Member Reviews

This book promised much from the synopsis, hence the request to review. It was quite tense and intriguing for about the first 30% but my interest quickly waned when it became rather dull and boring. Unfortunately, this was a DNF for me.

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I enjoyed this one, it had my heart trying at times. A house invader and the family evading him by stealthy hiding? Perfect.

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What a ride.
A mother with two young children go through traumatic experiences, one after the other.
Sierra's craft is sorcery. It is cinematic and yet keeps a literary quality, the unique strengths of novels at all times, especially when it comes to internal monologues.

The ending was so satisfactory. Had this book ended, about 20 pages or so, earlier, and we did not get the ending, my rating would have been lower because then part of the authenticity would have lacked.

I am a reader who thinks of many possibilities and opportunities especially when reading about different narrator POVS, and reading thriller/mystery/horror/crime books, hence I do not look for crazy and unpredictable twists, but at the same time, very predictable twists are against the nature of mystery books and whodunnits. This one balances POVS, internal monologues, twists and several possibilities rather well.

I personally enjoy long books too because of how they have more room to deal with more plot and characterisation.
This book would have been pretty much the same experience had it been a bit shorter or of similar length but with more subplots to complicate it. The latter option would have been a different story and book, I admit. Yet, I still think despite being a page-turner and an enjoyable read that does not drag and makes use of flashbacks rather well, either it could have been shorter, or we would have had a bit more exploration of other plot elements and characters that make us forget about the Corner, be sure who is telling the truth etc.

And a spoiler after this - please do not read further if have not read the book. I did not fully buy the older the sergeant being so blunt with the main character. I expect there would be psychiatric supervision around such a situation, and he should not be able to say what he had said as an accusation. I may be wrong, but if this is the procedure in real life, I found it non-ideal. The mental health services, police and law must have procedures to work together and for the well-being of everyone involved. In that case, the sergeant was too direct, even if had he been right.

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A tense and suspenseful nail-biter. In the middle of the night, during a blizzard a mother is at home with her young children when she realises they are not alone. An atmospheric read that unfolds at a cracking pace.

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Really loved this book, one of my favourite I read over the last year. Extremely vivid descriptions and character building, really interested in reading more by Tracy Sierra.

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So tense, so unexpected. I couldn't put it down! I will be recommending this book all spooky season.

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A great book
Will have you hooked from page one
And holding your breath a lot of the time
Plenty of twists
Looking forward to her next book
Thanks NetGalley

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Very engaging but definitely not one to read when you're home alone! Really enjoyed it and will look out for more from the author.

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By the time I got around to reaidng this book the hype machine was in full flow with authors and readers I admire telling me this was one of the best thrillers they had ever read. That is the main reason I persevered with it despite finding the authorial voice jarring. The names of the narrator, her husband and children aren't given, which kept reminding me I was Reading A Book when I just wanted to lose myself in the story, I'm not sure this device adds anything to the book. As a psychological thriller it really delivers and is especially good on the way women are ignored and gaslist by everyone from their families to medics to police, and it's impressive how the author makes the reader subtly complicit in second-guessing the narrator.

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Oh my, what an incredibly tense novel this is. ‘Nerve-shredding’ is a term which is often used, but I don’t think it’s been more apt than to describe this story. Whilst it’s not horror, the tense opening chapters had me wanting to sleep with the light on – it was unnerving.

This book builds up the tension and doesn’t let up. It starts with a relatively simple line “There was someone in the house.” But what does that entail? A woman, living alone with her two young children, a blizzard raging outside, suddenly realising they’re not alone in their own home. A desperate scramble to hide, to protect, a mother’s instincts driving her through the terror. And all the time, the footsteps get closer. There’s someone in the house. What does he want? How will they survive? The book leads the reader through the action moment to moment as the family is holed up in peril, and it makes excruciating reading.

Somewhere around the middle of the story, the tone and pace changes a little. As opposed to staying in the present moment, there’s a lot of looking back on how our protagonist got here, her history with her ex-husband and the personal trauma she is trying to move on from. The constant flashbacks do feel like they detract a little from the present-day action, but they do help to give context and draw a portrait of a fragile woman who may be at breaking point.

As everyone seems to be against the protagonist, the question of an unreliable narrator comes into play and I had no idea which way this story was going to go. With tension continuously building, so that even the reader doesn’t know how to trust, this makes for a clever, nuanced and multi-layered debut.

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A intense creepy atmosphere kept me on the edge of my seat for this one!
Heart pounding, intricately plotted & enraging at times.

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A creepy and horrifying tale, which made me so anxious...

Imagine, you're alone in your remote house with your two young children during a blizzard, creepy enough right?! Now you see a man standing on the stairs..what would you do?

This kind of thing terrifies me! The thought of something happening to my children makes me want to throw up, but to have that threat in my own home, awful!

So I probably shouldn't have started reading this when I was camping, reading in my darkened tent, every shout made me jump!

