Light Perpetual

There's some wonderful writing in this novel. Some individual stories that stand out. But I most struggled with the point of this novel.

The premise is simple, this is the imagined lives of five children who were killed in an air raid during WWII. What would their lives have looked like in 15 years? 30? etc. For the most part, their lives are pathetic and sad. There's definitely a shot of realism to their stories, but not much hope. So is the author's intent to illustrate they were better off dying before they had to suffer? Or that living sucks?

And in the end, there was no clarity for me, as a reader. These characters didn't live these lives because they'd died. So what? And what if they had lived these lives? Why does this story need to exist? I think this novel would've been more enjoyable without that initial detail clouding everything that came after.