My Review: OMG People OMG!!! I can not tell you how much this book pissed me off!!


You think you are getting this freaking amazing paranormal title and then you get to that twist and I mean it wasn't what I thought it was going to be but it was so much worse than what I thought it was going to be!! Let's just say that this one THIS ONE was totally pegged wrong! I loved the book up until that point. I was really interested to find out what was really going on and everything that June was dealing with. It was just that twist that really lost me altogether. I really wish this would have stayed as a paranormal title instead of what we got.


Do I Recommend this book? Maybe, Ok so if you don't mind spoilers I would say look up what really happened and then go from there. This one kind of reminded me of that movie The Villiage where you think these people are all living in these haunted woods and then you come to find out that its set in our time and they are just hiding from the world. It was a real let down!

Go Into This One Knowing: SO NOT PARANORMAL!

This book is perfect for Halloween. Creepy asylum, plus a psychological/supernatural twist sign me up! I really enjoyed the horror and atmosphere of this book, both the horror in the physical, as well as the growing horror that metastasizes in June's mind. My favorite thing about this book would have to be how well the author captured what it feels like to be trapped. Trapped in the expectations of what people, your parents, friends, society, etc, want from you. How illnesses of the mind are perceived by outsiders, or those that have never had to deal with them. How frustrating and scary all these things can be on top of growing up, I think it was captured beautifully, honestly, and in a way that also can shed light on the way our own world handles these things.

Wow. Honestly it's not my favorite genre but this was just so compelling and somehow realistic even though it's not? I really liked it.

I am a tremendous fan of historical horror, and more specifically, historical horror set in asylums, so as soon as I read the synopsis of this one, I was intrigued. I really had no idea what to expect, but I appreciate that Lukavics has a twisted imagination and tends to go to much darker places than most YA horror authors are willing to explore, so my hopes were very high for Nightingale.

Thankfully, I was not let down at all by this creepy little read! First, let me say that, if you are a fan of American Horror Story’s Asylum season (season 2), I think this will absolutely be right up your alley. That happens to be my favorite AHS season, and this gave me such similar vibes without ever feeling like it was ripping off the show in any way. What starts off as a horror story in an asylum in the 50s quickly gains a sci-fi element that’s positively bizarre, in the best way.

There isn’t a ton I can tell you about what happens in the book without spoiling things, so I’ll just say that I genuinely enjoyed the progression of events, loved the twist at the end, and found June to be an absolutely fantastic narrator. I loved seeing the world through her perspective, where she’s so unreliable that you can rarely tell what is actually happening and what she’s misinterpreting or possibly making up altogether. There’s a lot of speculative fiction feels to the storytelling here, which I love (but I know spec-fic isn’t for everyone, so if you’re not a huge fan, maybe go into the book preparing yourself).

There’s also a lot of solid social commentary in here. The way the patients at the asylum are treated is terrifying, especially because so much of it is obviously inspired by real events. There’s also a load of sexism present: June is placed into the asylum for being too “unusual”, because rather than cooking, cleaning, and having a family, she wants to live on her own, travel the world, and write terrifying science fiction novels. She’s confused and frustrated by the gender roles placed upon her, and things aren’t made any easier for her by the fact that she’s queer (bi/pan)—and we actually get to see her form sexual and romantic relationships with a man and a woman, the latter of which I found to be so sweet and precious that I couldn’t help but root for them.

I thought Nightingale was a tremendously fun read, and I flew through it in no time at all. I loved the creepy elements, the slow dread brought on by June’s confusion and lack of control, and the surprisingly gore-filled scenes near the end. Like I said, I love how far Amy Lukavics is willing to go, and Nightingale made me want to immediately pick up the older releases of hers that I haven’t gotten to yet. I strongly recommend adding this one to your TBR if you’re a fan of horror with some sci-fi elements thrown in, and I can’t wait to see what she comes up with next!

Content warnings for parental abuse/neglect, domestic violence, ableism, mistreatment of mental health patients (lobotomies, shock therapy, etc.), gore, body horror, violence, sexism, suicidal ideation.