The start of this book was incredible! The writing was so good-inside the head of the mother, I could feel the terror, anger, love, sadness and doubt. I really enjoyed it, no I didn't, but I was obsessed with this book, and also didn't want to read it! The way it made me sweat, but simultaneously gave me chills...

I didn't give it five stars because of the gaslighting during the middle part of the book. I absolutely know that it's a relevant and integral part of the story, but it made me so uncomfortable. I guess the first part was really frightening, but the scariest part was the gaslighting, how easily doubt was cast, how easily sanity and mental health was questioned. The after effects, and the impact of that?!

I really liked how it ended and would recommend this to anyone looking for a suspenseful psychological thriller, with elements of horror. This author managed to scare me and fill me with panic! 👏

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This is not a book to be read late at night when you are on your own. It is quite a simple storyline - a mother, alone in a remote house with her two young children during a snowstorm, hears an invader entering her house. The pace is quite slow, which helps build up the suspense and the tension, but can at times come across as long winded and frustrating.

Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review a copy of this book.

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I struggled to get into this book at first as the way the opening scene panned out confused me a bit but as the plot unraveled I found I was hooked.
The bleak scenery painted a lonely and hopeless picture whilst the characters were well written and the build up of tension perfectly executed.

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A mother is forced to the breaking point when her life and the lives of her children are threatened by an intruder.

The synopsis of this book had me hooked right away, this book was dread inducing but this isn't your typical thriller. This book is VERY slow paced. There are a lot of flashback scenes that bogged the plot down and pacing was definitely an issue with the current scenes as well, our MC would spend 4 pages contemplating what to do but only 5seconds would have passed in the story, This book is VERY inner monologue heavy, which I think also hindered the pace and my personal enjoyment of the story.

This is still a very solid debut in the suspense category.

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Set in America, this book starts in the middle of the night during a blizzard when a mother is home alone with her young children. Then she realises she can hear someone walking up the stairs. The books starts with the threat of menace and the split second decisions that need to be made fight or flight to save her children. Is there someone in the house, or is it an old house creaking and where is her husband the father of the children?
This mystery thriller is full of suspense, a book that makes you hold your breath and not one to be read at bed time in the house by yourself unless you're ready for the scare that it gives you!
The suspense in the opening part of the book is thrilling and the aftermath of events leaves you questioning what really happened in a very clever way. A real page turner that get me wanting more to find out what happens. Readers of general/contemporary/mystery thrillers would probably enjoy this book.

With thanks to Penguin General UK-Fig Tree, Hamish Hamiton, Viking, Penguin Life, Penguin Business for the preview read of #Nightwatching #NetGalley.

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This book was a bit slow going for me and my usual style of books, Disappointing as the storyline sounded so interesting but it didn't quite hit the spot with me.

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A fast-paced thriller that grabs you right from the start and doesn't let go!

That start, with the mother alone in the house with her young son hiding from an intruder, has probably one of the best opening sequences I have read in a book in recent times. The writing was full of suspense and really pulled me into the story.

Having managed to escape, her version of events is then questioned by the people she would naturally have expected to be sympathetic and to support her, and who instead imply that she is either making it up or suffering from some sort of illusion, and I could really feel her frustration at that coming through the pages. That being said, the way the plot was woven by the author meant that there was a logic behind their cynicism, which at times lead me to wonder if the story being told by the mother was in fact genuine, or a figment of her imagination.

And therein lies the brilliance of this story for me. At a time when an experienced reader can often guess the big reveal of a story from quite early on, this book is a welcome change!

With thanks to NetGalley, the publishers, and of course the author, for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

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Woah. Didn't really know what to expect going into this book, the title could lead anywhere which was what drew me to it when I was browsing.

A mother is forced to the breaking point when her life and the lives of her children are threatened by an intruder. She hears a noise as she is coming out of her son's bedroom and then she sees a figure. Someone is in the house.

This book had suspense in bucketloads. I'm a late night reader anyway but I was staying up until all hours unable to put this down and then overthinking every noise in my own house as I went to sleep. Every mother's worst fear surely, a credible threat to her children, but as the book progressed its horrifying thought provoking, so many layers. I genuinely had no idea how it was going to end. Such a fantastic read.

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This tale starts with a bang, a lone woman is comforting her young son in the middle of the night, when suddenly she realises a menacing stranger is in the house, what in the hell is she going to do?
I have to say, I don't think I've ever felt so tense during the first chapter of a book, my shoulders were pretty much up round my ears the whole time. The tension didn't continue at quite that pace, but I still became fully immersed in the story. It seems to go a little deeper than your average psychological thriller, and even though it's far fetched, and at times repetitive, the main character - none of the characters are named by the way - did, and said frustratingly stupid things, and never mind that without exception, every male character is an infuriating, gaslighting arseh*le, I just couldn't stop flipping those pages. Tense, immersive and entertaining, 4.5 stars. Many thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the arc.

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