia, in a new world order where drought is a plague and the animals are nearly all gone; where the overlords rule via Big Television and the threat of arrest and possible execution. This beautifully written tale of desperation and hope reminds us to be strong, to be smart, to follow our dreams no matter the circumstances, and to be filled with hope - to "look to the North Star and we will always be there."

Discovered this after reading the superb News of the World. This tale was dystopian before dystopian was cool. I loved the word play, the multisyllabic government agencies, the perils of a world where other people decide what is best for you and the helplessness that is the inevitable outgrowth of social dependency. Fans of the Divergent series would enjoy this one

I had never heard of the author before and my brother gave me this -- to read, of course. Glad I did. I've been on a mostly-science-fiction trend/kick/whatever and though not "sci fi" in the sense this deals with outer-space, aliens, really futuristic themes and gadgets and such -- no, it is fiction, of course, and yes, "Sci Fi" in that the book is a WHAT IF? future. An entirely possible future. Will human population continue to increase, "explode"? yes, if we don't slow down. Will this over-population cause the environment to suffer? yes, unless somehow everyone on Earth all become ... cognizant? responsible? empathic? -- something it seems that people in general are not trending for. "Dystopic" is a category this falls into -- and dystopic means (to me, at least) that there is either no hope (or very little). The future the author paints is quite realizable. Will bureaucracy continue to proliferate and obfuscate and complicate seemingly on its own accord? In this future tale, yes. The two main characters are drawn into a joint escapade (literally) and their tale(s) is a pretty-much nonstop running away from "the bad guys" -- with serendipitous turns and internal cleverness and ability to learn, to read the situation, timing, the inability to really just quit ingrained in both of them.One can see (so to speak) how "the powers that be" don't want the populace to know several things -- what year is it? (it seems whatever the present is, never ends) -- what is your address? (there are no maps -- at any rate, maps are discouraged). Practically everybody, when not at their (mostly menial) jobs, is glued to the TV. Futuristic public-pablum sorta Roman circus ethic here.And WATER. There is very little available potable water, and it is rationed to everybody -- most the people are allotted just a few pints per day. What do they eat? Seems cacti are just about the only plant which still can grow in this bleak hot dry landscape -- The seeds for the desire/need to trek to Lighthouse Island are set pretty early on -- as will be explained toward the end of the book. It is a gripping almost-nailbiting adventure -- and, as mentioned earlier -- this bleak future is (sad to say) entirely possible. The author has quite a gift with words, phrases (bio says she is also a "poet") and a few times each page it was like a fishing lure snagging me with a clever way to say whatever it was. e.g. "To him she was erotic and steadfast and endearing and if she were not this to other people, then he alone held the key to her being. Sometimes love is blind and sometimes it is sighted, perhaps with a third eye."And of the eclectic group of friends called the Five Companions, an attribute of which: "Each one of them felt privately that he suffered from some kind of mental disease that had to be hidden from everyone else." I've had groups of friends like that!Not just merely entertaining -- and one can't help but go along with the ride -- sort of symbolically biting one's nails the whole way.