All quotes come from an advance copy and may not match the final release. Thank you so much to Harlequin Teen for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

The protagonist seemingly wakes up with a talking corpse to contend with next to her and has to explain the concept of sleep, which I thought was an interesting start. She seems to be in a hospital or perhaps some kind of rehab ward, piecing together things after a traumatic incident. I have to say that after Lukavics's previous YA horror novel, "Daughters Unto Devils" knocked my socks off, I have kept waiting for her other releases to have the same effect, but even though each novel such as "The Ravenous" and "The Women in the Walls" have been written with an excellent quality, "Daughters" is still the one that stands out most for me and is the best thing I think she has written to date. Admittedly, I do have a bias for historical horror, which explains why "Daughters" is my favourite of the bunch so far. "Nightingale" is also excellently written and tightly plotted, but my favourite remains "Daughters." I hope that the author writes something like that again in the future.

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|#partner| Thank you to @harlequinteen for the free copy via @netgalley
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June isn’t your typical 1950’s teenager. Her parents are trying to groom her into a perfect wife and homemaker, but June would rather sit in her room and write gruesome sci-fi stories. After an incident at home, her parents commit her to an asylum and it’s there that June and the other girls are terrorized, I mean “treated.”
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Horror is not something that I really read, but when I read the synopsis for Nightingale, it sounded so interesting. So I decided to request it and give it a try. While there was a moment or two that did freak me out (the tunnel scene really stuck with me 😖), I was disappointed overall. It came off a little cheesy to me instead of the scariness I was expecting. It was also kind of more sci-fi than I was expecting. So I guess it’s kind of like a sci-fi horror. I kept reading because I was interested to see how the story would end, and then I felt disappointed with that too. Maybe this genre just isn’t for me? 🤷🏻‍♀️
⭐️⭐️/5
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If you like horror books or films that are kind of cheesy, then you might enjoy this one more than I did.
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#bookreview #bibliophile #igreads #thetipsyreader #netgalley #nightingale #youngadult #yareads #horror #scifi #harlequinnteen

Nightingale was my first read from this author, and it’s sort of a coming of age period sci-fi read. When I requested this galley it was based on the gorgeous cover. I assumed it would be dark, and some of the themes were, but this was more a young woman struggling with getting away from people who want her to do as they expect opposed to doing what she knows she’s meant for.

This is a good read, but I will say that it is confusing. It bounces back and forth between the recent past, dreams, and the heroine, June, being in an asylum. The blurb compares this work to Stephen King, and I would have to agree. Kind of like the story gives you obvious answers that feel to fantastical to be facts, and yet at some points they are facts.

If you’re looking for a read that’s at its base a young woman trying to fight against expectations for the life that she actually wants, but has the wrappings of a sci-fi horror fantasy, then Nightingale is one you should check out!

In the 1950s, June Hardie wants to be a writer, but her parents have other plans. To seal a business deal, they want to marry her off to Robert, a business partner's son, but an event causes them to send her to an asylum instead. The girls there are strange, but not quite as weird as the sinister activities of the nurses and caregivers.

Let me start with the good: The book does a great job balancing information from the "days past" and "the institution." Nothing felt like it was introduced too early or too soon, and Lukavics leaves enough crumbs for the reader to figure out the mysteries of the asylum and June's perspective themselves.

That being said, the book never really goes beyond its premise, which tends to disappoint me. There were some interesting reveals towards the end, but those could have been insinuated much earlier. The premise also betrays the story a bit, with the ending making very little sense and I'm not sure the tale is as empowering as one might want from a story about a driven young woman like June.

Not really a horror, but something else entirely.

Rating: 3.5 stars

[Excerpt]:
Before I started this book, I had to change my status on Goodreads to “currently reading.” And of course I like to know the general consensus of a book – whether it has a good or bad review or if it’s just “okay.” The rating for “Nightingale” was less than 3.5, which didn’t bode well. If I’m trying to decide if I should read a book or not, I look to see if it’s rated below a 3.6 – if it is, I definitely won’t read it unless the synopsis really, really appeals to me. In this case, I was definitely intrigued, but more than anything I had to read and review it for NetGalley, and I take those things seriously!

