Book Review: What We Saw At Night by Jacquelyn Mitchard

What We Saw At Night by Jacquelyn Mitchard

Hardcover, 272 pages

Published: January 8th 2013 by Soho Teen
Review Copy: NetGalley
Purchase: Amazon

Description From GoodReads:
Allie Kim suffers from Xeroderma Pigmentosum: a fatal allergy to sunlight that confines her and her two best friends, Rob and Juliet, to the night. When freewheeling Juliet takes up Parkour—the stunt-sport of scaling and leaping off tall buildings—Allie and Rob have no choice but to join her, if only to protect her. Though potentially deadly, Parkour after dark makes Allie feel truly alive, and for the first time equal to the “daytimers.”

On a random summer night, the trio catches a glimpse of what appears to be murder. Allie alone takes it upon herself to investigate, and the truth comes at an unthinkable price. Navigating the shadowy world of specialized XP care, extreme sports, and forbidden love, Allie ultimately uncovers a secret that upends everything she believes about the people she trusts the most.

My Review:
My rating: 3 1/2 stars
I enjoyed What We Saw At Night. It was an enjoyable read, but really, there were a ton of issues with the story, things that pulled me out just as I was finally finding myself pulled in. Especially that ending. But we’ll get to that in a moment..

Here’s the thing, I went into What We Saw At Night expecting a standalone title. I was looking for a standalone YA thriller, and this book seemed like a great fit. The problem? What We Saw At Night is not a standalone. It ends on what is quite possibly the biggest cliffhanger that I have ever read, and honestly? I’m not sure that I want to even bother to read the next book, What We Lost in the Dark.

This could have been a fantastic thriller, but it wasn’t.

Jacquelyn Mitchard is a fantastic writer, really, and I did care about the characters that she created. They are likable and unique. (I mean really, when do you see characters in YA that have Xeroderma Pigmentosum?) She set up an exciting story here, it was just that, in the end, that story fell apart.

I can deal with a cliffhanger, but this one just felt as though the book ended out of the blue. It didn’t make me want to read more. That ending only frustrated me, to the point that I was willing to throw my Kindle across the room. I appreciate that they included a sneak peek at the sequel in the back of the digital ARC, but honestly, I’m not sure I am willing to continue this series. I needed answers. I didn’t mind that Mitchard didn’t tell us too much about Blondie, I actually found that intriguing. But the girls? Juliet? The body? The letter? There was just too much left unanswered for me.

I know it seems as though I’m bashing this book, but I’m not. The book is definitely a solid five stars until you near the end… then it goes down to a three and a half.

I’d still recommend checking it out.

Everyone has different tastes in books, and you may just enjoy it!

Some of my favorite quotes:
“Maybe it’s not possible to experience a broken heart when you’ve had a mutually exclusive relationship for less than thirty minutes. But that’s how it felt.”

“I let him talk. I just hoped there would be a next summer for the three of us. At the base of my mind was the solemn unspoken thought: tonight was our only tomorrow, and we would bet the limit on every hand.”

View all my reviews