Strange Is the Light

by Sarah Maria Griffin

STRANGE IS THE LIGHT follows a passionately entangled group of childhood friends, fractured by the betrayals and secrets kept as they grew into adulthood.

Now, after twenty years, Daphne, Ronan, Leonie and Finn will finally have to face the consequences of cutting their last adventure short--having accidentally opened a rift into a dangerous alternate dimension while playing a mysterious RPG version of their childhood game.

Daphne never took her final turn... And there is a debt that must be paid.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Adult, Science Fiction

400 pages, Hardcover

Expected publication September 8, 2026

About the author

Sarah Maria Griffin lives in Dublin, Ireland, in a small red brick house by the sea, with her husband and cat. She writes about monsters, growing up, and everything those two things have in common. Her first book, SPARE AND FOUND PARTS, is out now.

Reviews

[Colby · Rating 5 out of 5]

every summer, at the starcade on ireland's valentia island, four children—daphne, ronan, leonie, and finn—sit down at a table and play wonder, wonder, a game of their own invention that serves as an escape from their troubled lives. as they grow together into adulthood, their imaginary world remains a precious secret they can disappear into whenever they please. but after one of their treasured summers turns violent, they realize that growing older means discovering they may have never known one another at all.

years later, in the wake of that pivotal summer, the four friends are invited back to the old starcade for one last game. only this time, nothing is what it seems. the world they left behind has changed in their time away, and each turn they take upends the fabric of reality. there has been something else at the table with them during their sessions, and there is a cosmic debt that needs to be paid, no matter the price.

sarah maria griffin's STRANGE IS THE LIGHT is a masterful exploration of friendship, love, betrayal, loss, and the unique horrors of being alive. imagining myself in these characters' positions—my greatest source of joy poisoned at the source and my dearest friends turned strangers before my eyes—made me nauseous with anxiety, and griffin's stellar prose made each beat of this story hit like a punch to the face. i cried, i laughed, i panicked, and i fell in love with the valentia gang as if i'd grown up with them myself.

visceral, strange, and utterly transporting, STRANGE IS THE LIGHT is a surreal and horrifying love letter to childhood friendship and adulthood hardships that will break your heart and change the way you treat one another. the truth is, there's precious little i want to tell you about this book at the end of the day. the late, great david lynch said that the work itself is the talking, and watching the secrets be revealed here is unbelievably rewarding. i ask you to trust me when i tell you that not a single one of you is ready for what's coming. STRANGE IS THE LIGHT hits shelves this september, and griff—with all her inimitable powers—is just getting started. i hope you'll join her at the table.

(eARC of STRANGE IS THE LIGHT provided by edelweiss+ and netgalley.)

[Katherine Snow · Rating 5 out of 5]

Strange Is The Light puts all other 'weird girl' books to shame by being the weirdest and wildest and angriest 🧿.

I looooove you Daphne, you don't always do things the right way but you are doing the RIGHT thing.

🎣🎣🎣

We follow our protagonist Daphne as she lives out these idyllic summer friendships on the island of Valentia. Her group (Finn, Leonie and Ronan) are a needed escape from her difficult relationship with her brother Daithi and her lacklustre friendships at home.

They develop a pretend game that fills up their summers-- Daphne fills journal after journal with her stories of Wonder Wonder, this game is the table the friends gather around year after year, shedding their regular selves and playing in this imaginary space together.

As they get older, their relationships with one another get more complicated, but these friends are stuck in a kind of stasis that comes from arms-length summer friendships, their ties cast and crystallized in youth, the bridge stretching too long between who they are the rest of the year and who they are in the summer time.

They are catapulted out of this stasis when someone plunders their dream world and forces them to come clean about 'shameful' secrets they are hiding from one another under the guise of a tabletop RPG created from Wonder Wonder.

This novel was well-paced, intriguing, I found myself reading it in snippets while I waited in line because I didn't want to put it down! It has similar eerie, nefarious vibes of Eat the Ones You Love, and a feature from a friend we know and love from that story.

I loved the continued imagery of the eye and the tie ins to Eat the Ones You Love, I see you Sarah Maria Griffin Cinematic Universe (SMGCU?)

So grateful for this ARC, I loved this strange and beautiful book. 5 stars!

Thank you so much to Tor and NetGalley for this ARC!

[Abigail]

WAKE UP BABE NEW GRIFFIN JUST DROPPED

(I'm so hyped you don't understand)