For at least half the book, I thought the story was interesting enough, but nothing exceptional. I liked June, this young girl who started writing a sci-fi novel about outer space and aliens. She lives in the 1950s, and her life was controlled by her parents and boyfriend, Robert. These events took place in “days past,” and present day events show June in a mental asylum that’s quite…unconventional. She makes friends with a girl named Eleanor, and she is instantly suspicious about how the hospital operates after only being there a few days. Nurse Joya and “the doctor” are particularly strange.

[Full review on my blog!]

Thank you to Harlequin Teen for gifting me a copy of this book in exchange of an honest review.

I rate this book a 3 out of 5 Stars. 

I am not even going to lie, I requested this book based on the cover first, than synopsis. It looked and sounded dark, and super creepy, and like the perfect book to get into the Halloween spirit. First off, let me say, I like the Historical Fiction part the most. I liked watching June fight her parents on wanting to be more than a homemaker, fighting to write her stories, and to be more than a wife, to the man her father picked out. 

However, once it got to the part in the asylum, it lost me a bit, now I know that this was based back in the 50's and the way they treated mental health was barbaric, as far as things like overly medicating, electric shock therapy, and etc. I actually enjoyed that aspect. What I couldn't get on board with was the interactions between June, the nurse, and the doctor. It was all so bizarre (I'm guessing that's the point) and trying to keep track of what was June's hallucinations, and what was real. I liked the alternating chapters/timeline I liked seeing what led June to being institutionalized. There was something huge that happened in June's younger years, but it's not clearly stated,  you sort of draw your own conclusion. 

This is another book that has an ending you will either hate, or love. I actually loved it. It is how I would have wanted it to end, with an extra strange twist. Overall, this was my first Lukavic book, and  I am really interested in reading more, this one has very mixed reviews, so I'd like to read one of her older books to see if I'd love any of them. Amy Lukavic has very dark story telling capabilities.

Mind blown! I received a free ARC copy of Nightingale by Amy Lukavics courtesy of NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Official Blurb (from NetGalley)

At seventeen, June Hardie is everything a young woman in 1951 shouldn’t be—independent, rebellious, a dreamer. June longs to travel, to attend college and to write the dark science fiction stories that consume her waking hours. But her parents only care about making June a better young woman. Her mother grooms her to be a perfect little homemaker while her father pushes her to marry his business partner’s domineering son. When June resists, her whole world is shattered—suburbia isn’t the only prison for different women…

June’s parents commit her to Burrow Place Asylum, aka the Institution. With its sickening conditions, terrifying staff and brutal “medical treatments,” the Institution preys on June’s darkest secrets and deepest fears. And she’s not alone. The Institution terrorizes June’s fragile roommate, Eleanor, and the other women locked away within its crumbling walls. Those who dare speak up disappear…or worse. Trapped between a gruesome reality and increasingly sinister hallucinations, June isn’t sure where her nightmares end and real life begins. But she does know one thing: in order to survive, she must destroy the Institution before it finally claims them all.

My Thoughts

Minor spoilers ahead

Like I said above, my mind was blown with this book! I'm honestly not quite sure how I feel about this one. I feel that this book was a lot darker than most Harlequin Teen books (that I've read at least) and I think I honestly forgot that this was a horror story during the two month wait for this one. Whoops! Needless to say, I had to rearrange my mindset to get into this book :)

I think stories that take place asylums in the early 1900's are intriguing. I don't think I have actually read much literature along those lines, but I read articles and such. The  main character, June, was committed to the Burrow Place Asylum after waking up one morning to find out that her parents were not her parents and brandishing a knife towards them.

Told in snippets of days pre-asylum and in the asylum, we find out that June was trying to break out of the 1950's housewife mold and strike her own path as a writer in a man's world. Her story was a science fiction/horror story where a 10-year-old girl was abducted and experimented on by aliens. When I was reading this at first, I thought, good for you chika! Break down barriers and go on that writing retreat that is for men! You can do it!

