This is such a sad book. When I mean sad, I'm not talking about one event that happens and you're like, "Oh No". When I say sad I mean tears dripping This is such a sad book. When I mean sad, I'm not talking about one event that happens and you're like, "Oh No". When I say sad I mean tears dripping off the chin and after you close the book you feel like throwing yourself into traffic to stop the hurting kind of sad. From the very beginning this went downhill faster that a drunk college kid in San Francisco. I knew there was no way in hell any of this would have turned out happy for anybody, but I kept on reading. I still had that small bit of hope. Oh how stupid of me. You can't do what Tom and Isabel did and expect it to turn out fine.
What did they do? (view spoiler)[They kept a baby when they shouldn't have. After spending years out on the Island in isolation from other people because of Tom's work as a lighthouse keeper. A small boat is discovered near the shore carrying a dead man and an infant. Isabel, who has had 3 miscarriages in several years instantly falls in love with this baby and encourages Tom to not report the incident. Tom buries the man and they begin to raise the baby as their own. When they go to shore they find out who the baby's mother is and what happened. They still choose to not report it and continue to raise the baby. Geez what could go wrong here? (hide spoiler)]
As for the characters, I absolutely hated Isabel. She was a spoiled, selfish brat used to getting her own way. I noticed that early on in the novel. I know the author seemed to kinda paint a different picture of her, but this is not what I saw. After the first miscarriage she started to lose the plot. By the second one Tom should have had her taken to shore to see a doctor. Living in Isolation like they did was not good for her in any way. However she insisted upon staying saying she was all right. I believe it was the 3rd miscarriage that made her lose the rest of the screws in her head. You can't be playing with a full deck and keep a baby like she did. Sorry, but I found what she did to be disgusting, irrational, and selfish. I can tell you right now that if someone had taken one of my babies like she did, she would need to hide out the rest of her days because I would hunt them down till the end of her days.
I can forgive Tom a bit since he was quite loyal to his wife even after she turned on him. He loved her unconditionally and would do anything for her which he did. Even after they were caught he still remained loyal to his wife and would have went to the gallows to protect her. After everything was said and done he still loved her and wanted to stay with her while she questioned her love for Tom and his actions. Why he still stuck with her I will never know, but in my book that makes him a pretty good guy regardless of his actions in the whole incident....more
