The Blood Lights by Elaine Pascale.

The Blood Lights, as far as I know, is the debut long-form work of author Elaine Pascle, who if I read correctly, isn't too far from me, in Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

Cool enough, and worth a read to support a fairly local writer.

The storyline mainly takes place there, jumping back and forth between the horrific happenings of "present tense" (which in this book, for a reason I am unclear of, is 2021) and a tropical island, which seems to be unfolding at the same time? I'm not sure, but honestly, for a quick 150ish pages, this one sure had me lost.

It's the constant flip-flopping between timelines, an overabundance of characters with similar occurrences happening to each, that lost me. It wasn't particularly bad, middling stuff when all is said and done, with a few great moments to put it just a bit above "bad".

The Blood Lights tells it's convoluted, jagged story of women transformed by the titular menace into pus- filled flesh eaters with enough zest to keep you reading to the end, but I found myself skimming the pages to get there.

My favorite moments of the book, which thankfully take up quite a bit of it, take place in a residential facility for teenagers, where the girls have been effected by The Blood Lights. It's a locked facility, so the tension runs pretty high.

My first job out of undergrad was working at a residential for teenage girls, which was material enough for 7 horror novels, so this was particularly chilling for me.

I just couldn't get past the jumpy plot line, found it difficult to wholly engage in and be invested in.

A 2.5 from me.