We also find out that her parents have other plans. Her dad forced June to date his boss's son, Robert, who was just as controlling and oppressive as her father. But June went along with the whole plan, biding her time until she could go away to the writing retreat to finish her book.

As the story unfolds through the flashbacks, the reader starts realizing that June's life was more than ordinary and maybe her story was more prominent in her life than she realized. I started feeling like there was going to be a monster scene in the asylum (I was right) and that June might have been more like her story's main character than she realized  or maybe the story was a more fantastical retelling of something she was remembering subconsciously from her past. Again, I was right on this too.

My Review

I really enjoyed Nightingale. I absolutely loved the concept! I also really dug the plot twist towards the end, even though I had an inkling of where it was leading. I also thought the story was very well written and I look forward to picking up some more of the author's books when I have the time.

I really got an American Horror Story: Asylum vibe from this story and I was fully expecting a scene where Jessica Lange to come out singing the Name Game.



My only complaint is that I felt that the epilogue was not needed and it kind of ruined the perfect natural ending. June did not need a happily ever after full of love and acceptance for this specific story to be great. I really wish I had not read the epilogue and would have just stopped before it.

Conclusion

I give Nightingale 4 stars. I was really bouncing around between 3.5 and 4, because the epilogue really did it in for me on this one. However, just because I didn't care for it, doesn't mean someone else would agree, so I went ahead and rounded up to 4. The story was actually really dark and well written, and I encourage anyone who likes the horror genre to give this one a shot.

June is content with staying in her room and writing all day. Her mother has other plans. In order to make June into a perfect woman, she must learn how to cook, slave over her brother’s and dad’s every whim, and fall in love with a financially stable man. Obsessed with writing her alien abduction story, June plans to escape and live the way she wants. However, when her escape turns sour, her parents send her to an awful asylum. And nothing is as it seems. All June ever wanted was to be free. Nightingale is a crazy whirlwind that will leave you shocked.

Going into Nightingale, I was expecting ghosts or other paranormal activity, leaning more towards the horror genre. Instead, Nightingale is more of a science fiction, delving into the unknown. Nightingale is extremely compelling. Science fiction has never been my favorite but this page turner has a way of gripping you right in.

The 1950s setting gives the book the perfect atmosphere. Lukavics explores extreme gender roles. Nightingale will be sure to start discussions when June’s mother explains her desire in making June the perfect woman. All June wanted was to escape suffocating societal rules, gender roles, and doing what's always expected of her. She doesn’t want a future that's already mapped out for her, on the road to becoming the perfect woman, the perfect wife. She’s the type to color outside the lines and readers will absolutely love her narrative.

Nightingale is a YA Shutter Island. With monsters in dark tunnels and things pretending to be humans, Nightingale is sure to haunt both your waking hours and your dreams. June is an unreliable narrator of the best kind. She constantly doubts her actions, her thoughts, and even her own eyes. Readers will trust June in her assessment one moment and the next, shaking their head at the absurdity of it. The book messes with readers’ minds. Readers will not know what to think.

It does showcase a female/female romance which is appreciated. However, since the relationship is not the main focus of the work, it seems underdeveloped and superficial.

Amy Lukavics is an incredible writer. The careful structure of the book mixes with the imaginative descriptions that jump off the page. Lukavics takes readers back and forth in time, explaining June's present life in the asylum and her past, leading up to the asylum. Despite sounding a bit confusing, the structure is quite brilliant. Lukavics only reveals so much at any given point, leaving readers curious to know more.

The descriptions are cringe worthy, gruesome even. June becomes obsessed over writing detailed torture scenes of her own protagonist. It gets quite gory. If you are a queasy reader, this one may not be for you.

The ending leaves something to be desired. It took a direction no reader will foresee. However, this unpredictability quickly turns unbelievable and too ridiculous.

Nightingale was gruesome, undeniably entertaining, setting a terrifying atmosphere you will definitely want to read during autumn.

I have enjoyed the other books Amy has put out, so I’m pretty much all in for anything she writes. This was was a little odd and I’m not sure if 3 stars is too high.

