Gail Lukasik

If you enjoy small-g gothic novels, you're in for a treat with Gail Lukasik's The Darkness Surrounds Us. Set during the WWI flu pandemic, The Darkness Surrounds Us tells the story of a young nurse, Nellie Lester, whose mother dies alone at home while Nellie stays late at work to comfort a dying patient. Nellie is guilt-stricken by the choice she made and overwhelmed by the constant death on the flu wards. When she discovers an unexplained photograph of her toddler self, her mother, and an unknown man and then sees an advertisement for a position for a private nurse on the very island where the photo was taken, Nellie decides to take the job in order to uncover family history he mother hid from her.

The Darkness Surrounds Us has the classic sorts of creepy elements that make reading gothics a pleasure
• an isolated, forbidding setting
• a home filled with tensions
• hostile and/or threatening servants
• an outsider with unclear motivations
• a new mother who appears to be going mad
• locals who don't want to talk about the past, especially the odd religious community that once lived on the island
• a creepy bedroom that locks from the outside where our heroine is expected to sleep
• a garden maze

I don't count any of the items on this list as spoilers because they're exactly the sorts of elements readers look for in gothics. The reading pleasure comes from seeing how Lukasik uses these elements, the way the novel's characters respond to them, and the pace and urgency with which they become crucial to the narrative.

If you like gothics—and bonus if you like WWI-era fiction—you'll enjoy The Darkness Surrounds Us. I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via Edelweiss; the opinions are my own.… (meer)

The Darkness Surrounds Us had all the elements of a lush, gothic mystery, with hints of a supernatural mystery, a mysterious group of people on the island who disappeared, an old decrepit mansion, and a secret about Nellie's past. With all of these elements, all of the things I love in a gothic mystery, what was it about this story that did not quite work?

First of all, let me start with the lush descriptions of the mansion and the world as they were definitely the strength of this novel. Taking place in winter, it was easy for the author to take advantage of so many natural elements to ensnare our heroine in many an adventure so I am glad to see this happen, everything from getting lost in the forest, to almost freezing to death, and so on. I would have been disappointed otherwise. The descriptions of the mansion itself were quite good, but for the life of me, I couldn't understand why a nurse of a newborn child would be placed in the attic and not next door. That doesn't happen during this time period as the nurse needs to be available twenty-four-seven in case of emergencies, not stuck away in an attic. And unfortunately, I just couldn't let that go and it became more bothersome as the story progressed.

The plot itself contained all your usual tropes: the wary housekeeper, the unhappy groundskeeper, the secretive lord of the mansion, the unbalanced mistress, the missing previous nurse, the secretive villagers, and I could just go on and on. It's not that I don't like those tropes, but if you are going to use them, you really need to up your ante and do something special so you stand out from all the other books that has been written using them. And while the author tried, with the mysterious disappearance of a group of people and the implication of Nellie's mother and father being involved, I don't think it worked as intended. For me, it was predictable, easy to figure out, and Nellie's personality destroyed any tension that was being built up every...single...time. And because the plot was meandering in nature, the author tried to pull it together with mysterious happenings and characters that were acting strangely or with ill-will towards Nellie instead, it just seemed contrived and ruined the flow of the narrative. And while it wasn't hard to figure out the villain, there was little description given about the motives surrounding this person or what made this person do the things they did. I don't have to like the villains, but just having them do horrible things isn't the only thing that makes them a villain, sometimes you get creeped out because of their motivations, their desires, the heart and soul of a person.

And Nellie. Personally, I just couldn't root for this character. I found her abrasive and annoying, not paying attention to warnings and hints. She was told flat out the villagers don't like strangers and those who seek to find information about the past, but she constantly interrupted with personal questions about her mother, using little subterfuge. I just wanted to kick her at times, especially with some of the choices she made in whom to trust. Gosh, she was silly. And some of the other characters had the development of a wooden shoe, so much that a week later I can't even remember their names.

Verdict
The Darkness Surrounds Us did have a nice mystery at its core, but the plot meandered quite a bit and the characters were one-dimensional in nature and could have been developed much more to show their motivations and their desires. I did enjoy the setting and thought the descriptions of the eerie woods and the creepy house were quite good, but there were too many anomalies from this time period that just didn't work. That being said, there were enough good things in this book that I really hope the author writes another gothic historical mystery as I would definitely read another.… (meer)

The book deals with the absorbing topic of the author seeking information about cross-racial family relationships hidden from her. It's all the more compelling because the author is white and only in adulthood found out that her mother "passed" for white and concealed almost all of her relatives from her immediate family. I found the book interesting - Gale Lukaskik, the author devoted a good amount of attention to considering her mother's motivations and actions, which was my main interest. However, a great deal of the book went into detail about her mother's family genealogy. I found this a bit abstract -- Lukasik explained the research that was done to find far back relatives and the inferences she and others helping her had to make. I finished reading the book even though it covered a lot of ground I hadn't expected it to.… (meer)

I originally saw Gail's story on the show Genealogy Roadshow which I love. As someone who works on her own genealogy, I can relate to Gail's search. I found the story of her mother's passing as white to be extremely brave and heartbreaking at the same time.

Gail tells the story of how she discovered her mother's secret and how she broached the topic with her. Once her mother confirmed the truth, she made Gail swear that she wouldn't tell anyone until she was gone. Gail kept her promise to her mother for the next 17 years.

This story details not only Gail's family history but the history of racism and how long it has been a plague on our society. Learning of the caste system that took place in early New Orleans history was extremely interesting. I loved how Gail's book ended with meeting family and seeing her mother in their face. This was definitely an eye-opening read and I am so glad I read it.… (meer)