I did really enjoy reading this novel set in a dystopian future of drought where the water has run out and a corrupt agency controls every aspect of the lives of the people through television. However, I was foolish really in reading this novel so quickly after reading Paulette Jiles's other work, Enemy Women. The problem being that both of these books, apart from their setting, are essentially the same. In Enemy Women, a young woman grows up with her family, has an obsession with horses, gets caught up in the corrupt activities of American civil war officials, is wrongly imprisoned, meets a man in a position of power who can help her escape, duly escapes, and has to walk home in an impossible journey before being reunited with the love interest, to start life in the new post-civil war world. In Lighthouse Island, a child is abandoned by her family, but then grows up in the family of an orphanage and with foster parents, she falls foul of corrupt officials and ends up running for her life, where she meets a man in a position of power who is able to help her. She is then captured and imprisoned, before escaping (with the help of the love interest) and then undertakes an impossible journey across America before being reunited with the love interest, marrying him and travelling to Lighthouse Island where she is at the beginning of a new world of floods rather than droughts. They are just too similar and at some points I started to wonder which book I was reading. The narrative style is precisely the same. The lack of punctuation marking speech is precisely the same. The heroines witty style and mannerisms are precisely the same. The pace is entirely the same - with both books starting slowly before picking up over the second half. Despite both of these books being very enjoyable, if this is the standard of variation the author has to offer, she really is a one trick pony.That said, I did enjoy both books, and I loved all of the references to literature and intertextuality in Lighthouse Island. If I had left a bigger gap between reading this book and Enemy Women, I may not even have noticed the similarities (although I might have done, because they are very similar). I need to wait a year or two and then read this one again and then wait another year or two and read Enemy Women again - my advice, don't read them too close together. I can't speak for the author's earlier works - I haven't read them and have been put off a little by this experience. Perhaps other readers can tell me if they are vastly different in style or worth looking at, or if I simply shouldn't bother.

Where lies happiness? To be kept secure, fed, and entertained, like a parakeet in a cage? Or to be free, at risk of dangers, left to survive by one's own wits, talents, and strengths, and those one accompanies? That's the theme I take from Lighthouse Island, Jiles' dystopian tale of the crumbing of a corrupt, authoritarian managed society and the few who prefer freedom and risk to security and the cage. “It was not easy to abandon everything, all he had ever known, his disappearing social circle, his comfortable apartment, his work, his books, the carefully arranged life that enabled him to function in a wheelchair. To launch himself into an unknown country with nothing but a few survival items and his maps, some experimental medicine and a girl he barely knew, but there had been other people at other times who had also hesitated, even in the face of the sure but steady crushing of their lives. They had hesitated and hoped that official protests and moral arguments and legal representation would save them. Those people were all dead. He was going someplace where social prestige did not matter. His privileges were gone. In the world to come much would depend on physical strength and field experience, risk taking, weapons, brains. His heart bounded ahead like some beautiful, long-limbed animal gathering itself and flying over a fence in a cascade of shining hide and muscle, a creature beloved of the sun and the open spaces. It landed in a field of grass that seethed like a sea and Nadia walked along beside him and there were others, men of old."Lighthouse Island is different in style from Jiles' other works I've read -- less crisp, more imaginative, and dark, but like in others love and truth are at the heart of it.

An interesting variant of a dystopian novel. Water is in short supply, Government is corrupt, and has taken over all messaging on the only TV channel, which is force-fed to all citizens 24/7. If you covet someone's position or possessions, just send a lie to the Forensics officers and they will remove the person to the cactus farm, or some other prison for you. No questions asked.The young Nadia has an uncanny way to seep through the cracks in the system to avoid prison. Her parents abandoned her with only a few coins and a star chart showing her how to get to Lighthouse Island. Her journey through life seems to be a fortuitous collision with many strangers helping her search for the island.The story was enjoyable once you get past the authors bedeviling ignorance of how to frame a written conversation. I do not recall a single quotation in the book. It was so irritating that I almost DNF'd about 50 pages in. Why be cute with feigned ignorance? I found even toward the end of the book that I still had to read a paragraph a couple times to extract the conversation.The book comes to a reasonable termination. While there are some open questions that could spur a second book, it was not a jolt, more an easy glide to the end. I would recommend to dystopian future fans.

Lighthouse IslandThis story seemed far different from other Paulette Jiles novels, which seem to center around the post Civil War Midwest & Southwest. After finishing it, I realize the story line and characters are pioneers going into unknown and forbidding territory of which they do not fully understand the dangers. It seemed most unlikely that Nadia would survive her trek & find happiness, yet she did. Several other strong characters also survive, and sadly, many did not. As usual, some critical coincidences are sprinkled in, but they are not too far beyond credulity and they don't mar the storyline. This makes me want to read any Paulette Jiles stories I have missed. Overall, they project a positive belief inintrinsic human kindness.