I liked June. She’s tenacious and smart and I really liked how she rebelled in small ways. Her family is crap and I wanted to punch all of them in the face. There are lots of other characters, but spoilers.

Plot wise it was okay? My favorite part was the unreliable narrator aspect and honestly, the scariest part was the entire setting in the 50s and how women were treated and expected to act. The ending did feel a bit rushed and while the epilogue was mildly satisfying, it left me with more questions than answers.

Overall, it was a quick read with an interesting premise. I look forward to seeing what Amy writes next.

**Huge thanks to Harlequin Teen for providing the arc free of charge**

Things were a lot different for young women in 1951. Most of all, they had a lot less control over their lives and attitudes toward differences were not kind. June, who is a supremely unreliable narrator, has been committed by her parents to the Burrow Place Asylum. This novel tells the tale of how she got there and what happened and it does so in an odd way. I was unsure exactly what was going on through parts of this. It's a horror story, to be sure, but there's a real sci-fi thing going. No spoilers on the twists. It's well written and a page turner, even if it often has you scratching your head. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. This is YA crossover but it's arguable which genre.

What an utterly disturbing and strange little novel ...
And I loved it.

First, I must point out the MAJOR American Horror Story: Asylum vibes I got. Right from the start, it set the perfect mood and it was very easy for me to slide into the story. I was impressed with how the story progressed and how it was laid out. I thought it to be oddly short (according to my Kindle LOC), but apparently it clocked in at 380+ pages.

We start with June Hardie's first night in the insane asylum (I realize that's hardly PC these days, but it was set in the 1950's and clearly fitting.) We spend a few chapters with her in the hospital, then a few labelled only as Days Past. It's these chapters, detailing the back story of how June came to where she is, that I found to be the most disturbing. Be a better young woman. Better known as your free time, young June, is to now be forced to learn how to cook meatloaf, clean, and wear lipstick at all times of the day. It was disgusting how little say June had in her life as a woman. And yet it created a fantastic parallel with June's writing and her desire to be independent and travel beyond city borders.

Admittedly, the end got a wee bit ... weird, and I had to really pay attention, but I loved it. It was so strange and different from what I normally read, and since I believe fall started September 5, this was just the right spooky read. At times it did get a little graphic, and if you're not good with explicit scenes involving sex and gore, then this may not be the best book for you.

4/5

My first Lukavics and I will be back for more!

June Hardie is a 17-year-old girl growing up with uncommon dreams in 1950's America. While she dreams of a career as a science fiction author, her parents want her to settle down and get married right away to...a less than memorable guy. June spends her free time penning the story of her heart - one that she obsesses over day and night - on her trusty typewriter. The deeper she digs into the story, the darker it gets. Her life begins to spiral out of control as her fascination builds. One morning, she wakes up and realizes her parents have been replaced by aliens!

In the face of this accusation, her parents do what any logical YA parent does: admit her into a less than reputable mental institution. The deplorable conditions the girls are kept in and the inhumane "treatments" they are subjected to break others down but June KEEPS FIGHTING until she uncovers a truth worse than fiction.

I loved that this book kept me guessing. Unreliable narrators are my favorite. Even the weird subject matter just had me glued to the pages of my Netgalley preview novel. Lukavics knows how to build a plot and setting. I think that's why my mind keeps coming back to this book.

However, I found the characters and their relationships very disconnected. I was supposed to care about at least one of the two romances, and I really didn't. Anything could have happened to June and I wouldn't have really minded because I wasn't attached to HER. I was attached to her setting, tone, and experiences.

As a reader, I was terribly pleased with the end of this book. Not necessarily the epilogue but how the institution storyline wrapped up and that there was a reasonable amount of closure. YA thriller and sci-fi readers will enjoy this fun, dark read!

The first thing that stood out to me about this cover was how the hair meshed with the birdcage. This made me think of a woman that was special but trapped. Guess what...I was right! The teal fading to black edges works well for the ominous look of this novel. Using white font color also helps the title and author's name stand out. Now, on to the good stuff...

The biggies issue I had with this novel was the fact that I was so confused!


