Turn Off the Light unfolds across four hundred years, anchored to one house that refuses to stay quiet. In the past, Edith is a healer whose knowledge of plants and nature makes her useful and feared in equal measure, a woman labeled dangerous simply for knowing too much. In the present, Claire returns home carrying her own grief, a sister who vanished, a father slipping away into end stage dementia, and a life already frayed at the edges. The story moves between their perspectives, stitching together history and horror as the house reveals its long memory of fire, loss, and unanswered questions. Walters lets the pieces surface gradually, trusting the reader to connect them, until the past and present finally speak to each other in ways that feel both inevitable and unsettling.
This is a haunting, slow burn kind of read, the kind that creeps under your skin leaving you wanting more and needing to know the truth. The house is more than a setting, it is a witness, a keeper of secrets, and sometimes the loudest voice in the room. Walters blends supernatural tension with historical weight, giving the story depth beyond the scares and reminding us how often women like Edith were punished for knowledge instead of praised for it. It is a smart, patient novel that rewards attention, tying its threads together with care and confidence. This is one of those books you do not rush through or overshare about. You turn the pages, lower the lights, and let it do what it came to do, then sit there afterward thinking about how much the past loves to linger and how rarely it ever lets go.
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