I know that this might have been part of the idea, a way to make the reader feel how the main character was. But...I was so lost for a while, I wanted to just put the book down a few times and that says a lot coming from me. Eventually, near the end, I felt like pieces fell together or at least mostly. I saw many Goodreads reviews that had the same issue with this book, it was so confusing at times that they almost gave up hope, some did.

The story takes place in the 1950s and the setting is accurate, but I did question a few of the historical things. For example, the way June's family suppressed he dreams, forced her to learn the ways of a homemaker, and even enter into an arranged marriage. Although I know that this was common during those times, it does not wash the nasty taste out that it left. I hated seeing June have such a passion to do something but be forced into some mold she did not fit into. I did enjoy that despite everything she was going through, she tried to be independent. June was incredibly strong. She could go from being put down for not being "perfect" enough and bounce right back to pretending to have an interest in what her mother was teaching her.

I was also a little disappointed by the ending. I am unsure if it was symbolic or June's mental state finally breaking...but by the end, I was simply glad the novel was over. The ending seemed to fall together too quickly, it felt unnatural...almost forced to come to a close. I love gore, but with a purpose...some of the scenes seemed forced, rushed, as if the author did not know where to take the story next.

Overall, It was a wonderful concept and I did enjoy it, but I think the other issue I had overshadowed the underlying bones of the story.

June Hardie just wants to write, but her parents have other plans. Growing up in the 1950s is filled with stereotypical gender norms and so her parents are attempting to groom her into a perfect housewife for her father's business partner's son. Dating Robert, pretending to be a devoted girlfriend, and learning how to cook and clean drains June. She yearns for escape and secretly applies to a writer's scholarship in upstate New York while she works on an alien abduction story. Her parents and Robert don't take her writing seriously, and when something drastic happens at a party, June is whisked away to an institution.

For starters, June swears her parents have been replaced by replicas. People that look like them, but don't act like them. The other girls at the institution have odd abilities as well. One girl states she is dead. Another can talk to ghosts. Another sees the truth when looking into your eyes. Upon arrival at the institution, weird things begin happening. June finds herself battling her memories and the staff as she tries to solve the puzzle on what is reality and what is fiction.

I am drawn to stories set in institutions so I was excited to read this one. I breezed through it within a few days, but as the story progressed I grew less enthralled and more perplexed. Things started getting confusing after the halfway point and I stayed confused until the last page where I had to pause and try to think about what happened because nothing made sense. I have a vague explanation, but I still have questions that were never answered. The lack of explanation made me dislike the story even more since I dedicated hours to read this just to be dissatisfied.

There were certain clues scattered in the text where I swore this was going to be another Shutter Island. I was really hoping it would turn in that direction as the story progressed. Instead it went off the walls of a science fiction mystery that was never explained. Everything was vague. So vague that nothing made sense.

Thanks NetGalley for the ARC.

I went into Nightingale expecting a gothic horror that also examines traditional gender roles in the vein of Cat Winters’ In the Shadow of Blackbirds. Suffice to say that I was initially quite surprised by the form that Nightingale's horrors took, and not necessarily in a good way; it felt like Lukavics herself didn't quite know which direction she wanted to take the story which manifested itself in a very confusing storyline. That said, I did predict the major plot twist less than 30% of the way into the story and found myself underwhelmed by the ending.

I also found it really difficult to connect to any of the characters. While part of this is intentional due to the unreliable narrator, the writing style felt juvenile and was filled with much more telling than showing. As a result, the stakes never felt real to me, making the story fall rather flat.

Overall, I found Nightingale to be a disappointing read. The premise held a lot of promise, but the unfocused way in which it was achieved left a lot to be desired.

I’m still not sure if I actually liked this book! It was...different. The story started off right away which was nice and I was drawn in by the different characters. But I felt like there could have been more character development for everyone besides the main character. I wanted to know more about them! The story took a completely different turn than I expected and I liked how everything connected and made sense in the end. I enjoyed it overall. Publish date: 9/25/18. Thank you to Net Galley and Harlequin Teen for the free copy in exchange for an honest review!